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BRITISH HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT, WITH LORD BEACONSFIELD'S STATUE.

character, have, in the struggle just ended, made an impression as never

JULY 23, 1892. Conservatives....268 Liberals.

275

before in any electoral crisis of the Liberal Unionists 46 Anti-Parnellites.. 72

United Kingdom. In his many speeches, notably those delivered at Glasgow on July 2, and in Midlothian as the closing effort of the campaign on July 11, he displayed amazing vigor, ingenuity, and eloquence.

At the end of the last Parliament, the Unionists had a majority of 68. This has now been turned into a Home Rule majority of 42. The following tables show the strength of parties at the election of 1886, at the end of the last Parliament, and at the

close of the recent contest:

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Total

Parnellites......

9

...314 Total..........356

Home Rule Majority-42.

polled are as follows: The returns of the aggregate vote For the Liberals.

For the Unionists..

Liberal Majority......

.2,275,782

2,048,629

227,153

The Unionist representation by counties and boroughs at the close of the last Parliament and at the close of the recent election, is as follows:

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The following are similar figures for the Liberal side:

Counties

Conservatives....304 Liberals... .215 Boroughs.
Liberal Unionists 65 Anti-Parnellites.. 56 Universities
Parnellites...

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.....

30

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There have thus been no sweeping 301 changes in either counties or boroughs, but only moderate changes in

both. The victory has not been as great as Mr. Gladstone expected. Ireland, Scotland, and Wales have given overwhelming Home Rule majorities; but England has emphatically taken the opposite course by giving a Unionist majority of over 70. In Ireland, all but 23 out of 103 seats are for Home Rule; in Scotland, all but 21 out of 72; and in Wales, all but two out of 30, the Liberal Unionists being totally driven out of the last named. The Unionists gained a few seats in Ireland, notably South Dublin; but the Liberals remain, as in 1886, totally unrepresented in the Emerald Isle.

The English verdict against Home Rule was given by the boroughs, not by the counties. Only one town of the first rank, Leeds, has given a Gladstonian majority; and only one, Manchester, is equally divided. In Liverpool, eight Unionists were returned to one Home Ruler. Birmingham returned all its seven Members by enormous Unionist majorities an emphatic triumph for Mr. Chamberlain. In London, however, although a Unionist majority remained, yet the Gladstonians achieved the brilliant

rowly escaped defeat at Newcastle. The party show a tendency to consider their own aims as more pressing than even the demand for Home Rule; and boast that they will continue to maintain their independence until their ends are won.

In the bid for the vote of the agricultural laborer, the Liberals were successful. Hodge voted for Gladstone; but the significance of his vote as a consciously rendered verdict on the subject of Home Rule, is doubtful. He, too, like the miner, the city artisan, and other sons of toil, has begun to assert his claims, and has voted for the party likely, in his opinion, to do the most for him.

In Midlothian, Mr. Gladstone's own constituency, for which he was returned without opposition in 1886, the Unionists achieved a most brilliant exploit in reducing his majority of 4,631 in 1885, to 690 in 1892. Mr. Gladstone's opponent, Colonel A. G. Wauchope, a Liberal Unionist, is a man of old family and great personal popularity. The most important cause, however, of the change in the Midlothian vote, was the dissatisfaction due to Mr. Gladstone's leaning in favor of a disestablishment of the Scottish Kirk.

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HON. EDWARD BLAKE, OF CANADA, M. P. FOR SOUTH LONGFORD.

record of a gain of fourteen seats. Several important facts were revealed by the contest. One is the importance of what has come to be known as the Labor Party. True, this is not the first appearance of Labor in English political life; but it is the first occasion where Labor has assumed an independent position; and no one can foretell what part it will play in parliamentary struggles. Mr. Burt for Morpeth, Mr. Burns for Battersea, and Mr. Keir Hardie for Southwest Ham, are the present leaders. It was by the Labor vote that the Gladstonian success in many instances was assured; and it was through the same vote that Mr. Morley, who had opposed the eight hour idea, so nar

Of the personalities of the contest, none concerned more closely the character of a candidate, than the canvass in the Forest of Dean Division of Gloucestershire. Sir Charles Dilke, co-respondent some years ago in the famous Crawford divorce case, which caused his withdrawal from public life, again sought election as a Liberal. After a bitter fight, he was returned by a majority of 2,418, this result being a surprise to the Conservatives, who counted much upon the assistance of the Nonconformists.

In the Irish contests, the Conservatives showed some gains in the North, as already stated; but the Parnellites

returned only nine candidates. The latter were confident of victory in West Wicklow, where Mr. J. H. Parnell, a brother of the great Nationalist leader, was a candidate. But, although he fought against a divided opposition, there being a Conservative and an Anti-Parnellite candidate, the magic associations of his brother's name were not sufficient to raise him above the foot of the poll.

