1871-1872 THE BALLOT ACT 965 prerogative a measure which he had at first hoped to pass by the authority of Parliament. His action on this occasion lost him the good will of some of his best and most independent supporters, whilst large numbers of Dissenters had been alienated from the Government because the Education Act had not entirely put an end to the giving of religious instruction in schools, and thus relieved them from the fear that the religious belief of the children would be influenced by the teaching of Church of England schoolmasters and schoolmistresses. 22. The Ballot Act. 1872.-All members of the Liberal party, however, concurred in supporting a Bill introduced by Forster in 1872 for establishing secret voting by means of the ballot. The Ballot Act, which passed in this year, made it impossible to know how any man's vote was given, and consequently enabled persons dependent on others for their livelihood or advancement to give their votes freely without fear of being deprived of employment if they voted otherwise than their employers wished. The work of the first Gladstone ministry was in some respects like the work of the ministry of Lord Grey after the first Reform Act. In both cases the accession of a new class to a share of power was followed by almost feverish activity in legislation, in the one case in accordance with the ideas of the middle classes, in the other case in accordance with the ideas of the artisans. In both cases vigorous progress was followed by a reaction. Many who had applauded what was done had no desire to see more done in the same direction, and, as always happens when people are no longer in accord with the ideas of a ministry, they fix angrily on mistakes committed and think of unavoidable misfortunes as though they were intentional mistakes. Some of the ministers, moreover, made themselves unpopular by the discourtesy of their language. 23. Foreign Policy of the Ministry. 1871-1872.—The foreign policy of the Government made it unpopular. One result of the great war between France and Germany in 1871 was that Russia refused to be any longer bound by the treaty of 1856 (see p. 948) to abstain from keeping ships of war in the Black Sea, and the English Government, as a matter of necessity, but to its own grievous injury at home, agreed to a conference being held between the representatives of the great Powers in London, at which the stipulations objected to by Russia were annulled. Another cause of the unpopularity of the Government was its agreement in 1871 to refer to arbitration the claims which had been brought forward by the United States for compensation for damages inflicted on their commercial marine by the ravages of the 'Alabama' (see p. 960). In 1872 a Court of Arbitration sat at Geneva and awarded to the United States a sum of 15,000,000 dollars, or rather more than 3,000,000l. The sum was regarded by many in England as excessive, but, whether this was so or not, it was well spent in putting an end to a misunderstanding between the two great branches of the English-speaking race. Since that time there has been an increasing readiness to submit disputes between nations to arbitration ; but those who admire this course sometimes forget that it is only in some cases that arbitration is acceptable. When two nations are desirous to live on good terms with one another and are only prevented from doing so by a dispute on some particular question of comparatively slight importance, it is not only possible, but in the highest degree desirable, that they should abide by the decision of arbitrators rather than go to war. Questions reaching to the permanent interests of a nation, and still more, questions touching its honour or its very existence, are not likely to be decided by arbitration. In 1872 England could honourably pay an unduly large sum of money rather than go to war. In 1859 the King of Sardinia could not have been expected to submit to arbitration the question whether the Italian nation should be united or divided. 24. Fall of the First Gladstone Ministry. 1873-1874.—In 1873 the ministry brought in a Bill to establish in Ireland a new University which, in order that it might inspire confidence in Protestants and Catholics alike, was to be forbidden to teach the disputed but important subjects of theology, philosophy, and history. This singular Bill being rejected by the House of Commons, the ministers resigned. As, however, Disraeli refused to take office, they continued to carry on the government. In January 1874, Parliament being dissolved, a large Conservative majority was returned. The ministry then resigned, and Disraeli became Prime Minister a second time. It was the first time since Peel's resignation that the Conservatives had held office, except on sufferance. 25. Colonial Expansion. 1815-1874.-After the great war with France which ended in 1815, the colonies retained and acquired by England were valued either like the West India Islands because they produced sugar, or like the Cape of Good Hope because they afforded stations for British fleets which would be of the highest value in time of war. There were, no doubt, British emigrants who had left their homes to settle in Canada and Australia, but their numbers were not very great, and at the Cape of Good Hope the population was almost entirely of Dutch origin. Since that 1841-1874 COLONIAL EXPANSION 967 time the West India Islands have decreased in importance in consequence of the abolition of slavery, the throwing open of the British market to foreign sugar, and to defects in a system of cultivation which had been adopted in the time of slavery. On the other hand there have grown up great and powerful communities mainly composed of emigrants from Great Britain, self-governing like Great Britain herself, and held to the mother-country by the loosest possible ties. These communities are to be found in three parts of the globe-the Dominion of Canada, Australasia, and South Africa. 26. The North-American Colonies. 1841-1874.