less than 12 per cent., and the foreign exchanges were to be favourable. The profits of the operation were, after a deduction for expenses, to accrue to the Treasury. The scheme, which was inconsistent with social economic principle, proved to be universally unacceptable. In 1866, when the last suspension occurred, the exchanges were adverse, and the rate of discount was only 10 per cent. The advocates of occasional relaxation objected to limitations which might render suspension impossible, and the adherents of the orthodox theory had from the first disapproved the proposed innovation. If debtors are to be arbitrarily released from their engagements, it is better that the Government of the day should be responsible for the irregularity than that a breach of contract should be anticipated and sanctioned by law. The only other Government measure of even secondary importance was the Railway and Canal Bill, introduced in accordance with the recommendation of the Joint Committee of the previous session on Railway Amalgamation. A Board or Commission of three members will, at the request of either party, act by themselves or their sub-commissioners as arbitrators wherever a reference to arbitration has been provided by a special Act. The Commission will also have power to establish through rates, on the application of any company, by any route which may be deemed reasonable and convenient.

CHAPTER III.

Private Bills-Speech of Mr. Gladstone on Disestablishment-The Permissive Bill and other measures-The Army Estimates-Mr. Cardwell's Speech-The Navy Estimates -Intended Marriage of the Duke of Edinburgh-Minority against the Grant voted to him-The House of Lords-Mr. Gladstone-The Zanzibar Contract-Irregularities at the Treasury-Speech of the Lord Chancellor at the Mansion House-Visit of the Shah of Persia-Ministerial Changes-Mr. Bright returns to office-His Speech at Birmingham-Losses of the Government-Elections-Mr. Disraeli's Bath LetterThe Taunton Election-Mr. Lowe at Sheffield.

ALTHOUGH the inaction of the Government might have been expected to leave an opening for the activity of private members, the session was not propitious to amateur experiments in legislation. The Deceased Wife's Sister Bill, as usual, passed the House of Commons, to be rejected, according to a still more constant practice, by the House of Lords. Mr. Osborne Morgan's Burials Bill, and Mr. Hinde Palmer's Bill for the Protection of the Property of Married Women, obtained considerable majorities in favour of the second reading, but both measures ultimately disappeared. In the majority of cases the House of Commons disposed summarily of sentimental and speculative projects. Mr. Jacob Bright's Female Suffrage Bill, Mr. W. Fowler's Bill for the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Act, Lord Claud Hamilton's proposal for the purchase of

Irish Railways, and a motion by Mr. Auberon Herbert, which was intended to facilitate the future confiscation of College Endowments, were all rejected by decisive majorities. Mr. Gladstone himself delivered a powerful speech against Mr. Miall's plan for the disestablishment of the Church of England; and the motion, which had in former years met with but faint opposition from the Government, was rejected by 356 to 61.

Mr. Gladstone said that he opposed the motion, not only on its merits, but as ill-timed and incapable of discussion at the present moment, though at some future time it might be destined to occupy months-nay, years. He was sensible of the difficulties with which the Church was hampered by its connexion with the State, but those difficulties were not to be got rid of by the simple process of disestablishment, even if it were as much desired by the people as he believed it to be opposed to their wishes, and as easy as he believed it to be impossible. On this point he read a passage from an essay of Dr. Döllinger, and spoke in terms of warm and enthusiastic eulogy of the part played in English history by the English Church. With regard to freedom, though not recanting a single opinion as to the Irish Church, he must admit, if challenged, that thought was not so free there as before disestablishment; and if Mr. Miall sought to allure him into disestablishment by the promise of its greater freedom, he preferred to remain where he was. The strong feeling of the Nonconformists against the principle of Establishment and the distractions within the Church (though they were not confined to the Church of England) no doubt stimulated discussions of this kind; but Mr. Miall was bound to show that these distractions would be composed by dissociation from the State. The Nonconformists would find allies in the spirit of indifferentism and ecclesiastical pretensions, but after all these admissions he contended that the enterprise was one which Mr. Miall's courage would shrink from, even if he could get the sanction of Parliament. Suppose the House were to pass this resolution, what would the country say to it to-morrow morning? Recent manifestations of popular feeling were not favourable to the proposal, and if a general· election were to occur, he believed a House would be returned much less disposed to entertain this question than the present. Mr. Miall had been misled by what had happened to the Irish Church, and had been taken in by those who declared that the cases of the English and the Irish Church were identical. The Irish Church Act probably had given a temporary stimulus to the demand for disestablishment, but that was ebbing away; and though it might be a question of the future, it was of the indefinite and remote future. Though there were no accurate statistics, which he greatly regretted, Mr. Gladstone expressed his belief that it was far below the truth to say that the Church embraced less than half the population. On the contrary, a very considerable majority of the people were bound to her by some tie or other. Among other difficulties of disestablishment, Mr. Gladstone dilated on the financial problem, and on the

