retirement, were the chief causes which affected the results. His influence enabled him to secure a small Liberal majority. But it was noticed that the majority depended on Scottish, Irish and Welsh votes, and that England—the “predominant partner,” as it was subsequently called by Lord Rosebery—returned a majority of members pledged to resist any attempt to dissolve the union between the three kingdoms.
On the meeting of the new parliament Lord Salisbury’s government was defeated on a vote of want of confidence, and for a fourth time Gladstone became prime minister. In the session of 1893 he again introduced a Home Rule Bill. But the measure of 1893 differed in many Home Rule Bill, 1893. respects from that of 1886. In particular, the Irish were no longer to be excluded from the imperial parliament at Westminster. The bill which was thus brought forward was actually passed by the Commons. It was, however, rejected by the Lords. The dissensions among the Irish themselves, and the hostility which English constituents were displaying to the proposal, emboldened the Peers to arrive at this decision. Some doubt was felt as to the course which Gladstone would take in this crisis. Many persons thought that he should at once have appealed to the country, and have endeavoured to obtain a distinct mandate from the constituencies to introduce a new Home Rule Bill. Other persons imagined that he should have followed the precedent which had been set by Lord Grey in 1831, and, after a short prorogation, have reintroduced his measure in a new session. As a matter of fact, Gladstone adopted neither of these courses. The government decided not to take up the gauntlet thrown down by the Peers, but to proceed with the rest of their political programme. With this object an autumn session was held, and the Parish Councils Act, introduced by Mr Fowler (afterwards Lord Wolverhampton), was passed, after important amendments, which had been introduced into it in the House of Lords, had been reluctantly accepted by Gladstone. On the other hand, an Employers’ Liability Bill, introduced by Mr Asquith, the home secretary, was ultimately dropped by Gladstone after passing all stages in the House of Commons, rather than that an amendment of the Peers, allowing “contracting out,” should be accepted.
Before, however, the session had quite run out (3rd March 1894), Gladstone, who had now completed his eighty-fourth year, laid down a load which his increasing years made it impossible for him to sustain (see the article Gladstone). He was succeeded by Lord Rosebery, whose abilities and attainments had raised him to a high place in the Liberal counsels. Lord Rosebery did not succeed in popularizing the Home Rule Lord Rosebery. proposal which Gladstone had failed to carry. He declared, indeed, that success was not attainable till England was converted to its expediency. He hinted that success would not even then be assured until something was done to reform the constitution of the House of Lords. But if, on the one hand, he refused to introduce a new Home Rule Bill, he hesitated, on the other, to court defeat by any attempt to reform the Lords. His government, in these circumstances, while it failed to conciliate its opponents, excited no enthusiasm among its supporters. It was generally understood, moreover, that a large section of the Liberal party resented Lord Rosebery’s appointment to the first place in the ministry, and thought that the lead should have been conferred on Sir W. Harcourt. It was an open secret that these differences in the party were reflected in the cabinet, and that the relations between Lord Rosebery and Sir W. Harcourt were too strained to ensure either the harmonious working or the stability of the administration. In these circumstances the fall of the ministry was only a question of time. It occurred—as often happens in parliament—on a minor issue which no one had foreseen. Attention was drawn in the House of Commons to the insufficient supply of cordite provided by the war office, and the House—notwithstanding the assurance of the war minister (Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman) that the supply was adequate—placed the government in a minority. Lord Rosebery resigned office, and Lord Salisbury for the third time became prime minister, the duke of Devonshire, Mr Chamberlain and other Liberal Unionists joining the government. Parliament was dissolved, and a new parliament, in which the Unionists obtained an overwhelming majority, was returned.
The government of 1892–1895, which was successively led by Gladstone and Lord Rosebery, will, on the whole, be remembered for its failures. Yet it passed two measures which have exercised a wide influence. The Parish Councils Act introduced electoral institutions into the government of every parish, and in 1894 Sir W. Harcourt, as chancellor of the exchequer, availed himself of the opportunity, which a large addition to the navy invited, to reconstruct the death duties. He swept away in doing so many of the advantages which the owner of real estate and the life tenant of settled property had previously enjoyed, and drove home a principle which Goschen had tentatively introduced a few years before by increasing the rate of the duty with the amount of the estate. Rich men, out of their superfluities, were thenceforward to pay more than poor men out of their necessities.
The Unionist government which came into power in 1895 lasted, with certain changes of personnel, till 1905, with a break caused by the dissolution of 1900. History may hereafter conclude that the most significant circumstance of the earlier period is to be found in the demonstration of loyalty and affection to which the sixtieth anniversary of Queen Victoria’s accession led in 1897. Ten years before, her jubilee had been the occasion of enthusiastic rejoicings, and the queen’s progress through London to a service of thanksgiving at Westminster had impressed the imagination of her subjects and proved the The two jubilees. affection of her people. But the rejoicings of 1887 were forgotten amid the more striking demonstrations ten years later. It was seen then that the queen, by her conduct and character, had gained a popularity which has had no parallel in history, and had won a place in the hearts of her subjects which perhaps no other monarch had ever previously enjoyed. There was no doubt that, if the opinion of the English-speaking races throughout the world could have been tested by a plebiscite, an overwhelming majority would have declared that the fittest person for the rule of the British empire was the gracious and kindly lady who for sixty years, in sorrow and in joy, had so worthily discharged the duties of her high position. This remarkable demonstration was not confined to the British empire alone. In every portion of the globe the sixtieth anniversary of the queen’s reign excited interest; in every country the queen’s name was mentioned with affection and respect; while the people of the United States vied with the subjects of the British empire in praise of the queen’s character and in expressions of regard for her person. Only a year or two before, an obscure dispute on the boundary of British Venezuela had brought the United States and Great Britain within sight of a quarrel. The jubilee showed conclusively that, whatever politicians might say, the ties of blood and kinship, which united the two peoples, were too close to be severed by either for some trifling cause; that the wisest heads in both nations were aware of the advantages which must arise from the closer union of the Anglo-Saxon races; and that the true interests of both countries lay in their mutual friendship. A war in which the United States was subsequently engaged with Spain cemented this feeling. The government and the people of the United States recognized the advantage which they derived from the goodwill of Great Britain in the hour of their necessity, and the two nations drew together as no other two nations had perhaps ever been drawn together before.
If the jubilee was a proof of the closer union of the many sections of the British empire, and of their warm attachment to their sovereign, it also gave expression to the “imperialism” which was becoming a dominant factor in British politics. Few people realized the mighty change which in this respect had been effected in thought and feeling. Forty years before, the most prominent English statesmen had regarded with anxiety the huge responsibilities of a world-wide empire. In 1897 the whole tendency of thought and opinion was to enlarge the burden of which the preceding generation had been weary. The extension of British influence, the protection of British interests, were almost universally advocated; and the few statesmen who