The Hon. Edward Blake, of Toronto, Ont., who was invited to Ireland by the Anti-Parnellite leaders, was elected for South Longford by a majority of 2,197. He is considered a valuable acquisition to the Gladstonian ranks, owing not only to his intellectual power and skill as a debater, but to his practical knowledge of the working of the parliamentary system in Canada.

The Hon. Dadabhai Naoroji, the new M. P. for Central Finsbury, is the first native Indian to receive election to the Commons.

It is not disputed that the election has resulted in placing the Liberals in a position of entire dependence upon the Irish vote, nor that it is impossible, at this stage, to estimate the precise value of Mr. Gladstone's majority. The Liberal leader is surrounded by supporters of heterogeneous tendencies. Parnellite and Anti-Parnellite have not yet learned to lie down together. Labor has shown impatience at the shunting of its demands. The Scotch and the Welsh Liberals would give precedence to Disestablishment over all other questions. The Progressives of the London County Council are urgently pressing for municipal reform; and the agricultural laborer counts on the early fulfillment of sweeping promises.

It was on none of these lines, however, that the contest proceeded. Home Rule was the issue raised by Mr. Gladstone to supreme importance, and the establishment of an Irish Parliament was the main object for which the suffrage of the Liberal voter was requested. Whether the Liberal sections in the Commons will bow to this one issue, remains to be seen. However, in spite of the diversity of their aims, it is generally assumed that they

will unite upon the passage of some sort of Home Rule bill. If so, the measure will be thrown out by the Lords, in order that an issue so vital, involving, as many think, the integrity of the nation, may not be settled without a more direct and decisive expression of the popular will regarding it, than any leader can command in the present House of Commons. Beyond that, all is mere speculation.

THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT. The new Parliament, the twentyfifth of the United Kingdom and the thirteenth of Queen Victoria's reign, assembled for its first session on August 4.

When Mr. Gladstone appeared in the House, tremendous enthusiasm reigned, the Irish Members vying with the Liberals in doing homage to the great leader who had reconquered the lost Paradise of a party's ambition, and reconstructed the shattered hopes of a desponding people. Mr. Arthur Peel, M. P. for Warwick and Leamington, was unanimously re-elected Speaker on motion of Sir M. W. Ridley, the nomination being seconded by Mr. Gladstone.

The Queen's Speech intimated that there was little financial or legislative business calling for attention. Everyone knew for what purpose the Members had gathered together—to “ring out the old" and "ring in the new,' or, as Mr. Asquith put it, "to perform the obsequies of a dead majority." The address in reply to the Queen's Speech was moved on August 8, by Mr. D. P. Barton, and seconded by Mr. Cross; but no marked interest was aroused until the occasion for which all were waiting arrived, when Mr. H. H. Asquith, the distinguished young Gladstonian M. P. for East Fifeshire, moved in a few words an amendment to the effect that the House should declare a vote of no confidence in the Government. This was seconded by Mr. Thomas Burt, Gladstonian M. P. for Morpeth, Secretary of the Northumberland Miners' Mutual Association. The debate that followed was void of any great interest, its most brilliant incident, perhaps, being Mr. Chamberlain's attempt to show that the germs of inevitable disruption

Scotland.

MR. ARNOLD MORLEY, Postmaster-General.

MR. ARTHUR HERBERT DYKE ACLAND, Vice

President of the Council on Education. BARON HOUGHTON, Viceroy of Ireland, without a seat in the Cabinet.

PROFESSOR JAMES BRYCE, Chancellor of the
Duchy of Lancaster.
MR. SHAW-LEFEVRE, First Commissioner of

Works.

lurked within the Irish-Gladstonian SIR GEORGE O. TREVELYAN, Secretary for alliance, and that the only safety for the Liberal party lay in a resumption of relations with the Dissentient Liberals. Unusual crowds patiently attended in the hope of a division; but it was a little after midnight on the night of August 11 when the vote was taken. Rarely have so many Members been in their seats at once. Of the 670 composing the House, only three were absent, all of whom had paired off. There was no cross voting. At 12:25 the tellers returned, and the paper recording the vote was handed to the Opposition Whips, Mr. Arnold Morley and Mr. Marjoribanks. This was a signal for cheers from the Opposition, as indicating a Gladstonian victory. The vote stood 350 for and 310 against the "no confidence" amendment, the vote of the four tellers not appearing in the division lists. When the excitement subsided, Mr. Balfour calmly moved an adjourn

ment for a week.

