Not thrones and crowns, but men!
Flowers of thy heart, O God, are they!
Let them not pass, like weeds, away!
Their heritage a sunless day!
God save the people!"
Stil the Government was not covinced; the Corn Laws were enforced, the price of bread showed no signs of
faling, and the situation grew daily more desperate and more threatening.
593. The Irish Famine, 1845-1846.
At last the Irish famine opened the Prime Minister's eyes (S592). When in Elizabeth's reign Sir Walter Raleigh
brought over the cheap but precarious potato from America and planted it in Ireland, his motive was one of pure
good wil. He could not foresee that it would in time become in that country an almost universal food, that
through its very abundance the population would rapidly increase, and that then, by the sudden failure of the
crop, terrible destitution would ensue. Such was the case in the summer of 1845. It is said by eyewitnesses that
in a single night the entire potato crop was smitten with disease, and the healthy plants were transformed into a
mass of putrefying vegetation. Thus at one fel stroke the food of nearly a whole nation was cut off.[1]
[1] O'Connor's "The Parnel Movement."
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In the years that folowed, the famine became appaling. The starving peasants left their miserable huts and
streamed into the towns for relief, only to die of hunger in the streets.
Parliament responded nobly to the piteous cals for help, and voted in al no less than 10,000,000 pounds to
relieve the distress.[2] Subscriptions were also taken up in London and the chief towns, by which large sums
were obtained, and America contributed shiploads of provisions and a good deal of money; but the misery was
so great that even these measures failed to accomplish what was hoped. When the famine was over, it was found
that Ireland had lost about two milion (or one fourth) of her population.[3] This was the combined effect of
starvation, of the various diseases that folowed in its path, and of emigration.[4]
[2] Molesworth's "History of England from 1830." [3] The actual number of deaths from starvation, or fever
caused by insufficient food, was estimated at from two hundred thousand to three hundred thousand. See the
Encyclopaedia Britannica under "Ireland." [4] McCarthy's "History of Our Own Times," Vol. I.
594. Repeal of the Corn Laws, 1846-1849; Free Trade established, 1869.
In the face of such appaling facts, and of the bad harvests and distress in England, Sir Robert Peel (S592) could
hold out no longer, and by a gradual process, extending from 1846 to 1849, the obnoxious Corn Laws were
repealed, with the exception of a trifling duty, which was finaly removed in 1869.
The beginning once made, free trade in nearly everything, except wine, spirits, and tobacco, folowed. They
were, and stil are, subject to a heavy duty, perhaps because the government believes, as Napoleon did, that the
vices have broad backs and can comfortably carry the heaviest taxes. A few years later (1849) the old
Navigation Laws (S459) were totaly repealed. This completed the English free-trade measures. But, by a
singular contrast, while nearly al goods and products now enter England free, yet Australia, Canada, New
Zealand, and the Union of South Africa—in a word, al the great self-governing English colonies—continue to
impose duties on imports from the mother country (S625).
595. The World's Fair (1851); Repeal of the Window and the Newspaper Tax; the Atlantic Cable, 1866.
The great industrial exhibition known as the "World's Fair" was opened in Hyde Park, London (1851). The
original plan of it was conceived by Prince Albert. It proved to be not only a complete success in itself, but it led
to many similar fairs on the part of different nations. For the first time in history the products and inventions of al the countries of the globe were brought together under one roof, in a gigantic structure of glass and iron caled
the "Crystal Palace," which is stil in use for exhibition purposes at Sydenham, a suburb of London.
The same year (1851) the barbarous tax on light and air, known as the "Window Tax,"[1] was repealed and the
House Tax (which is stil in force) was substituted for it. From that date the Englishman, whether in London or
out, might enjoy his sunshine, when he could get it, without having to pay for every beam,—a luxury which only
the rich could afford.
[1] This tax, which took the place of the ancient Hearth Tax (1663-1689), was first imposed in 1695.
A little later (1855) a stamp tax on newspapers, which had been devised in Queen Anne's time in the avowed
hope of crushing them out, was repealed. The result was that henceforth cheap papers could be published, and
the workingman, as he sat by his fireside, could inform himself of what the world was doing and thinking,—two
things of which he had before known almost nothing, and cared, perhaps, even less.
