1861 1862

THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

959

in an English mail-steamer to seek for the friendship of England and France. They were taken out of the steamer by the captain of a United States' man-of-war. As it was contrary to the rules of international law to seize anyone on board a neutral ship, the British Government protested, and prepared to make war with the United States if they refused to surrender the agents. Fortunately the United States Government promptly surrendered the men, honourably acknowledging that its officer had acted wrongly, and the miserable spectacle of a war between two nations which ought always to be bound together by ties of brotherhood was averted. When the demand for the surrender of Mason and Slidell was being prepared in England, Prince Albert, who had lately received the title of Prince Consort, lay upon what proved to be his death-bed. His last act was to suggest that some passages in the English despatch, which might possibly give offence in America, should be more courteously expressed. On December 14, 1861, he died. His whole married life had been one of continuous self-abnegation. He never put himself forward, or aspired to the semblance of power; but he placed his intelligence and tact at the service of the queen and the country, softening down asperities and helping on the smooth working of the machinery of government.

9. The 'Alabama.' 1862.-The fleet of the United States had from the beginning of the war blockaded the southern ports, and many English merchants fitted out steamers to run through the blockading squadrons, carrying goods to the confederates and taking away cotton in return. The confederates, who had no navy, were anxious to attack the commercial marine of their enemies, and ordered a swift war-steamer to be built at Birkenhead by an English ship-builder, which, after it had put to sea, was named the ‘Alabama.' The 'Alabama' took a large number of American merchant-ships, sinking the ships after removing the crews and the valuable part of the cargo. Such proceedings caused the greatest indignation in America, where it was held that the British Government ought to have seized the 'Alabama' before it put to sea, as being in reality a ship of war, which ought not to be allowed to start on its career from a neutral harbour. Some years afterwards England had to pay heavy damages to the United States for the losses arising in consequence of the mismanagement of the Government in allowing this ship to sail.

IO. The Cotton Famine. 1861-1864. In the meanwhile great suffering was caused in the north of England by the stoppage of the supplies of cotton from America, in consequence of the

blockade of the southern ports. It was on American cotton that the cotton-mills in Lancashire had almost exclusively depended, and the small amount brought by the blockade-runners was far too little to meet their needs. Attempts were made to get supplies from Egypt and India, but these supplies were as yet insufficient in quantity, and in quality very inferior. Mills were either stopped or kept going only for a few hours in the week. Thousands were thrown out of work, and the cotton-famine caused as much misery as a bread-famine would have done. Yet not only were the sufferers patient under their misfortune, but they refused to speak evil of the northern states, whose blockading operations had been the cause of their misery. Believing that slave-owning was a crime, and that the result of the victory of the northern states would be the downfall of slavery in America, they suffered in silence rather than ask that England should aid a cause which in their hearts they condemned.

II. End of the American Civil War. 1864. In 1864 the American civil war ended by the complete victory of the North. Slavery was brought to an end in the whole of the territory of the United States. The conquerors showed themselves most merciful in the hour of victory, setting themselves deliberately to win back the hearts of the conquered. Such a spectacle could not fail to influence the course of English politics. A democratic government, sorely tried, had shown itself strong and merciful. The cause of democratic progress also gained adherents through the abnegation of the working-men of Lancashire in the time of the cotton-famine. Those who willingly suffered on behalf of what they believed to be a righteous cause could hardly be debarred much longer from the exercise of the full rights of citizenship.

12. The Last Days of Lord Palmerston. 1865.-Although Parliamentary reform could not be long delayed, it was not likely to come as long as Lord Palmerston lived. He was the most popular man in England: cheery, high-spirited, and worthily representing the indomitable courage of the race to which he belonged. He was now eighty years of age, and the old system did well enough for him. On the other hand, Gladstone, whose energy and financial success gave him an authority only second to that of Palmerston in the House of Commons, declared for reform. In 1865 a new Parliament was elected. On October 18, before it met, Palmerston died. He had been brisk and active to the last, but there was work now to be done needing the hands and hearts of younger men. 13. The Ministry of Earl Russell. 1865-1866.-Russell, who had been created Earl Russell in 1861, succeeded Palmerston as

1866-1867

DISRAELI AND REFORM

961

Prime Minister, and Gladstone became leader of the House of Commons. When the session opened in 1866, the ministry introduced a Reform Bill, with the object of lowering the franchise in counties and boroughs. The majority in the House of Commons did not care about reform, and though the House did not directly throw out the Bill, so many objections were raised, mainly by dissatisfied Liberals, and so much time was lost in discussing them, that the ministry came to the conclusion that the House did not wish to pass it. On this they resigned, intending to show by so doing that they really cared about the Bill, and were ready to sacrifice office for its sake.