-It had been supposed in England that the troubles which had resulted in Canada from the dissensions between the British and French settlers had been brought to an end in 1841 by the legislative union of the two provinces (see p. 916). The British inhabitants of Upper Canada, however, complained of the influence exercised by the French of Lower Canada. To provide a remedy an Act of the British Parliament created, in 1867, a federation known as the Dominion of Canada into which any existing colonies on the North American continent were to be allowed to enter. There was to be a governor-general appointed by the Crown, and a Dominion Parliament seated at Ottawa and legislating for matters of common concern, which was to consist of a Senate, the members of which are nominated for life by the governor-general on the advice of responsible ministers, and a House of Commons, the members of which are elected by constituencies in the provinces in proportion to the population of each province. The parliaments of the separate provinces retained in their own hands the management of their own local affairs. The provincial parliaments of Upper and Lower Canada were separated from one another, bearing respectively the names of the province of Ontario and the province of Quebec. To them were added as component parts of the Dominion Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Between 1870 and 1872 Manitoba, British Columbia, and Prince Edward Island joined the Dominion. Newfoundland continues to hold aloof. The unoccupied lands of the north-west are placed under the control of the authorities of the Dominion, which thus combines under one government the whole of America north of the territory of the United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific with the exception of Newfoundland and its subject territory of Labrador. 27. Australasia. 1788-1874.-The Australasian colonies are divided into two groups, those of Australia and those of New Zealand. The first British settlers in Australia were convicts, who arrived at Port Jackson in 1788. For many years the colony thus founded under the name of New South Wales remained a penal settlement. The convicts themselves, after serving their time in servitude, became free, their children were free, and there was a certain amount of free emigration from Great Britain. In 1821 New South Wales had a population of 30,000, of which threefourths were convicts. It had already been discovered that the country was peculiarly adapted to the production of wool, and the number of sheep in the colony rose from 25,000 in 1810 to 290,000 in 1821. From this time success was assured. Other colonies were founded in due course. Van Diemen's Land, afterwards known as Tasmania, was established as a separate colony in 1825. In the same year a small convict settlement was founded under the name of West Australia. South Australia received a separate government in 1836 under a British Act of Parliament passed in 1834. Victoria was separated from New South Wales in 1850. By this time the free population, indignant at the constant influx of British criminals, resisted the importation of convicts so strenuously that in 1851 an end was put to the system of transportation to Australia except in the small and thinly populated colony of West Australia. In that year the population flocked to the newly discovered gold fields, and the attraction of gold brought an enormous number of immigrants from Great Britain. Queensland became a separate colony in 1859. In 1881 the population of the whole of Australia reached 2,833,000. The colonies have not yet combined in any federal system, though it seems likely that they will do so before long. New Zealand, in which the white population reached 489,000 in 1883, has, since 1876, been governed by a single parliament, the seat of which is at Wellington. 28. South Africa. The Cape Colony finally passed under British authority in 1805. In 1820 a stream of British immigration began to set in. The colony was under the disadvantage of having fierce and warlike Kaffir tribes on its north-eastern frontier, and from 1834 onwards a series of wars with the Kaffirs broke out from time to time and taxed to the uttermost the resources of the colony and of the British regiments sent for their defence. Many of the Dutch, who were usually known as Boers or farmers, were dissatisfied with British rule, and in 1835 began a great emigration, which ended in the establishment of the Orange River Free State, the independence of which was finally acknowledged in 1854, the independence of another set of Dutch emigrants in the Transvaal territory having been previously acknowledged in 1852. Since 1874-1878 SUMMARY OF EVENTS 969 1843 Natal had been a British colony. In 1871 the discovery of diamonds at Kimberley attracted immigration, and in 1875 the population of colonised South Africa was 1,759,000, of which 1,339,000 were in British territory and the remainder in the two Boer Republics. That which distinguishes the South African settlements from those in North America and in Australasia is the enormous preponderance of a native population. The total white population in 1875 was only 350,000, five persons out of every six being natives. Summary of Events, 1874-188, 1874-1880.-The I. The Disraeli (Beaconsfield) Ministry. Conservative ministry, formed under Disraeli in 1874, contented itself for some time with domestic legislation. In 1876 troubles broke out in the Balkan Peninsula, caused by the misdeeds of the Turkish officials. Servia and Montenegro made war upon the Turks, and in January 1877 a conference of European ministers was held at Constantinople to settle all questions at issue. Nothing, however, was done to coerce the Turkish Government into better behaviour, and as other European powers refused to act, Russia declared war against Turkey. After a long and doubtful struggle, the Turkish power of resistance collapsed early in 1878, and a treaty between Russia and the Sultan was signed at San Stefano, by which the latter abandoned a considerable amount of territory. Disraeli, who had recently been made Earl of Beaconsfield, insisted that no engagement between Russia and Turkey would be valid unless it were confirmed by a European congress, and a congress was accordingly held at Berlin. By the Treaty of Berlin, which was signed in the course of 1878, Roumania and Servia became independent kingdoms, with some addition to their territory; Montenegro was also enlarged, and Bulgaria erected into a principality paying tribute to the Sultan; whilst a district to which the name of Eastern Roumelia was given was to be ruled by a Christian governor nominated by the Sultan, who was to have the right of garrisoning fortresses in the Balkan Mountains. Russia acquired the piece of land near the mouth of the Danube which she had lost after the Crimean War, and also another piece of land round Kars, which she had just conquered. The Sultan was recommended to cede Thessaly and part of Epirus to Greece. The protectorate over Bosnia and Herzegovina was given to Austria, and, by a III. 3 R |