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Home Politics and Parties from the Reform Act of 1867 to the Parliament Act of 1911 From the Reform Act of 1867 to the Home Rule Bill of 1886; Part 3 |
From the Reform Act of 1867 to the Home Rule Bill of 1886; Part 3Meanwhile Cardwell revolutionized the system of the British army. The purchase of officers' commissions was abolished. The system of short service—eventually fixed at seven years with the colours, followed by five in the reserve—was established, which ensured that our army should be composed of young men, and that the country in time of need should have, considering the smallness of its ordinary army, a large reserve. Finally, the linked battalion method was adopted, under which one battalion of a regiment was abroad and the other, nominally of equal strength, was in Britain. Ireland, however, obtained by far the largest share of Gladstone's attention, the Irish Church Art and the first Land Act being passed at this time, whilst fresh disorders required new Coercion Acts."The accomplishment of reforms", it has been said, "invariably reduces the ranks of the reformers." The more timid thought such incessant legislative activity as Gladstone's Government displayed disturbing and wanted repose. The Government's bark frightened the more moderate, whilst its bite, partially muzzled as it was by the House of Lords and the old Whig contingent in the cabinet, was not severe enough to satisfy the more extreme elements in the Liberal party. In particular the Nonconformist section was displeased with the religious settlement in the Elementary Education Act. Minor proposals had again alienated popular sympathies (For instance, a proposed tax on matches had led to a protest and a procession from the match-workers of East London, who asserted that they would be thrown out of work, and a Licensing Bill of the Government, it was said, "would rob the poor man of his beer"). The foreign policy of the Government, especially under Lord Granville, had been somewhat dilatory and unenterprising. Our mediation in the Franco-German war of 1870, our policy towards Russia when she repudiated the treaty which she had made after the Crimean War, and our negotiations with the United States of America over the " Alabama " claims had been, if discreet, decidedly unadventurous. The Conservatives had, in Disraeli, a leader who took full advantage of these elements of dissatisfaction. He said of Gladstone's Irish administration that " he legalized confiscation, consecrated sacrilege, and condoned high treason ". He compared the occupants of the treasury bench (upon which members of the Government sat) to a " range of exhausted volcanoes ", and epitomized their policy as one of " plundering and blundering ". He exhorted the country to realize the greatness of its imperial destinies, and summed up the Conservative policy "as being the maintenance of our institutions, the preservation of our empire, and the improvement of the condition of the people”. In 1874 a cabinet disagreement induced Gladstone quite suddenly, and to the surprise even of some of his own colleagues in the ministry, to dissolve Parliament. In the election, which followed the Conservatives were triumphant. Gladstone resigned, and Disraeli came into office with a majority of fifty over Liberals and Irish combined. For the first time since Peel's ministry of 1841 the Conservatives were really in power as well as in office. They had a majority large enough to prevent accidents in a division, but not large enough to encourage independence on the part of individual members. They had in Disraeli (In 1876 Disraeli became Earl of Beaconsfield and went to the House of Lords) a leader of great brilliance, and one who succeeded in obtaining the confidence of the Crown to a greater degree than any other prime minister except Lord Melbourne (Comparing his attitude towards Queen Victoria with Gladstone's, Disraeli once said, ”Gladstone treats the queen like a public department; I treat her like a woman". The queen spoke of Disraeli, after his death, as her "dear, great friend"). They possessed competent ministers in the House of Lords with Lord Derby (the son of the former Conservative prime minister) as foreign secretary and Lord Salisbury as secretary for India, and in the House of Commons with Mr. Cross as home secretary and Sir Stafford Northcote as chancellor of the exchequer Moreover, the opposition was weak and divided. Gladstone retired for the time into private life, to make occasional reappearances that were somewhat embarrassing to the leader who succeeded him, Lord Harrington, afterwards Duke of Devonshire; and there were frequent disagreements between the Whigs, whom the latter represented, and the Radicals, amongst whom Mr. Chamberlain was the most forceful personality. The Conservatives, however, found great difficulty in the conduct of business in Parliament, owing to the obstructive tactics which were developed by the Irish party, and which necessitated new rules for the course of debate. The aim of the Irish was to concentrate attention on the Irish question and the demand for Home Rule by obstructing all business which was not of an Irish character,, and incidentally, perhaps, to foster the feeling for Home Rule by combining with it a desire for the absence of the Irish members from the Imperial Parliament. An endless amount of time was scientifically wasted in discussions about nothing in particular, and one Irish member spoke no less than five hundred times in one session (The tactics of the Irish party have been humorously summarized by a member of it as being:—1. To work in Government time. 2. To aid anybody to spend Government time, 3 Whenever you see a bill block it. 4. Whenever you see a raw, rub it). |
Chronology |
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