passing away of the most prominent figure in the European history of the last twenty years. But there was genuine feeling displayed, both by English and French, at the lying-in-state of the Emperor, and at the funeral service. Apart from individual inclination, there was nothing whatever to make scenes great State ceremonials. Yet such they became by the gathering of representatives of all classes -French and English. The Prince of Wales, the Duke of Edinburgh, and Prince Christian, joined the Princes of the House of Bonaparte in paying, by their presence at Chiselhurst, respect to the memory of the Emperor and sympathy with the Empress and Prince Imperial; though this had of course no political significance, any more than the fervent expressions of sympathy sent to the royal mourners by the Queen and from the various Courts of Europe. Politically, it seemed as if the French Empire had, even for Imperialists, died with the Emperor.

Placid and undemonstrative discontent with the Government appeared to continue to be the ruling political feeling, although displaying itself in a succession of Conservative victories at the elections, which this year were unusually frequent. That the hostility of the publicans had much to do with this can scarcely be doubted; but neither, on the other hand, can it be doubted that the Government had really succeeded, in spite of their large majority in the House, in securing a rare amount of unpopularity. The return of a Conservative at Liverpool (where Mr. Torr was elected by a majority of 1912 votes over his Liberal opponent, Mr. Caine), almost on the day of the opening of Parliament, was ominous of the difficulties that were soon to arise out of Mr. Gladston's third Irish measure-the reform of Irish education.

The fifth session of the existing Parliament was opened by Royal Commission on Thursday, the 6th of February. The Queen's

Speech ran as follows:

"My Lords and Gentlemen,

"I greet you cordially on your reassembling for the discharge of your momentous duties.

"I have the satisfaction of maintaining relations of friendship with Foreign Powers throughout the world.

"You were informed, when I last addressed you, that steps had been taken to prepare the way for dealing more effectually with the Slave-Trade on the East Coast of Africa. I have now despatched an Envoy to Zanzibar, furnished with such instructions as appear to me best adapted for the attainment of the object in view. He has recently reached the place of his destination, and has entered into communication with the Sultan.

"My ally the German Emperor, who had undertaken to pronounce judgment as Arbiter on the line of Water-boundary so long in dispute under the terms of the Treaty of 1846, has decided, in conformity with the contention of the Government of the United States, that the Haro Channel presents the line most in accordance with the true interpretation of that Treaty.

"I have thought it the course most befitting the spirit of international friendship and the dignity of the country to give immediate execution to the award by withdrawing promptly from my partial occupation of the island of San Juan.

"The proceedings before the Tribunal of Arbitration at Geneva, which I was enabled to prosecute in consequence of the exclusion of the Indirect Claims preferred on behalf of the Government of the United States, terminated in an award which in part established and in part repelled the claims allowed to be relevant. You will in due course be asked to provide for the payment of the sum coming due to the United States under this award.

"My acknowledgments are due to the German Emperor, and likewise to the Tribunal at Geneva, for the pains and care bestowed by them on the peaceful adjustment of controversies such as could not but impede the full prevalence of national good-will in a case where it was especially to be cherished.

"In further prosecution of a well-understood and established policy, I have concluded a Treaty for the Extradition of Criminals with my ally the King of the Belgians.

"The Government of France has, during the recess, renewed its communications with my Government for the purpose of concluding a Commercial Treaty to replace that of 1860, which is about to expire. In prosecuting these communications, I have kept in view the double object of an equitable regard to existing circumstances, and of securing a general provision more permanent in its character, and resting on a reciprocal and equal basis, for the commercial and maritime transactions of the two countries. I hope to be enabled, within a short period, to announce to you the final result.

"It has been for some years felt by the Governments of Russia and the United Kingdom respectively, that it would be conducive to the tranquillity of Central Asia if the two Governments should arrive at an identity of view regarding the line which describes the northern frontier of the dominions of Afghanistan. Accordingly a correspondence has passed, of which this is the main subject. Its tenour, no less than its object, will, I trust, be approved by the public opinion of both nations.