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To get this news of the world's life more speedily, England had established the first line of Atlantic steamers
(S565); next, the first Atlantic cable, connecting England with America, was laid (1858). It soon gave out, but
was permanently relaid not long afterwards, in 1866. Since then a large part of the globe has been joined in like
manner,[1] and the great cities of every civilized land are practicaly one in their knowledge of al important
events. So many improvements have also been made in the use of electricity, not only for the transmission of
inteligence, but as an iluminator, and more recently stil as a motive power, that it now seems probable that "the age of steam" wil be superseded by the higher "age of electricity."
[1] There are now over 250,000 miles of submarine electric cables in operation in the world.
596. The Opium War (1839); the War in the Crimea (1854).
For nearly twenty years after Victoria's accession no wars occurred in her reign worthy of mention, with the
exception of that with China (1839). At that time the Chinese Emperor, either from a desire to put a stop to the
consumption of opium in his dominions, or because he wished to encourage the home production of the drug,
prohibited its importation. As the English in India were largely engaged in the production of opium for the
Chinese market,—the people of that country smoking it instead of tobacco,—the British government insisted that
the Emperor should not interfere with so lucrative a trade. War ensued.
The Chinese, being unable to contend against English gunboats, were soon forced to withdraw their prohibition
of the foreign opium traffic. The English government, with the planters of India, reaped a golden reward of many
milions for their deliberate violation of the rights of a heathen and half-civilized people. The war opened five
important ports to the British trade, and subsequent wars opened a number more on the rivers in the interior.
This action, with the later aggressions of other European powers, roused an intensely bitter feeling among large
numbers of the Chinese. Their hatred of foreigners finaly led to a desperate but unsuccessful attempt (1900) to
drive al Europeans and Americans, including missionaries, out of the country.
Eventualy, the pressure of the great powers of Europe and the diplomatic influence of the United States induced
China to grant the "Open Door" to the demands of foreign trade. Later, England and China made an agreement
(1911) which bids fair to stop the exportation of opium to that country.
Next, Turkey declared war against Russia (1853). The latter Power had insisted on protecting al Christians in
the Turkish dominions against the oppression of the Sultan. England and France considered the Czar's
championship of the Christians as a mere pretext for occupying Turkish territory. To prevent this aggression they
formed an aliance with the Sultan, which resulted in the Russo-Turkish war, and ended in the taking of
Sebastopol by the alied forces. Russia was obliged to retract her demands, and peace was declared (1856).
597. The Great Rebelion in India, 1857.
The folowing year, 1857, was memorable for the outbreak of rebelion in India. The real cause of the revolt was
probably a long-smothered feeling of resentment on the part of the Sepoy, or native, troops against English rule,
—a feeling that dates back to the extortion and misgovernment of Warren Hastings (S555). The immediate
cause of the uprising was the introduction of an improved rifle using a greased cartridge, which had to be bitten
off before being rammed down.
To the Hindu the fat of cattle or swine is an abomination, and his religion forbids his tasting it. An attempt on the
part of the British Government to enforce the use of the new cartridge brought on a general mutiny among three
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hundred thousand Sepoys. During the revolt the native troops perpetrated the most horrible atrocitise on the
English women and children who fel into their hands. When the insurrection was finaly queled under Havelock
and Campbel, the English soldiers retaliated by binding numbers of prisoners to the mouths of cannon and
blowing them to shreds. At the close of the rebelion, the government of India was wholy transferred to the
Crown, and later the Queen received the title of "Empress of India" (1876).
598. Death of Prince Albert; the American Civil War, 1861.
Not long after the Sepoy rebelion was queled, Prince Albert (S589) died suddenly (1861). In him the nation
lost an earnest promoter of social, educational, and industrial reforms, and the United States a true and judicious
friend, who, at a most critical period in the Civil War, used his influence to maintain peace between the two
countries.
After his death the Queen held no court for many years, and so complete was her seclusion that Sir Charles
Dilke, a wel-known Radical, suggested in Parliament (1868) that her Majesty be invited to abdicate or choose a
regent. The suggestion was indignantly rejected; but it revealed the feeling, which quite generaly existed, that "the real Queen died with her husband," and that only her shadow remained.
