we could count on friends who would supply us with corn. After this rhetorical flight the Chancellor of the Exchequer came down into the region of practical statesmanship, and assured his hearers that in the coming financial year a scheme for providing more sailors-our chief want-would be laid before Parliament, whilst the Admiralty would keep a strict eye on the shipbuilding programme of other nations. The Government would also ask for larger votes for the Army, in order to carry out the organisation of the service, and to improve the condition of the soldiers; and as Chancellor of the Exchequer he was able to promise that the means to meet the increased expenditure on both services would be forthcoming without any additional burdens on the taxpayers. With regard to China, he urged his hearers not to believe all the newspapers said; but it was a fact that the Chinese had approached this country with a view to a loan, and the Government was considering the application. At this point, however, the Chancellor of the Exchequer stepped down somewhat from the position he had assumed at Swansea, and merely assured his hearers that the Government were not ashamed of these negotiations, and saw no reason for their being disapproved of by any other Power.

Mr. Chamberlain, who rightly or wrongly was credited with being the spokesman in the Cabinet of a more vigorous foreign policy than that adopted by Lord Salisbury, was equally desirous of not allowing his influence in home affairs to be eclipsed. The programme of the National Liberal Federation, recently unfolded at Derby, afforded him an excellent text for his address (Jan. 19) to the Liverpool Constitutional Association. The proposals of the federation, he pointed out, consisted of eleven separate constitutional changes. Possibly they might be all combined in one bill, which, if it passed the House of Commons, would be rejected by the Lords, in order that the changes should be submitted to the popular vote. If ratified by that, and the reformed electorate was further agreed upon, another dissolution would necessarily follow to allow 7,000,000 of new electors, including women, to express their views. If the Radicals were again returned in a majority, the mending or ending of the House of Lords would be next taken in hand, but as the Lords would resist their effacement, another dissolution would be inevitable before the party could set to work on the Derby programme.

To the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce Mr. Chamberlain spoke more exclusively in the character of Colonial Minister, responsible for the commercial interests of the empire. Our policy, he said, was not the acquisition of new territory for itself, but for the maintenance of free markets, and if necessary a firm attitude in regard to any attempt to deprive us of territory already in our possession. This policy did not exclude Lord Rosebery's advice "to peg out claims for posterity," especially if by so doing we were obtaining fresh markets for

ourselves. With regard to the West Indian sugar trade, he hoped that something might be effected by the conference in sugar bounties convened by Belgium; but in the event of its failure a grant in aid would be made to the West Indian colonies to tide over the crisis till continental nations should recognise the impolicy of the bounty system.

It was in the order of things that Mr. Morley, "tenacious, audacious and pugnacious," as his colleague Mr. H. CampbellBannerman described him, should take Mr. Chamberlain to task for the views he had spread before his Liverpool hearers. Mr. Morley, speaking at Stirling (Jan. 27), challenged the Colonial Secretary's assertion, that when Great Britain conquered she conquered for the whole world and never set up trade barriers against other nations. Protective tariffs were not unknown in places where the British flag floated. Mr. Morley passed over in silence the principle of self-government exercised by the colonies, but he made a good point in suggesting that Mr. Chamberlain's Imperial Customs Union looked very like the erection of such barriers. With regard to the promised grant in aid to the West Indian industries, Mr. Morley asked whether this was anything else but a bounty "wrapped up in paper of a different colour and bearing a different label". The Government was apparently going to give another grant of sops and doles to help favoured classes. If grants were to be made to help profits, grants in aid of wages might be expected to follow.

The other speeches of the recess presented few features of interest, and even the foreign policy of the Government afforded little ground for criticism. Mr. Asquith at Birkenhead, Mr. Morley at Stirling, and Sir Henry Fowler at Clackheaton, all expressed their agreement with the principles laid down by Mr. Balfour, and admitted that the difficulties which had arisen in China and the Far East were not created by the Conservative leaders. Lord George Hamilton, at Chiswick (Jan. 26), spoke in a strongly optimistic tone of the position of affairs in India, and declared that there would be no necessity for help from the British Exchequer to pay the expenses of the war; and he looked forward with some confidence to the ultimate adoption of a gold standard for India. He insisted that a large influx of European capital would be most likely to give stability to the exchange value of the rupee. "Men will not risk their capital in India if by the automatic fluctuations in exchange they cannot remit back except at enormous loss."

Imperial politics presenting so few elements of debate or serious criticism, it was not surprising that an attempt should be made to shake the lethargic complacency of the London ratepayers by attributing to the Government a desire to break up or at least to render powerless the London County Council. Lord Salisbury was credited with having given currency to the idea that London would be better administered if the area of each municipality was reduced to manageable dimensions. From

this it was at once deduced that the Government had in hand a scheme for disintegrating the existing " County of London, and of forming three or four cities of the richer districts and seven or eight cities of the poorer parts. The vestries at once formed themselves into a deputation to the Prime Minister (Feb. 2) to inquire what were the intentions of the Government. Lord Salisbury at once repudiated all idea of a policy of disruption, but admitted that by creating a number of municipalities it might be possible to interest a better class of persons in local affairs than was probable under the vestry system. When the vestries had become municipalities it might be possible to devolve upon them some of the duties hitherto discharged by the London County Council. The Duke of Devonshire, who was also present, suggested various ways in which this policy could be carried out, but he did not indicate the preference of the Government for any special one, and left the impression that no decision on the matter had been taken by the Cabinet.