"Papers will be laid before you with relation to the awards delivered under the Treaty of Washington, to the commercial negotiations with France, and to the northern frontier of the dominions of Afghanistan.

"Gentlemen of the House of Commons,

"The estimates of the coming financial year will be presented to you. They have been framed with a view to the efficiency and moderation of our establishments, under circumstances of inconvenience entailed by variations of an exceptional nature in the prices of some important commodities.

"My Lords and Gentlemen,

Although the harvest has been to some extent deficient, the condition of the three Kingdoms with reference to Trade and

Commerce, to the sufficiency of the Revenue for meeting the public charge, to the decrease of pauperism, and to the relative amount of ordinary crime, may be pronounced generally satisfactory.

"A measure will be submitted to you on an early day for settling the question of University Education in Ireland. It will have for its object the advancement of learning in that portion of my dominions, and will be framed with a careful regard to the rights

of conscience.

"You will find ample occupation in dealing with other legislative subjects of importance, which, for the most part, have already been under your notice in various forms and at different periods. Among these your attention will speedily be asked to the formation of a Supreme Court of Judicature, including provisions for the trial of Appeals.

"Among the measures which will be brought before you, there will also be proposals for facilitating the Transfer of Land, and for the amendment of our system of Local Taxation, of certain provisions of the Education Act of 1870, and of the General Acts regulating Railways and Canals; together with various other Bills for the improvement of the Law."

The address was moved and seconded in the House of Lords by Lord Clarendon and Lord Monteagle; and in the House of Commons by Mr. Charles Lyttleton (East Worcestershire), and Mr. Stone (Portsmouth).

This opening ushered in a singularly dull and barren session. At the outset the Prime Minister miscalculated his strength. He employed it in a hopeless attempt to please all parties in Ireland; and the defeated Government, after a waste of time spent in resigning and resuming office, neither recovered its former authority nor succeeded in re-establishing party discipline. Former Parliamentary triumphs had inspired Mr. Gladstone with a just confidence both in his own legislative ability and in his Parliamentary influence. The Irish Church Bill, the Irish Land Bill, the Education Bill, the Abolition of Purchase in the Army, and the final establishment of Secret Voting were achievements of which the magnitude could not be disputed, even by those who denied the expediency of some of the measures. Mr. Gladstone felt himself as full of resource as in former years, and he trusted in his unabated power of exposition and debate to rally his supporters for a new enterprise and to overbear opposition. While he was still a candidate for office he had, perhaps under the influence of rhetorical temptation, described as three-fold the complex Irish grievance which he pledged himself to redress. In the earlier years of his administration he had, with unparalleled vigour, destroyed the Irish Establishment and remodelled the tenure of Irish landed property, and it only remained to fulfil his promise of reconstituting Irish Education. The indefatigable Minister was in vain warned that all the conditions of former success were wanting to his new undertaking. In 1869 and 1870 the objects which he proposed to himself were definite though