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In making this selection, Mr. Gladstone was evidently influenced by the conviction, that, owing to his narrow and somewhat "fluid" majority, it was necessary to create confidence in the new Ministry; and this object he has in a fair measure attained. He has been careful to exclude men who are in any way identified with independent Radicalism, and has preferred to gather around him tried colleagues of well known tendencies. The result is that fifteen of the new Ministers are men who have either been in the Cabinet before or have been long asso

ciated with Mr.Gladstone-men whom Mr. Labouchere rather disrespectfully described as "the old gang;" while the three new acquisitions, Messrs. Asquith, Arnold Morley, and Dyke Acland, are sound Liberals. The list is thus composed of "safe" men, void of extreme views.

For reasons that we have already given, the appointment to the Foreign. Office excited the greatest interest. Lord Rosebery had won golden opinions during the brief period of his former incumbency of the post under Mr. Gladstone in 1886, while unfailing tact, and strength and fertility of resources, have more recently been marked features of his work as chairman of the new London County Council. His present appointment gives general satisfaction. Mr. Asquith, the new Home Secretary, has the reputation of being one of the ablest debaters in the House. He is only forty years of age, and has had but a brief parliamentary experience. His advanced promotion was therefore somewhat of a surprise. Such was also the case with Mr. Gladstone's selection of The Baron was practically unknown in Baron Houghton as Viceroy of Ireland. Parliamentary circles; but he had been from early life a protégé of Mr. Glad

stone's, and his father had been an old friend of the Liberal leader.

To the advanced Radicals, the new Cabinet announcements were naturally a disappointment. Not a single man intimately associated with the Radicals, except Mr. Morley, was chosen. It was thought that Mr. Labouchere might have been selected for some post; but between him and Mr. Gladstone there has of late been a coolness due to the former's persistent suggestion that registration reform, one man one vote, and some other of the planks in the Radical program ought to be given precedence over Home Rule. A statement which appeared in Truth, Mr. Labouchere's paper, to the effect that the Queen had personally vetoed the inclusion of the Radical Member's name in the Ministerial list, called forth a reply from Mr. Gladstone, in which the latter took upon himself the full responsibility for the selections made. Mr. Labouchere's outspoken attacks against the expense of the Royal establishment, as is well known, have given little pleasure to the Queen; but Mr. Gladstone asserts that the vivacious editor's name was never even submitted.

At the present critical period, the post of Chief Secretary for Ireland is beset with greater difficulties than any other in the gift of the Government. In that post, Mr. Balfour, the rising light of the Conservative party, earned his brilliant reputation. Mr. Morley, however, is also a man of brilliant parts; and his sobriquet of "Honest John" indicates the universal estimation of him as a man of integrity and strong convictions. On a recent occasion, when a deputation of eight hour advocates called to learn his intentions on the labor question, he frankly told them that legislative restriction of the hours of labor, in the face of foreign competition, was altogether too serious a matter to be undertaken at pres

The result nearly lost him his election at Newcastle. As it was, he stood second on the poll, his Liberal colleague being defeated. For many years he has been a consistent Home Ruler, and served at his present post in Mr. Gladstone's Cabinet in 1886.

When Parliament reassembled on August 18, the seals of office had been transferred, and nothing remained but to provide for the issue of writs for the re-election of those Members whose acceptance of office rendered such necessary. This being done, Parliament was formally prorogued to meet again at the usual time.

Mr. Morley, on seeking re-election was bitterly opposed, but was returned by a greatly increased majority. Neither the disaffection of the Radicals, nor the united efforts of the eight hour section of the Labor party, sufficed to offset the tremendous weight enlisted in his favor by the personal influence of the Irish leaders, who took an active part in the canvass. Two features of the contest were of special national importance. It marked a definite rupture between the Labor party and the Home Rulers, and, what is still more striking, marked a decline in that antagonism of races which has too long characterized the Anglo-Irish relations. For generations the name of Chief Secretary for Ireland has been synonymous with all that is odious to certain sections of the Irish people; and the recent spectacle of Irish leaders heartily co-operating to secure the election of an English Chief Secretary, is an incident whose significance no one can miss. It is emphatic evidence of accord between the Home Rulers and the Liberals on all crucial points of the Home Rule scheme.

The present attitude of the main section of the Irish Nationalists toward Mr. Gladstone is, in fact, one of confidence, not one of dependence or subservience. Their continued sup port avowedly depends upon Mr. Gladstone's redemption of his pledges that he will take up no other measures until a Home Rule bill is passed. No detailed statement of the proposed bill, however, has yet been authoritatively given out; but light thrown upon the subject by Mr. Gladstone himself in the course of the Midlothian campaign, indicates that the Irish is to bear to the Imperial Parliament a relation similar to that borne by the Colonial Parliaments, while the full representation of Irish Members

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