Legislation under Queen CHAP. III. supported the Premier in an expenditure of £9,000,000 on the fortifications of the southern coast, in view of a possible war with France. Neutrality was preserved Victoria. during the American Civil War, but the English Government exacted reparation for the forcible seizure of the Confederate commissioners, Messrs. Slidell and Mason, when under British protection, on the West India mail steamer Trent. In 1864, during the Schleswig-Holstein imbroglio, Lord Palmerston unsuccessfully pressed France and Russia to join him in enforcing the Treaty of London, which guaranteed the integrity of Denmark. He was not opposed, however, to the development of Germany. Lord Palmerston died on October 18th, 1865. Lord Lord Granville was Foreign Secretary from the death Granville Foreign of Lord Clarendon in 1870 to 1874. During his tenure Secretary of the Foreign Office, a peaceful settlement was effected of the Alabama claims. He also arranged the treaty between England, France, and Prussia guaranteeing the independence of Belgium; and he confirmed with Prince Gortschakoff the agreement that Afghanistan should form an intermediary zone between the Eastern territories of England and Russia. The In Lord Beaconsfield's Administration of 1874 Lord Question. Derby was Foreign Secretary until April 1878, when he was succeeded by Lord Salisbury, who held the office until the fall of the Government in the spring of 1880. When the Eastern Question assumed prominence, Lord Derby declined to countenance the measures of reform which during 1876 the Powers wished to force upon the Porte, first in the Andrassy Note and then in the Berlin Memorandum. But he addressed a strong remonstrance to the Porte on the subject of the Bulgarian atrocities, and demanded the punishment of the offenders. He consented to the Constantinople Conference of December 1876, when proposals of reform were made to Turkey which were forestalled by the proclamation of a Parliamentary constitution. The Conference failed, and our representative, Lord Salisbury, returned to England. Early in 1877 Lord Derby agreed to a European Protocol CHAP. III. tion under Berlin on Turkish affairs, but it led to no results. When the British fleet was ordered to Constantinople in January 1878, Lord Derby threatened to resign, and the order was countermanded; but when a vote of credit of £6,000,000 was demanded from Parliament, and the fleet was de- Resignation of spatched after all, Lord Derby resigned (March 28th, Lord 1878). On April 16th the House of Commons was assured Derby. that nothing existed to disturb the public tranquillity, but on the following morning the announcement was made that the Indian troops had been ordered to Malta. This was a strictly unconstitutional proceeding, but Lord Hartington's motion condemning it was rejected by 347 to 226. Lord Salisbury compelled a reconsideration of the Treaty of San Stefano, and in June 1878, accompanied The Lord Beaconsfield to the Berlin Congress. He arranged Congress. the Anglo-Turkish Convention, by which England agreed to defend the Sultan's possessions in Asia Minor against Russian aggression, receiving in exchange the island of Cyprus as a military and naval station. In July the Treaty of Berlin was signed, and the Premier and the Foreign Secretary returned to England, bringing back, according to the statement of the former, "peace with honour." War broke out with Afghanistan in December 1878, but a vote of censure on the Afghan policy of the Government was lost in the House of Commons by 328 to 227. England was successful in Afghanistan, but sustained reverses in South Africa. Strong and persistent condemnation by Mr. Gladstone of the foreign policy of Lord Lord Beaconsfield sapped the popularity of his Govern- field's ment; and his lordship ultimately went out of office in policy April 1880. Beacons con demned. 1880-85. Lord Granville was Foreign Minister in Mr. Gladstone's Foreign second Administration, 1880-85. He displayed con- policy, siderable diplomatic skill in matters relating to the occupation of Tunis, the unfulfilled portions of the Treaty of Berlin, and the revolt of Arabi Pacha in Egypt. Mr. Bright left the Ministry in July 1882, in consequence of the determination to bombard Alexandria. Lord Granville issued a circular note to the Powers on Legislation under Queen CHAP. III. Egyptian reforms, and in 1884 convened a conference on Egyptian finance, which proved abortive, owing to the hostile attitude of France. Troubles in the Soudan, Victoria. culminating in the melancholy death of General Gordon, difficulties with Germany in consequence of Prince. Bismarck's colonial schemes, differences with France, and the threatened rupture with Russia over the demarcation of the Afghan boundary, caused Lord Granville much solicitude. Frequent discussions on these topics arose in both Houses of Parliament. In the Lower House the Government succeeded in repulsing their opponents in several crucial divisions; but in June 1885 they were defeated on a Budget question, and went out of office. Criminal Law reform. Church reforms. VIII. GENERAL LEGISLATION. The first important act of the reign was a beneficent one, having for its object a reform of the criminal law. By this statute, passed in June 1837, numerous remissions of capital punishment were effected, on the recommendation