The engineering strike-or rather lockout-came to an end after over six months' contest between the masters and men, the latter having practically to accept the terms offered them three months previously. The reduction of the week's work from fifty-four to forty-eight hours was from the first pronounced impossible by the employers; the equal rights of union and non-union men could not be ignored; and the claim of the men to regulate the use of machinery and the management of each workshop was regarded as preposterous. The loss in money to both sides was enormous; but the men were singularly illadvised to enter upon a struggle at such a time, especially as the outside public were altogether unsympathetic to a movement which, if successful, must have driven trade into the hands of our continental rivals.

CHAPTER II.

Meeting of Parliament-The Queen's Speech-Debate on the Address-Lords Kimberley and Salisbury on Foreign Affairs-Sir William Harcourt's Criticisms and Mr. Balfour's Defence of the Government Policy-Irish Grievances and Demands-The Irish Catholic University-The French Encroachments in West Africa-The Dismemberment of China-The Local Government (Ireland) Bill Introduced-The Benefices Bill-The Estimates for the Army, Navy and Civil Services-London County Council Elections-Success of the Progressives Mr. Chamberlain's West African Policy The Mission to Abyssinia-The Chartered Company-The Resolution maintaining the Independence of China-Relief for the West India Islands-Lord Roberts on the Indian Frontier Policy-Private Members' Bills-The Indian Currency Debate Vote for Public Buildings-Local Government (Ireland) Bill Read a Second Time-Debate on the Affairs of China.

It would be difficult to find in the history of the century a year in which public apathy on political questions was so evident as on the meeting of Parliament. The constant struggles which had aroused popular feeling were past; the parliamentary

orators and tacticians those struggles had developed had disappeared, and there seemed to be no longer even party questions of sufficient importance to arouse interest, and still less to kindle enthusiasm. This state of mind was reflected inside the walls of Parliament. The Ministerial majority seemed as powerless to act as the much-divided Opposition was to attack. The Unionists, led by a Cabinet in which conflicting influences were at work, were satisfied to leave all dangerous problems unsolved, and the Radicals, unable to agree among themselves in the choice of a common leader and a united policy, were powerless for attack or even for effective criticism. The questions in which sections of the public were interested were chiefly matters of social reform, from which no political capital could be made, and they were consequently ignored or set aside by the occupants of the front benches on both sides of the House. There was, perhaps, a certain languid interest both in Parliament and outside to know something more definite about affairs in China and the extreme East, and some curiosity to see how ministers would explain their platform speeches by the light of diplomatic action. But even on foreign affairs the want of unanimity in both parties rendered action and criticism equally futile. On the Unionist side Mr. Chamberlain found himself most warmly supported in a more vigorous course of action, not by the Liberal Unionists so much as by a group of "jingo Conservatives; while on the opposite side of the House the stalwart Radicals and the "little Englanders" were loudly applauding the cautious action of Lord Salisbury, and hailing him as the real preserver of peace between England and the various countries with which in succession the bellicose "Imperialists" were anxious to see her embroiled. Under these somewhat depressing conditions Parliament was called together (Feb. 8), and it might have been supposed that the Government at least was prepared with very modest measures in its programme, of which the prominent feature was the Irish Local Government Bill. The following was the text as read by the Lord Chancellor :

"My relations with other Powers continue to be friendly. "The negotiations between the Sultan of Turkey and the King of Greece have been brought to a conclusion by the signature of a treaty of peace between them, under which the territorial relation of the two Powers is practically unchanged.

"The question of an autonomous government for the Island of Crete has occupied the attention of the Powers. The difficulty of arriving at an unanimous agreement upon some points has unduly protracted their deliberations, but I hope that these obstacles will before long be surmounted.

"Intelligence, which is apparently trustworthy, has been received of the intention of the Khalifa to advance against the

Egyptian army in the Soudan, and I have therefore given directions that a contingent of British troops should be despatched to Berber to the assistance of his Highness the Khedive.

"I have concluded a treaty of friendship and commerce with his Majesty the Emperor of Abyssinia.

"The report of the Commission which I appointed in December, 1896, to inquire into the condition of certain of my West Indian Colonies has conclusively established the existence of severe depression in those colonies, caused by a heavy fall in the price of sugar, which is mainly attributable to the reduction in the cost of production and the great increase in its extent during recent years.

"But this fall has been artificially stimulated by the system of bounties to the producers and manufacturers of beetroot sugar maintained in many European States. There are signs of a growing opinion in those States that this system is injurious to the general interests of their population; and communications are now in progress between my Government and the Governments principally concerned, with a view to a conference on the subject, which I trust may result in the abolition of the bounties.

"In the meantime, measures will be proposed to you for the relief of the immediate necessities of the West Indian Colonies, for encouraging other industries, and for assisting those engaged sugar cultivation to tide over the present crisis.

in

"On the north-western borders of my Indian Empire an organised outbreak of fanaticism, which spread in the summer along the frontier, induced many of the tribes to break their engagements with my Government, to attack military posts in their vicinity, and even to invade a settled district of my territory. I was compelled to send expeditions against the offending tribes for the punishment of these outrages, and to ensure peace in the future. A portion of the Afridi tribes have not yet accepted the terms offered to them, but elsewhere the operations have been brought to a successful close.

"The courage and endurance exhibited by my troops, British and native, have overcome the almost insuperable difficulties of the country in which they were operating; but I have to deplore the loss of many valuable lives both amongst my own troops and those whose services were voluntarily and loyally placed at my disposal by the native princes of my Indian Empire.

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Papers on this subject will be laid before you.

The plague, which appeared more than a year ago in Western India, returned in the autumn; and, although the mortality is less alarming than it was at this time last year, it is still such as to cause anxiety. No effort will be spared by my Government in the endeavour both to limit its extent and to mitigate its effects; and I am confident that it will receive the loyal assistance of my Indian subjects in this arduous task.