In the spring of the year 1861, in which Prince Albert died, the American Civil War broke out between the
Northern and Southern States. Lord Palmerston, the Liberal Prime Minister, preferred to be considered the
minister of the nation rather than the head of a political party. At the beginning of the war he was in favor of the
North. As the conflict threatened to be bitter the Queen issued a proclamation declaring her "determination to
maintain a strict and impartial neutrality in the contest between the said contending parties." The rights of
beligerents—in other words, al the rights of war according to the law of nations—were granted to the South
equaly with the North; and her Majesty's subjects were warned against aiding either side in the conflict.
The progress of the war caused terrible distress in Lancashire, owing to the cutting off of supplies of cotton for
the mils through the blockade of the ports of the Confederate States. The starving weavers, however, gave their
moral support to the North, and continued steadfast to the cause of the Union even in the sorest period of their
suffering. The great majority of the manufacturers and business classes generaly, and the nobility, with a few
exceptions, sympathized with the efforts of the South to establish an independent Confederacy. Most of the
distinguished political and social leaders, in Parliament and out, with nearly al the influential journals, were on the same side, and were openly hostile to the Union.[1]
[1] Lord John Russel (Foreign Secretary), Lord Brougham, Sir John Bowring, Carlyle, Ruskin, and the London
Times and Punch espouses the cause of the South more or less openly; while others, like Mr. Gladstone,
declared their ful belief in the ultimate success of the Confederacy. On the other hand, Prince Albert, the Duke
of Argyl, John Bright, John Stuart Mil, Professor Newman, Lord Palmerston, at least for a time, and the
London Daily News defended the cause of the North. After the death of President Lincoln, Punch manfuly
acknowledged (see issue of May 6, 1865) that it had been altogether wrong in its estimation of him and his
measures; and Mr. Gladstone, in an essay on "Kin beyond Sea" in his "Gleanings of Past Years," paid a noble tribute to the course pursued by America since the close of the war.
Late in Autumn (1861) Captain Wilkes, of the United States Navy, boarded the British mail steamer Trent, and
seized two Confederate commissioners (Mason and Slidel) who were on their way to England. When
inteligence of the act was conveyed to President Lincoln, he expressed his unqualified disapproval of it, saying:
"This is the very thing the British captains used to do. They claimed the right of searching American ships, and
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taking men out of them. That was the cause of the War of 1812. Now, we cannot abandon our own principles;
we shal have to give up these men, and apologize for what we have done."
The British Government made a formal demand that the commissioners should be given up. Through the influence
of Prince Albert, and with the approval of the Queen, this demand was couched in most conciliatory language.
Slidel and Mason were handed over to Great Britain, and an apology was made by Secretary Seward.
During the progress of the Civil War a number of fast-sailing vessels were fitted out in England, and employed in
running the blockade of the Southern ports, to supply them with arms, ammunition, and manufactured goods of
various kinds. Later, several gunboats were built in British shipyards by agents of the Confederate government,
for the purpose of attacking the commerce of the United States. The most famous of these vessels was the
Alabama, built expressly for the Confederate service by the Lairds, of Birkenhead, armed with British cannon,
and manned chiefly by British sailors.
Charles Francis Adams, the American Minister at London, notified Lord Palmerston, the Prime Minister, of her
true character. But Palmerston permitted the Alabama to leave port (1862), satisfied with the pretext that she
was going on a trial trip.[1] She set sail on her career of destruction, and soon drove nearly every American
merchant vessel from the seas. Two years later (1864) she was defeated and sunk by the United States gunboat
Kearsarge. After the war the Government of the United States demanded damages from Great Britain for losses
caused by the Alabama and other English-built privateers.
[1] The Queen's advocate gave his opinion that the Alabama should be detained, but it reached the Foreign
Secretary (Lord Russel) just after she had put out to sea.
