But, meanwhile, a much more troublesome question had arisen, which still remains unsolved. This is the question of "Home Rule" for Ireland, or the setting up again of a Parliament at Dublin, with full power over Irish affairs. Under the skilful leadership of Mr. Parnell, the Irish Party in Parliament became strong and united. It was seen that something must be done—either grant Home Rule, at least in part, or else pass very severe laws to put down the disorder and disturbance.
A Street in Dublin
Mr. Gladstone believed, as he said, that "it is liberty alone which fits men for liberty." He favored giving Ireland a central council of its own to carry on the government, but to withhold for a time the grant of a Parliament. A majority of his Cabinet, however, opposed this plan because it went too far, and it was not introduced in Parliament.
The next year (1886), Mr. Gladstone declared that he had become converted entirely to the cause of Home Rule. A portion of the Liberal party thereupon deserted him, and formed a Liberal Unionist party which acted with the Conservatives. Mr. Gladstone now tried, with the assistance of the Irish Party and of the Liberals who remained faithful to him, to pass a bill giving Ireland a Parliament of its own. The measure was defeated in the House of Commons, however, and for a time Gladstone ceased to be Prime Minister. When his party was again victorious at the elections, and he became Prime Minister for the fourth time, in 1892, he made a second attempt to pass a Home Rule bill. This time he was successful in the House of Commons, but the bill was defeated in the House of Lords.
Mr. Parnell, meanwhile, had become a party to a divorce scandal, and this divided and greatly weakened the Irish party. His death shortly afterward did not have the effect of healing these divisions. Mr. Gladstone retired from political life in 1894, after sixty-one years of service in Parliament; and in 1898 he died, at the age of eighty-nine. This also weakened the cause of Ireland.
But the demand for Home Rule still continues. The Irish party, which is now once more reunited, declares that no government for Ireland will be satisfactory to them which does not include a Parliament able to make laws for Ireland, and also ministers for Ireland who shall be responsible to their own Parliament. The English liberals now favor a policy of "Home Rule by installments," or giving to Ireland, little by little, the right to manage it's own affairs. Time alone can tell whether the movement will continue until Ireland, like Canada, has a Parliament of its own; or whether, when the land question is fully settled, and further improvements have been made in local government, Ireland, like Scotland, will be proud to send her representatives to the central Parliament for the whole British Empire, and leave to it the right of making laws for Ireland which it now possesses.
Topics for Thought and Search
Read an account of the geography and people of Ireland.
Make a list of the injuries which Ireland received from England.
Write a brief sketch of Charles Stewart Parnell.
Make a list of the things which Gladstone did or tried to do for Ireland.
Let two pupils debate the question of Home Rule for Ireland, on speaking for it, the other against it.
The British Empire Under Edward VII.
On January 22, 1901, the news was flashed all over the world that the long reign of Queen Victoria had come to an end. She had reigned for nearly sixty-four years, and died at the age of eighty-one. She had been a loving wife and mother, and a good Queen. Her reign was glorious, not because of wars and conquests, be because of the progress of good which it brought, and the uplifting of the people.
Queen Victoria, in Old Age
In her last years a cruel was was fought between the British and the "Boers," or inhabitants of the Dutch republics in South Africa. Great Britain was successful in the end, and the Boer republics were annexed to the British Empire; but the British suffered many defeats before this was accomplished, and the gallant fight which the Boers made aroused great sympathy. The Queen was much distressed by this war, and her last words were:
"Oh, that peace may come!"
Queen Victoria was succeeded on the throne by her eldest son, Edward VII., who had long been known as the Prince of Wales. He was sixty years of age, and was well prepared to continue the wise rule of his mother. He had four grown children, and the eldest of these—George Frederick, now the Prince of Wales—in turn has four sons, so that it is not likely that this line of English Kings will die out.
Edward VII
The British Empire, as Edward VII. received it from his mother, is one of the greatest that the world has ever seen. It includes lands all over the globe, and if it is wisely ruled—as it seems likely that it will be—it will continue to be held together, and prove a great source of good to the world.
But the problem is how to unite the widely scattered lands, by giving them a voice in the central government of the Empire.
The greatest of the possessions of Great Britain, and the most important, perhaps, after the mother country itself, is Canada. This was taken from the French in 1763, and settlement in it has since spread to the Pacific Ocean. It is a rich and fertile land, in spite of its cold climate; and its people are mainly of British blood and speech. Its different provinces have their own legislatures; and since 1867 Canada as a whole had had a federal government somewhat like that of the United States. In nearly everything the Canadians govern themselves, though the Governor-General is sent out to them from Great Britain by the home government. In the Boer War the Canadians proved their loyalty by sending soldiers to aid the mother country.
Australia is the second in importance of the British colonies. The coasts of this island-continent were explored by Captain Cook, an officer in the British navy, in 1770; and the first settlement was made there by the British in 1788. Gold was discovered in Australia in 1851, and great fortunes were made by lucky miners; but a more important source of wealth was found in the raising of sheep. Five colonies were established on the mainland, and another in the near-by island of Tasmania, each with its own legislature and governor; and in 1901 all five were united together into a federal government, under the name of the Commonwealth of Australia. This, too, is a self-governing colony, made up of men mainly of British blood and speech; and it, also, proved its loyalty and affection for the mother country by the aid which it sent at the time of the Boer war.
The two great islands of New Zealand, which together are twice as large as all England, are more than a thousand miles distant from Australia, and thus are not included in that commonwealth. They make up a separate self-governing colony, which is very progressive and prosperous.
Cape Colony, in South Africa, was conquered from Holland in 1806, while that country was aiding Napoleon in his wars against Great Britain. Gold, and also diamond mines, were discovered here, and the white settlements have greatly increased, though the natives (negroes) are still twice as numerous as the whites. The conquest of the Boer republics strengthened British rule in South Africa, and the fairness with which the conquered Boers were treated reconciled them to that rule. Here, too, a movement was successful, in 1909, in uniting all the different British colonies into a federal state, called United South Africa. One of the ablest and broadest-minded of the statesmen who brought this about was the Boer leader, General Botha. "I want the King and the British people to realize," he said, "that the trust reposed in us has been worthily taken up, and I hope that they will have cause of pride in the young South African nation."