objection to starting a voluntary community on the world with ninety millions at its disposal-the sum which he reckoned the Church would be entitled to on the precedent of the Irish Church Act. On the whole, it was a puzzling problem, which no prudent-and, for himself, he added-elderly man would venture on. "I invite the House," said the Premier, by way of peroration, "distinctly and decisively to refuse their assent to this motion, because it is a motion the conclusions of which are at variance alike with the practical wishes and desires, with the intelligent opinion, and with the religious convictions of the large majority of the people of this country."

Mr. Cowper-Temple's whimsical scheme for the delivery of sermons in churches by laymen and Dissenters was also honoured, before it was defeated, by an adverse speech from Mr. Gladstone. No such intervention from above was needed to extinguish for the session the annual Permissive Bill of the Temperance agitators. Sir Wilfrid Lawson had, unfortunately for himself, fixed the second reading of his Bill within a few days after contested elections at Bath and Gloucester. In both cities the Ministerial candidates had coquetted with the advocates of the Permissive Bill, while their opponents had more prudently thrown in their fortunes with the publicans. The result proved that the power of the Temperance party bore but a small proportion to the loudness of its clamour, and the debate in the House of Commons illustrated the effect of the lesson which had been taught. Lord Claud Hamilton, Sir D. Wedderburn, and Mr. Mundella supported the motion; but member after member sprang up on both sides of the House with emulous eagerness to repudiate the suspicion of complicity with the Permissive faction. Mr. Osborne delivered a powerful and humorous argument against vexatious interference; and Mr. Bruce formally announced the Ministerial determination to oppose the measure. majority of four to one in a full House represented not only the opinion of members, but the fixed determination of the constituencies. The habitual failure of theoretical schemes of reform was subject to an exception of primary importance. Mr. Gladstone had caused the rejection by a large majority of a motion by Sir C. Dilke in favour of electoral redistribution; and he had, not without asperity, refused to give facilities to Mr. Fawcett for moving an Address for a Commission on the state of the Representation. Although it was known that Mr. Gladstone himself was not personally opposed to a further extension of the suffrage, friends and opponents assumed that he thought it inexpedient to introduce for the present any new constitutional change. Almost at the close of the session Mr. Trevelyan obtained an opportunity of moving a resolution in favour of the extension of Household Suffrage to Counties. The motion. would in itself, at such a period of the session, have possessed no importance; but when Mr. Forster rose to speak in favour of the change, it was seen that the Government had made the equalization of the suffrage an open question, and a deeper impression was pro

A

duced when Mr. Forster quoted a letter from Mr. Gladstone in support of this change. Mr. Trevelyan, with good reason, professed himself fully satisfied with the effect of his motion, and the announcement of the Minister was at once recognized as an intimation that the political enfranchisement of the agricultural labourer is to be tendered as a main issue to the constituencies at the impending general election.

When the Army Estimates for the current year were issued, it appeared that the net charge was 13,231,4007., and this is a decrease of 408,0007. upon the sum asked for last year. The total number of men is now 128,968, a net decrease of 4681. The items of increase are on divine service, 15007.; administration of military law, 6007.; wages and control establishment, 93007.; provisions, forage, fuel, and transport, 196,4007.; and under the heading of "administration of the army," 37007. The items of decrease are 165,5007. in staff and regimental pay, 3007. in medical establishments, 147,9007. in militia pay and allowances, 8007. in yeomanry cavalry, 42,9007. in volunteer corps, 1300/. in the army reserve force, 86007. in clothing establishments, 125,8007. in manufactures and repairs, 77,0007. in works and buildings, 55007. in military education, and 17,3007. in miscellaneous services.