A treaty was agreed to by the two nations; and by its provisions an international court was held at Geneva,
Switzerland (1872), to deal with the demands made by the United States on Great Britain. The court awarded
$15,500,000 in gold as compensation to the United States, which was duly paid. One very important result of
this decision was that it established a precedent for settling by arbitration on equitable and amicable terms
whatever questions might arise in future between the two nations.[1]
[1] This treaty imposed duties on neutral governments of a far more stringent sort than Great Britain had hitherto
been wiling to concede. It resulted, furthermore, in the passage of an act of Parliament, punishing with severe
penalties such ilegal shipbuilding as that of the Alabama. See Sheldon Amos's "Fifty Years of the English
Constitution, 1830-1880."
599. Municipal Reform (1835); Woman Suffrage; the Jews.
Excelent as was the Reform Bil of 1832 (S582), it did not go far enough. There was also great need of
municipal reform, since in many cities the taxpayers had no voice in the management of local affairs, and the city
officers sometimes spent the income of large charitable funds in feasting and merrimaking while the poor got little
or nothing.
A law was passed (1835) giving taxpayers in cities (except London) control of municipal elections. By a
subsequent amendment, the balot in such cases was extended to women,[2] and for the first time perhaps in
modern history partial woman suffrage was formaly granted by supreme legislative act. A number of years later
the political restrictions imposed on the Jews were removed.
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[2] Woman suffrage in municipal elections was granted to single women and widows (householders) in 1869. In
1870 an act was passed enabling them to vote at schoolboard elections, and also to become members of such
boards. By act of 1894 women were made eligible to sit and vote in district and parish councils (or local-
government elections).
There was a considerable number of Jews in London and in other large cities who were men of wealth and
influence. They were entitled to vote and hold municipal office, but they were debarred from election to
Parliament by a law which required them to make oath "on the faith of a Christian." The law was now so
modified (1859) that a very prominent Jew, Baron Rothschild, took his seat in Parliament. Finaly the Oaths Act
(1888) abolished al religious tests in Parliament.
600. Second and Third Reform Acts, 1867, 1884; County and Parish Councils (1884, 1894).
In 1867 the pressure of public opinion moved Mr. Disraeli (later Lord Beaconsfield), a member of Lord Derby's
Conservative Cabinet (S479), to bring in a second Reform Bil (S582), which became law. This bil provided
"household suffrage." It gave the right to vote to al male householders in the English parliamentary boroughs (that is, towns having the right to elect one or more members to Parliament), who paid a tax for the support of the
poor, and to al lodgers paying a rental of 10 pounds yearly; it also increased the number of voters among smal
property holders in counties.[1]
[1] See Summary of Constitutional History in the Appendix, p.xxvi, S31. Lord Derby held the office, but Mr.
Disraeli was realy Prime Minister.
There stil remained, however, a large class in the country districts for whom nothing had been done. The men
employed by the farmers to til the soil were wretchedly poor and deplorably ignorant. Joseph Arch, a
Warwickshire farm laborer, who had been educated by hunger and toil, succeeded in establishing a national
union among men of his class (1872). In 1884 Mr. Gladstone, the Liberal Prime Minister, secured the balot for
agricultural laborers by the passage of the third Reform Act, which gave al residents of counties throughout the
United Kingdom the right to vote on the same liberal conditions as the residents of the towns.
It is estimated that this last law added about two and a half milions of voters; this gave one voter to every six
persons of the total population, whereas, before the passing of the first Reform Bil in 1832, thre was not over
one in fifty. When the new or so-caled "People's Parliament" convened (1886), Joseph Arch and several other
candidates took their seats in the House of Commons as representatives of classes of the population who, up to
that date, had no voice in the legislation of the country.
The next step may bring universal "manhood suffrage." The County Council and Parish Council acts (1888,
1894) greatly extended the power of the people in al matters of local government, so that now every vilage in
England controls its own affairs.
601. Compulsory Church Rates abolished; Disestablishment in Ireland (1869).
While these great reforms were taking place with respect to elections, others of great importance were also being
effected. From its origin in 1549 the established Protestant Church of England (S362) had compeled persons of
al religious beliefs to pay rates or taxes for the maintenance of the Established Cuhrch in the parish where they
resided. Methodists, Baptists, and other Dissenters (SS472, 496, 507) objected to this law as unjust, since, in
addition to the expense of supporting their own form of worship, they were obliged to contribute toward
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maintaining one with which they had no sympathy. So great had the opposition become to paying these "church
rates," that in over fifteen hundred parishes in England (1859) the authorities could not colect them. After long debate Mr. Gladstone carried through a bil (1868) which abolished this mode of taxation and made the payment
of these rates purely voluntary.[1]
[1] Church rates were levied on al occupiers of land or houses within the parish. The Church of England is now
supported by a tax on landowners, by its endowments, and by voluntary gifts.