14. The Third Derby Ministry and the Second Reform Act. 1866-1868. For the third time Lord Derby became Prime Minister, with Disraeli again as Chancellor of the Exchequer and leader of the House of Commons. It soon appeared that, though the House of Commons cared little for reform, the working-men cared for it much. Crowded and enthusiastic meetings were held in most of the large towns in the North. In London, the Government having prohibited a meeting appointed to be held in Hyde Park, the crowd, finding the gates shut, broke down the railings and rushed in. Disraeli, quick to perceive that the country was determined to have reform, made up his mind to be the minister to give it; and, as he was able to carry his usual supporters with him, the opposition of the discontented Liberals-through which the Reform Bill of the last session had been wrecked-was rendered innocuous. At the opening of the session of 1867, Disraeli first proposed a series of resolutions laying down the principles on which reform ought to be based. Finding that the House of Commons preferred an actual Bill, he sketched out the plan of a Bill, and then, as it did not please the Houses, withdrew it and brought in a second Bill very different from the one which he had first proposed. Three Cabinet ministers, one of whom was Lord Cranborne (who afterwards became Lord Salisbury), resigned rather than accept a Bill so democratic as the final proposal. Before the Bill got through the House of Commons it became still more democratic. In its final shape every man who paid rates in the boroughs was to have a vote, and in towns therefore household suffrage was practically established, whilst even lodgers were allowed to vote if they paid 10. rent and had resided in the same lodgings for a whole year. In the counties the franchise was given

to all who inhabited houses at 127 rental whilst the old freehold suffrage (see p. 902) of 40s. was retained. At least in towns large

enough to return members separately, the working-men would henceforth have a voice in managing the affairs of the nation. In 1868 Bills were carried changing on similar principles the franchise in Scotland and Ireland. In England and Scotland there was also a redistribution of seats, small constituencies being disfranchised and their members given to large ones.

15. Irish Troubles. 1867. The year of the second Reform Act was one of trouble in Ireland. The discontented in Ireland were now supported by an immense population of Irish in America, the whole of which was hostile to England, and large numbers of which had acquired military discipline in the American Civil War. A secret society, whose members were known as Fenians, sprang up on both sides of the Atlantic. Many of the military Irish returned from America to Ireland, and in March 1867 a general rising was attempted in Ireland. Heavy snow-storms made the movements of the insurgents impossible, and this effort to bring about a complete separation between Ireland and England was suppressed with little bloodshed. Numbers of Irish, as well those residing in England as those who remained in their own country, sympathised with the Fenians. In Manchester, some of these rescued some Fenian prisoners from a prison van, and in the course of the struggle a shot was fired which killed a policeman. Five of the rescuers were tried in November, and three were hanged. In December, other Irishmen blew down with gunpowder the wall of Clerkenwell Prison, in which two Fenians were confined, hoping to liberate the prisoners.

16. The Gladstone Ministry and the Disestablishment of the Irish Church. 1868-1869.—In February 1868, Disraeli became Prime Minister, Lord Derby having resigned in consequence of the state of his health. It had by this time become evident to the principal Liberals that Irish discontent must be caused by grievances which it behoved the British Parliament to remedy. Accordingly. Gladstone proposed and carried resolutions calling for the disestablishment of the Irish Church. Disraeli dissolved Parliament, as he was obliged in any case to do in order to allow the new constituencies created by the Reform Act to choose their representatives. The new Parliament contained a large Liberal majority, and Gladstone became Prime Minister. In 1869 he brought in and carried a Bill disestablishing and disendowing the Protestant Church of Ireland, which was the Church of the minority.

17. The Irish Land Act. 1870. In 1870 the Government attacked the more difficult question of Irish land. An Irish Land

1866-1870 THe north gERMAN CONFEDERATION 963

Act was now passed which obliged landlords to compensate their tenants for improvements made by them, and to give them some payment if they turned them out of their holding for any reason except for not paying their rent. Tenants who desired to buy land from their landlords might receive loans from the Government to enable them to become owners of farms which they had rented. The Act had less effect than was intended, as the landlord, being allowed to come to an agreement with a tenant that the Act should not in his case be enforced, had usually sufficient influence over his tenants to induce them to abandon all claim to the benefits which Parliament intended them to receive.

18. The Education Act. 1870.-In the same year Forster, who was one of the ministers, introduced a new system of education in primary schools in England. Up to this time the Government had been allowed by Parliament to grant money to schools on condition that a sum at least equal to the grant was raised by school fees and local subscriptions, and that the Government inspectors were satisfied that the children were properly taught. By the new Education Act, wherever there was a deficiency in school accommodation, the ratepayers were to elect a School Board with authority to draw upon the rates for the building and maintenance of as many schools as the Committee of the Privy Council appointed to decide on questions of education (see p. 920) thought to be necessary-which School Boards had authority to compel parents who neglected the education of their children to send them either to the Board School or to some other efficient school. At these schools the Bible was to be read and explained, but no religious instruction according to the principles of any special religious body was to be given in school hours.

19. The War between Prussia and Austria. 1866. Whilst these events were occurring in England great changes had taken place on the Continent. In 1866 a war had broken out between Prussia on the one hand, and Austria supported by the great majority of the German states on the other. The Austrians were completely defeated by the Prussians at Sadowa in Bohemia, though at Custozza they defeated the Italians, who had allied themselves with Prussia. The result was that when peace was made, Venetia was ceded to Italy, whilst in Germany, Hanover, Hesse-Cassel, Nassau and Frankfort were annexed to Prussia, and the whole of the country to the north of the Main formed into a North German Confederation under Prussian supremacy.

20. War between France and Germany.

1870-1871. The