Reform Bill of 1884

Amid all this excitement, while Ireland was revengeful and sullen, Gladstone redeemed a former promise to extend the British franchise, and to grant the counties the same privileges that had been given in 1867 to the towns. The measure was introduced on February 24, 1884, and in its main provision was exceedingly simple. It merely extended to the counties the ten franchises of 1832 and the household and logger franchises of 1837, thereby giving to both boroughs and counties a uniform electoral privilege. It also created a new class of voters, by granting the right to vote to certain persons who occupied houses without being either owners or tenants. The Conservatives did not oppose the measure, but would not support it until the Liberals made known what they proposed to do in the matter of disenfranchising old boroughs and redistributing seats. By this act some two million voters, largely agricultural and mining laborers, were added to the body of electors. By the Distribution Bil1, passed the next year, all boroughs and districts with less than fifteen thousand inhabitants were deprived of their seats, which were distributed among the larger towns and counties in proportion to their size. The number of seats in parliament was increased by thirty. England obtained eighteen additional members, Scotland twelve, while the representation of Ireland and Wales remained unchanged.

CHARLES STEWART PARNELL.From a photograph.

Gladstone's Policy in Afghanistan, South Africa, and Egypt

The Gladstone government was distinctly not interested in affairs abroad. In 1880 it had withdrawn the British garrisons from Kabul and Kandahar. When in December of the same year the Boers struck for independence, an attempt was made to coerce them. But the British forces were repulsed at Langs Nek and afterward defeated with heavy loss at Majuba Hill, February 27, 1881. Then the British government made a treaty, guaranteeing to the Boers self-government under certain specified terms and conditions, which were intended to secure the rights both of the burghers and of the British residents in the Transvaal. In 1884 the vague terms of this treaty were better defined by giving Great Britain entire control over foreign affairs, leaving the Boers free to manage internal affairs in their own way.

Similar in character were Great Britain's relations with Egypt. When the Khedive became bankrupt in 1878, a dual control by Great Britain and France was established. This intrusion of aliens into the land aroused a national party in Egypt, under Colonel Arabi Bey, which aimed at the liberation of Egypt. France refused to interfere; and in 1882, after forty-nine Europeans had been massacred at Alexandria, Great Britain took up the war alone, and General Wolseley defeated Arabi at Tel-el-Kebir on September 13. But the war had a tragic end. Taking advantage of the disorganized state into which Egypt had fallen, the southern provinces revolted and threw off the rule of the Khedive. At their head appeared one Mohammed Achmed, claiming to be the Mandi, or Guide, the representative of Allah on earth. The revolt soon assumed vast proportions, and two armies sent against the Mandi's followers in 1883, one under Hicks Pasha and another under Baker Pasha, were in large part destroyed. Then the Gladstone ministry, at its wit's end, despatched General Gordon to Khartum to deal with the Mandi. But Gordon was soon surrounded by the Sudanese, and at first Gladstone did nothing to relieve him. Finally, however, shamed into action by public opinion, he sent a relief expedition under General Wilson, which arrived too late. Khartum had fallen and Gordon had been slain a few days before (January 26, 1885.) For the time being, the Sudan was lost to the Khedive.

In colonial matters the government was equally unsuccessful. In 1884 Bismarck, Chancellor of the German Empire, who was determined to make Germany a great colonial power, was able to occupy important territories in Africa and to establish German colonies in Namaqua and Damaraland, Kamerun, Togoland, and German East Africa. This enterprising effort of a neighboring power to obtain colonies in Africa roused the British government from its apathy to all matters colonial, and stirred in the British people a new interest in the acquirement of colonial territory.

First Attempt to grant Home Rule to Ireland

The Liberals were defeated in parliament in 1885, and Lord Salisbury became the head of a Conservative ministry. After a short time he dissolved parliament and appealed to the country. The elections of 1885, the first held under the new electoral law, resulted in a victory for the Liberals, and Gladstone became minister for the third time.

The appearance of eighty-six Irish Home Rulers in parliament made it evident that if Gladstone were to command a majority, he must advocate measures favorable to home rule. On April 8, 1886, he brought in his first Home Rule Bill. By it he proposed to give Ireland a separate parliament, a separate ministry, and control of taxes and certain specified revenues. According to this plan, no Irish members were to sit in the British parliament. The two countries were to have the same king, and the British parliament was to have a certain control over Irish law-making and Irish revenues; but otherwise Ireland was to be independent of England. The measure aroused great opposition, and was defeated in June, 1886. Unfortunately for the Liberals, this first attempt to grant home rule to Ireland led a body of able men, Chamberlain, John Bright, Hartington, and others, to withdraw from the Liberal party. These men formed a new group, the Liberal Unionists, so called because, while adhering to Liberal principles, they desired union with Ireland. In 1886, when new elections took place, the Liberals were defeated, and Lord Salisbury became prime minister.