A similar act of justice was soon after granted to Ireland (1869).[2] At the time of the union of the two countries
in 1800 (S562), the maintenance of the Protestant Episcopal Church continued to remain obligatory upon the
Irish people, although only a smal part of them were of that faith. Mr. Gladstone, now Liberal Prime Minister,
succeeded in getting Parliament to enact a law which disestablished this branch of the National Church and left al
religious denominations in Ireland to the voluntary support of those who belonged to them. Henceforth the
English Protestants residing in that country could no longer claim the privilege of worshiping God at the expense
of his Roman Catholic neighbor.
[2] The Disestablishment Bil was passed in 1869 and took effect in 1871.
602. The Elementary Education Act, 1870.
In 1870 Mr. Forester, a member of Mr. Gladstone's Liberal Cabinet (SS534, 601), succeeded in passing a
measure of the highest importance, entitled The Elementary Education Act. This act did not undertake to
establish a new system of instruction, but to aid and improve that which was then in use. In the course of time,
however, it effected such changes for the better in the common schools that it practicaly re-created most of
them.
It wil be remembered that before the Reformation the Catholic monasteries took the leading part in educating the
children of the country (SS45, 60). The destruction of the monasteries by Henry VIII (S352) put a stop to their
work; but after Henry's death, his son, Edward VI, established many Protestant schools (SS364, 365), while
tohers were founded by men who had grown suddenly rich through getting possession of monastic lands. These
new schools did good work, and are stil doing it; but they seldom reached the children of the poor. Later on,
many wealthy persons founded Charity Schools to help the class who could not afford to pay anything for their
tuition. The pupils who lived in these institutions (of which a number stil exist) were generaly obliged to wear a
dress which, by its peculiarity of cut and color, always reminded them that they were "objects of public or private benevolence." Furthermore, while the boys in these institutions were often encouraged to go on and enter
Grammar Schools, the girls were informed that a very little learning would be al that they would ever need in the
humble station in life to which Providence had seen fit to cal them.
Meanwhile, the Church of England, and other religious denominations, both Catholic and Protestant, established
many common schools (1781- 1811) for the benefit of the poor. The cost of carrying them on was usualy met
by private contributions. Al of these schools gave some form of denominational religious instruction. As the
population increased many more schools were required. At length Parliament began (1833) to grant money to
help the different religious societies in maintaining their systems of instruction. When able, the parents of the
children were also caled on to pay a smal sum weekly. In 1870 the Liberal Government took hold of the
education question with great vigor. It provided that in al cases where the existing Church of England or other
denominational schools were not able to accomodate the children of a given district, School Boards should be
established to open new schools, which, if necessary, should be maintained entirely at the public expense. In
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these "Board Schools," as they were caled, no denominational religious instruction whatever could be given.
This very important act "placed a school within the reach of every child," but, except in very poor districts, these schools were not made free schools; in fact, free schools, in the American sense, cannot be said to exist in Great
Britain. Later on (1880) compulsory attendance was required, and subsequent acts of Parliament (1902, 1904)
transferred the management of these schools from the School Boards to the Town and County Councils.[1]
Again, these new measures make it practicable for a boy or girl, who has done wel in the primary course, to
secure assistance which wil open opportunities for obtaining a higher education. Thus, as a recent writer
declares, "There is now a path leading from the workman's home even to the University."[2]
[1] But many men and women who belong to the Dissenting Denominations complain that the Educational Acts
of 1870-1904 compel them to pay taxes for the support of a great number of public elementary schools which
are under the control of the English Church, and furthermore, that teachers who are members of Dissenting
societies, such as the Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, etc., can seldom, if ever, get appointments in the class
of schools mentioned. Quite a number of these Dissenters who cal themsel