of the Criminal Law Commission. The death penalty was removed from all but the following offences: high treason, murder, attempt to murder, rape, arson, piracy, burglary, and robbery when attended by circumstances tending to endanger life. The use of the pillory was wholly abolished, and counsel were allowed to prisoners. No fewer than a hundred and eighty-seven capital offences had been created from the Restoration to the death of George IV., but great inroads were made upon this barbaric code, first by Romilly and then by Sir James Mackintosh. In 1838 Church reforms were effected by the Pluralities Act, which was passed to sweep away many of the abuses caused by the non-residence of wealthy clergymen at the benefices whose revenues they received. By the Church Discipline Act, 1840, the procedure of the Bishops' Court was reconstituted and regulated. In 1844 Sir Robert Peel carried his plan for the establishment and endowment of Church districts, by which "large and unwieldy parishes, which had given rise to much spiritual destitu Legisla tion under Queen tion, were gradually broken up." The Clerical Disabilities CHAP. III. Act, passed in 1870, provided that a clergyman might execute a deed of relinquishment, which was to be recorded by his bishop in the diocesan registry. After this regis- Victoria. tration, the priest or deacon was incapable of officiating as such, and lost all his rights as a clergyman. of Libel. A greatly agitated question touching privilege and the The Law law of libel was set at rest by the cases of "Stockdale v. Hansard" (1837-40). .Messrs. Hansard were sued for libel for publishing, by order of the House of Commons, a report which described a book published by Stockdale as indecent. The Court of Queen's Bench decided that the order of the House was no justification. Five suits having been brought, and Stockdale and the sheriffs committed by the Commons, an act was passed to the effect that all such actions should in future be stayed on an affidavit that any paper the subject of such proceedings had been printed by order of Parliament. Sir Robert Peel forcibly said during the debates, "Do you believe that slavery would have been abolished unless we had published to the world the abuses and horrors of slavery?" In 1843 the law of libel was amended by Lord Campbell's Act, which allows a defendant to plead that the publication was without his authority and was from no want of care on his part, whilst he may also plead that a libel is true and for the public benefit. Church. The great controversy in the Scotch Church came to a The Scotch head in 1843. In the previous year the General Assembly had drawn up two addresses to the Crown, one relating to the encroachments of the Court of Session and the other asking for the abolition of the Church patronage in Scotland. Replying on behalf of the Government, Sir James Graham said it was impossible to admit the claims of the Church to be the sole judge of what was or was not an ecclesiastical question, and therefore beyond the competency of the civil courts. He also said that her Majesty's Ministers could not recommend the total abrogation of the rights of the Crown and other patrons. An appeal was then made to Parliament, but in March Queen CHAP. III. 1843 the House of Commons declined by a large majority Legisla- to entertain the petition of the General Assembly on the tion under vexed question of patronage and the right of the civil Victoria. courts in spiritual jurisdiction. Two months later followed the great disruption, and the establishment of the Free Church of Scotland. Mazzini's letters opened. Welsh riots. County The Naviga tion Laws. In the session of 1844 exciting debates took place in the House of Commons on the opening of Mazzini's letters by the Post Office officials. Sir James Graham, the Home Secretary, who had given the order, based his right on statutes of Anne and George III. Mr. Thomas Duncombe, the Radical member for Finsbury, led the attack on the Government. The question was referred to a secret committee, which reported that the power itself was legal, and probably in exceptional cases necessary. The various secretaries were practically acquitted of any misuse of their power, but the action of Sir James Graham was severely condemned in the press. In consequence of the Rebecca riots in Wales, which were directed against the great increase of toll-gates, a commission was appointed to inquire into the causes of the discontent. These were found to be genuine, and in the session of 1844 the whole system of turnpike trusts in Wales was reformed and remodelled. An act establishing the modern county court was passed in 1846, and this measure has been supplemented by various other acts. A certain number of county court districts were marked out in each county, and the court for the county was directed to be held at short intervals in one or more places within each of the districts. Several districts were grouped in one circuit, and a judge was allotted to each circuit. The judges were to be appointed by the Lord Chancellor from barristers of seven years' standing or upwards. Each judge is assisted by a registrar and other officers. Free Trade received an impetus in 1849 by the abolition of the navigation laws, and five years later the whole of the English coasting trade was thrown open to foreign vessels. |