In introducing the Estimates Mr. Cardwell said :-" It has been necessary to ask for more than 400,0007. on account of the rise in prices of fuel, clothing, provisions, &c., and but for this abnormal dearness the savings of the year would have been doubled; in fact, for the last two years they would have amounted to close upon 2,000,0007.," which Mr. Cardwell asserted showed no diminution in his desire for economy. This year's estimates were only a million and a quarter over the lowest year since the Crimean war. Half a million of this has been swallowed up by increased prices and pay, and more than the three-quarters remaining had been devoted to the highly-trained corps. Commenting on an amendment which Mr. W. Fowler had placed on the paper to reduce the number of men by 10,000, Mr. Cardwell explained minutely how, since the 20,000 men were added to the army on the outbreak of the FrancoGerman war, nearly 12,000 men have already been reduced-viz., nearly 9000 from the British establishment, 1102 from the Colonial establishment, and two regiments of Madras infantry returned from China and Japan to the Madras establishment. The remainder of the 20,000 men are more than accounted for by the additions to the Engineers, Artillery, Cavalry, Army Service Corps, and Army Hospital Corps. In drawing up this year's estimates, Mr. Cardwell said the leading principle followed was to make the reductions in those corps only where long training was not required, and in which the reserves were ready. Thus the Guards had been reduced to 750 rank and file in a battalion, and the seventy infantry battalions had been reduced to 520 rank and file, with the exception of the first ten on the roster for foreign or colonial service. The reserves for the year Mr. Cardwell stated at 62,719, of whom 7973 belong

to the army reserves, and 31,522 to the militia reserves (both liable to service at home and abroad). Adding to this the 125,000 regulars, Mr. Cardwell asserted that, considering the strength of foreign nations, the manifold duties the British army had to perform, and our obligations to our colonies, this force could not fairly be called excessive. Passing to the auxiliary forces, Mr. Cardwell stated the militia (including the reserves) at 129,000 men; yeomanry, 15,000; volunteers, 160,750; first army reserve, 10,000; second army reserve, 25,000;-making a grand total of 462,754 regulars, reserves, and auxiliary forces, of whom 416,838 are at home. On the question of recruiting, Mr. Cardwell admitted that there had been a falling off in the year, though there had been a considerable increase during the last four months. There had also been a large number of desertions, but he accounted for both of these incidents by the state of the labour market, and by the regularly recurring fact that an increase in the number of desertions always followed a sudden addition to the army. As to the quality of the recruits, Mr. Cardwell said it was most satisfactory, and referred to the report of the inspector-general of recruiting. Though the militia was 10,000 men below its number, some 30,000 had been enrolled this year, and 4392 men had gone from the militia into the line. The improvement in the militia and the value to the officers of the improved training were very marked, and the force had attracted the favourable notice of the foreign officers at the autumn manœuvres. With regard to the volunteers, though there was a diminution in the actual numbers, the condition of the force was most satisfactory, and the new regulations had increased the proportion of efficients and extra-efficients. Mr. Cardwell next explained at length the further arrangements for carrying out the system of "local centres" and "linked battalions." Hereafter the two battalions, one at home and one abroad, will for all military purposes form but one regiment, and the privates, non-commissioned officers, and sub-lieutenants will be interchangeable. The colonel of the brigade at each local centre will have charge of the training and instruction of the reserves and auxiliary forces within his district, and after March 15, 1874, each colonel will be able to supply all the men under his command with their personal equipment, and the general of the district, in like manner, will be able to supply camp equipment for his command without the necessity of communicating with the War Office in London. Touching on the much-discussed question of a Chief of the Staff, Mr. Cardwell announced that a general officer would be immediately attached to the staff of the Commander-in-Chief, at a salary of 12007. a year, who will have charge of the "Collective Intelligence Department,' and who will be responsible for supplying the Commander-in-Chief with any information, topographical, statistical, &c., which he may require. He explained next in detail the operations of the Purchase Commissioners, showing that they have spent somewhere about 170,000. less than has been voted for them, at the same time.