THE only changes in the old Cabinet, consequent on the death of its great chief, were the advance of Earl Russell to the Premiership and the appointment of Lord Clarendon to the Foreign Office. But the change in the House of Commons was as momentous as it was abrupt. The place of its old leader—the safe, the leisurely, the unemotional Palmerston—was filled by the restless and ardent, the uncertain Gladstone. The Conservatives were dispirited and anxious; they were afraid of what the new House of Commons might be led to do; party feeling began to acquire a new bitterness, the offspring of fear, which was to grow more and more intense until the final retirement of Mr. Gladstone in 1895. The Radicals, on the other hand, were sanguine and jubilant. Reinforced in numbers, and relieved from the restraint which the irresistible prestige of Palmerston had imposed on their aspirations, they felt that the moment for action had come; they had got a leader after their own hearts, and the first thing to do was to extend the franchise. But there was disappointment in store for them. Mr. Gladstone introduced his Bill on March 12; it pleased nobody. The Radicals detected in it the frigid hand of the Whigs, and the moderate Liberals, secretly detesting all schemes for a Democratic franchise, began by viewing it coldly, and gradually drifted into opposition with the Conservatives. Its most formidable opponent rose from the Ministerial Benches. Mr. Robert Lowe, whom an intimate acquaintance with Australasian politics had imbued with profound distrust for Democratic institutions, made a brilliant and fearless onslaught on the measure, and received all that rapturous applause which is the invariable reward of a strong man turning his weapons against his own party. Gradually he drew to himself a compact band of malcontents, whose memory might have passed into oblivion long ere this but for a happy metaphor employed by Mr. John Bright, who likened them to the men who gathered to David in the Cave of Adullam. |The Cave of Adullam.| “Every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him.” People were tickled with the illustration: straightway the Liberal dissentients were dubbed Adullamites, and “a cave” has remained ever since the recognised term for a group of men combining to act against their own party.
KING WILLIAM STREET, ADELAIDE, SOUTH AUSTRALIA.
In point of size, Adelaide holds the third place among Australian cities with a population (1891) of 133,252. South Australia now stretches right across the continent, and has an area of 578 million acres and a population (1895) of 357,405. It was first colonised in 1836, and constituted a self-governing Colony in 1856. Imports (1895), £5,680,880; exports, £7,352,742.
Mr. Lowe’s band proved strong enough to kill the measure. It passed the second reading, indeed, by a majority of five, but it perished in Committee, and the Ministry resigned. It was the closing scene of Earl Russell’s long career, which somehow had missed the success which his achievements seemed to have earned. Born in the very holiest of holies of the Whig sanctuary, with natural abilities far more varied, with acquired culture far more extensive, with greater advantages from family connection than Palmerston could boast, and without Palmerston’s headstrong tendencies, he never attained more than a fraction of the influence and popularity which Palmerston had so fully secured. Indispensable for more than a generation to every Whig or Liberal Cabinet, he had become associated more with the failures than the successes of his party, and people ungratefully remembered him rather as the betrayer of Denmark than as the pioneer of Reform.
PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA.
The Swan River Settlement was founded in 1826, and made a separate Colony, under the name of Western Australia, in 1829. It remained a Crown Colony until 1890, when it became a self-governing community. Population (1897), 138,000 (estimated). Imports (1895), £3,774,951; exports, £1,332,554.
|Lord Derby’s last Administration.|Once more it was Lord Derby’s fate to form a stop-gap Administration, and no sooner was the new Ministry complete, early in July, than the country suddenly threw off the indifference it had shown to Mr. Gladstone’s offer of an extended franchise, and public meetings were held all over the country vehemently demanding Reform. It was too late in the session, of course, to do anything that year in Parliament, but the agitation sufficed to show that there was at least one weak man in the Cabinet. The Reform League summoned a meeting in Hyde Park for the evening of July 23, which it was decided to prohibit, and amiable, gentle Mr. Walpole, the Home Secretary, issued a notice that the Park gates would be closed at 5 p.m. Notwithstanding this announcement, processions with bands and banners arrived at the appointed hour, and Mr. Beales, President of the League, demanded admittance, which was refused. Mr. Beales was an experienced barrister, and knew very well what he was about. He was of opinion that in denying the right of public meeting in Hyde Park, the Home Secretary was acting beyond his powers, and, content with asserting this right in a formal way, he intended to adjourn the meeting and claim redress by constitutional means. But a meeting in Hyde Park, no matter for what purpose, invariably attracts thousands of idlers and roughs, who have no part and no interest in the question to be discussed. Mr. Beales and the earnest reformers adjourned to Trafalgar Square and passed resolutions to their hearts’ content; but the rough and idle part of the crowd remained about Hyde Park. The gates were strong enough to resist any pressure, but the railings were old and frail. |Disturbance in Hyde Park.| People climbing on them felt them shake and creak; half a dozen fellows gave a push together in Park Lane—the railings gave way; in an instant the whole length from Hamilton Gardens to the Marble Arch went down, and the Park was filled with a tumultuous, rollicking mob. The grass and the flower-beds were the only property that suffered; the police took a few prisoners, and the crowd dispersed peacefully at nightfall. Mr. Beales took a small deputation to the Home Secretary next day, urging him to withdraw the troops and police, and trust the people to take care of the town. Mr. Walpole consented; it may have been prudent to do so, but the manner of doing it was unfortunate. It is a dangerous precedent for a Home Secretary to show himself afraid of the consequence of carrying out his own decrees.
