[Note 36], [p. 179].—At the conclusion of the Chinese War in 1858 there were some who desired a foothold in Japan. Lord Elgin went to the Japanese capital and succeeded in negotiating a treaty of “peace, friendship, and commerce,” the first concluded by Japan with any Western power. This treaty, signed Aug. 26, 1858, and ratified July 11, 1859, is given in “Am. Reg.,” ci., 216, 268.
[Note 37], [p. 182].—This statement is very difficult to understand. The exports of British produce have varied not very greatly during the past twenty years. In 1873 the exports amounted to £255,164,603. This amount declined with considerable regularity till 1879, when it was £191,531,756. It then began to increase, and in 1883 reached £241,461,162. Martin, “Statesman’s Year-Book, for 1884,” 264. It seems impossible to reconcile these figures with Mr. Bright’s statements, unless he means profit instead of “trade.”
[Note 38], [p. 182].—The facts do not justify this statement. At the time of the Peace of Paris, in September, 1815, the national debt of Great Britain was £900,436,845. In March of 1855 it had been diminished to £808,518,448, £91,918,397 having been paid off. The two years of the Crimean War increased the debt by £30,399,995. But since March, 1857, the decrease has been £82,541,924, leaving the debt March 31, 1883, £756,376,519, a diminution of £144,060,326 since 1815. By a law of 1875 provision was made for the gradual extinction of the debt by means of a sinking fund to be annually provided for in the budget. In 1883 a bill passed providing still further for a series of terminable annuities, by which, in the next twenty years, £173,000,000 will be paid.—Martin, “Statesman’s Year-Book, for 1884,” 230.
[Note 39], [p. 186].—This is not quite accurately stated. At the time of the coup d’état Lord Palmerston was Minister of Foreign Affairs. He did indeed in a conversation with Count Walewski, the French Ambassador at London, express his approval of the course of the French Government, but so far from speaking “ostensibly for the cabinet, for the sovereign, and the English nation,” he offered simply his private opinion. The English Government formally determined upon a course of the strictest neutrality; and when it was found that Palmerston’s approval had been sent by Walewski to France, the message was not only disavowed, but Palmerston was summarily dismissed. See McCarthy, ii., chap. xxii., 148–154, Eng. ed. The coup d’état was in December, 1851; but there was no alliance till August of 1853, long after the people of France had given their sanction to the empire.
[Note 40], [p. 192].—This hardly accords with what the orator said a few moments ago of India—“a vast country which we do not know how to govern.” The East India Company’s power was broken by the Sepoy rebellion, and the government was transferred to the crown in 1858. The government of Canada was made substantially what it now is, on the recommendation of Lord Durham, in 1839.
[Note 41], [p. 195].—The aggregate number of paupers has changed but slightly during the last twenty years. In 1874 the total number in England and Wales was 829,281; in 1883, 799,296. But in Ireland the number has increased from 79,050 in 1874 to 115,684 in 1883. In Scotland the number has diminished from 111,996 in 1873, to 95,081 in 1882.—Martin, “Statesman’s Year-Book, for 1884,” 253, 257, 261.
[Note 42], [p. 223].—The daily political duties of the Queen are described somewhat in detail in Ewald’s “The Crown and its Advisers,” where the influence of the crown is held to be much greater than it has sometimes been supposed to be. In 1850 the question was very fully considered by the government, and the requirement of the Queen, that no important action should be taken that had not first received her consideration and sanction, was set forth in a “memorandum” written to the Prime-Minister. Because of a violation of the principles set forth in this memorandum, Lord Palmerston was dismissed in the following year. The details of the controversy, which ended in the more complete establishment of the constitutional principle, are given in McCarthy, “History of Our Own Time,” chap. xxii., Eng. ed., vol. ii., pp. 124–163.
[Note 43], [p. 224].—The ablest and most suggestive discussion of this important topic is to be found in Bagehot’s volume on “The English Constitution.” In the second chapter the author, with characteristic ability, traces “how the actions of a retired widow and an unemployed youth became of such importance” to the English people.
[Note 44], [p. 224].—Reference is here made to Sir Charles Dilke’s speech at Nottingham adverted to in the sketch of the orator.
[Note 45], [p. 226].—The salaries of English ministers are fixed not by Parliament but by the ministers themselves. This subject was considered at length in 1831, and again in 1834, when it was held in Parliament that the determination of salaries of executive officers is an executive and not a legislative function. The salaries, therefore, are fixed by the government, and are included in the budget presented to the Commons. The ministers, of course, act in full view of their responsibility; but the estimates for salaries have never, except in one instance, been modified. The salaries of ministers in England are generally £5,000, though that of the Lord Chancellor, who is at the head of the Department of Justice, is £10,000. The salary of the President of the United States was $25,000 until 1872, when it was fixed by Congress at $50,000. On the salaries of English officials, see Todd, “Parliamentary Government in England,” i., 396–420. Members of Parliament, as such, receive no salaries whatever.