difficult, and while the Liberal party offered him a zealous and unanimous support, the immediate victims of his reforming energy feared to risk the withdrawal of the compromises by which he offered to mitigate the sacrifices which he imposed. In an attempt to legislate on Irish University Education the prospects of success were far less favourable. It was necessary to satisfy the conflicting demands of Roman Catholic Prelates, of English and Scotch Liberals, and of Protestant Nonconformists, who were already on other grounds threatening a rupture with the Government. The abolition of religious tests in Trinity College had only been prevented by Mr. Gladstone's refusal in a former session to sanction a partial measure of reform. The sole complainants were the Roman Catholic clergy, and, except for the satisfaction of their demands, there was no pressing need for legislation. By the terms of their alliance with the Dissenters for the overthrow of the Irish Establishment the priests had interposed insuperable difficulties in the way of concurrent endowment; and when the bond formed by common enmity was dissolved after the attainment of victory, it was difficult to conjecture how any Liberal Government could effect a practical settlement of the Roman Catholic claims. It is true that there are in Ireland vast funds of which Parliament has found itself unable to dispose, and that a richly-endowed Roman Catholic University would have less tendency than a number of cheap clerical seminaries to promote either disaffection or bigotry; but all parties in Parliament had, for various reasons, repudiated the most obvious solution of the problem; and, as the result proved, Mr. Gladstone himself was unable to reconcile contradictory opinions and pretensions. Even if his marvellous ingenuity had resulted in the proposal of some logical compromise, far more commonplace political observers might have told him that no University Bill which would satisfy the Roman Catholic Bishops could by possibility command the approval of the House of Commons. Mr. Gladstone, nevertheless, addressed himself to his embarrassing task with a confidence which may probably not have been shared by less enthusiastic colleagues. The Irish University Bill occupied a conspicuous place in the Queen's Speech, and a week after the meeting of Parliament the Prime Minister explained a measure which, if not in its language, in its details as well as in its conception was emphatically his own. His opening statement was a masterpiece of lucid exposition, and few more genuine tributes to oratorical ability have ever been paid than the seemingly assenting silence with which a Bill which afterwards provoked universal dissatisfaction was in the first instance received. The elaborate provisions of the Bill were, in truth, not to be comprehended without careful study. Eagerly adopting a convenient version of academical history, Mr. Gladstone described as an abuse or an accident the ancient union of the University of Dublin with Trinity College, and he accordingly proposed to abolish the exclusive connexion, and to affiliate Trinity College and several other educational institutions to the University. Of the Queen's

Colleges established by Sir Robert Peel, two were to be associated with the University of Dublin; but the Queen's University was to be abolished, and, on the allegation that it had failed to attract an adequate number of students, the Queen's College at Galway was to be suppressed. The so-called Catholic University, and several other Roman Catholic seminaries, were to be in the same manner attached to the University of Dublin, which was, however, not to be, like the University of London, a mere Examining Board, but a real University, with due appliances of lecture-rooms, of professorships, and of fellowships. To its revenues Trinity College would, under the provisions of the Bill, contribute 12,000l. a year, while the remaining revenues were to arise from a charge on the Consolidated Fund of 10,000l. a year. The government of the new University was to be vested in a council of persons to be named in the Bill. Future vacancies were to be filled for a certain number of years by the Crown, and afterwards by a mixed system of co-optation and election, in which the preponderating power would ultimately have devolved on the affiliated colleges.

For the third time, the Premier said in introducing the Bill, he rose to discharge a duty vital not only to the honour and existence of the Government, but to the welfare and prosperity of Ireland. Referring to the opinion held in some quarters that Ireland offered but a barren field for these efforts of legislation, he declared emphatically that the Government did not share in that view. Industry there flourishes, the wealth of the community increases, order is respected, ordinary crime is less than in England, agrarian crime has greatly diminished, and treasonable crime has disappeared. Bespeaking indulgence for the intricate and complex details into which he should be obliged to enter, and promising that though the Government admitted the urgent necessity for dealing with intermediary education, they did not intend to mix that question up with University education, Mr. Gladstone referred, in a vein of sarcastic pleasantry, to the anticipatory criticisms in one of the leading journals on his measure, and repelled energetically the insinuation that it would be tinged with Ultramontane influence. As a matter of fact, the Government had not communicated with any of the bodies interested in university education, and the measure appealed for support solely to the equity and justice on which it was based. "We have heard much, sir," he said, "of Ultramontane influence (Hear, hear!) and it may be well, therefore-that cheer is an additional reason why I should notice the point-to refer to it for a moment. I cannot wonder that apprehensions with respect to Ultramontane influence should enter into the minds of the British public whenever legislation affecting the position of the Roman Catholics in Ireland is projected; and we cannot, I think, be surprised that the influences which appear so forcibly to prevail within the Roman communion should be regarded by a very great portion of the people of this country with aversion, and by some portion of them even with unnecessary dread. It appears to us, however, that we have one