But to make such federation harmonious and complete, the support of
Ireland must be obtained. That country is the only member of the
United Kingdom whose representatives in Parliament refused, as a rule,
to take part in the celebration of the Queen's reign. They felt that
their island had never been placed on a true equality with its
stronger and more prosperous neighbor. In fact, the Royal Commission,
appointed to inquire into the relative taxation of England and
Ireland, reported (1897) nearly unanimously that "for a great many
years Ireland had paid annually more than 2,000,000 pounds beyond her
just proportion of taxation."[1] It has been estimated that the total
excess obtained during the Queen's reign amounted to nearly
100,000,000 pounds.
[1] McCarthy's "History of Our Own Times," V, 487.
Mr. Gladstone, the Liberal Prime Minister (1893) made a vigorous
effort to secure "Home Rule" for Ireland. His bill granting that
country an independent Parliament passed the House of Commons by a
very large majority, but was utterly defeated in the House of Lords.
Five years later (1898) Lord Salisbury, the Conservative Prime
Minister, passed a bill which, though it did not give Ireland "Home
Rule," did give it local self-government on the same popular
foundation on which it rests in England (S608) and Scotland.
Mr. Bryce, the British Ambassador at Washington, recently said (1911)
that he was convinced that the condition of the people of Ireland had
greatly improved and was "still advancing," and that "before long
nearly all the land wouyld belong to the cultivators" (S605).
The recognition of the principle of international arbitration by
England in the Alabama case (S598), in the Bering Sea Seal Fisheries
dispute (1893), in the Venezuela boundary controversy (1896), and in
the Newfoundland Fisheries case (1910) proved that the English people
saw that the victories of peace are worth as much to a nation as the
victories of war. The Hague Peace Conference Treaty, ratified by
Great Britain with the United States and the leading nations of Europe
and the Far East (1899), provided for the establishment of a permanent
Court of Arbitration at The Hague between all of the great powers
which signed it. All appeals to it, however, are entirely voluntary.
Ten years earlier, a proposition to establish such a court for the
purpose of strengthening the cause of international peace would have
been looked upon as "a splendid but delusive dream." To-day many of
the ablest men on both sides of the Atlantic believe that the time is
not far off when England and America will agree to settle by
arbitration all questions which diplomacy cannot deal with, which may
arise between them. Sir Edward Grey, Secretary for Foreign Affairs in
Mr. Asquith's Liberal Cabinet, fears that the continued expenditure on
larger and larger armaments "will end in international revolution."
On the other hand, those who are constantly advocating the building of
more and bigger battleships admit that the Peace Party presents strong
arguments in support of its views, and that "the war against war" is
making progress.
621. Death of Gladstone; the Cabot Tower; Centennial of the First
Savings Bank, 1899.
Meanwhile, Mr. Gladstone, the great Liberal leader, died, full of
years and honors, at his residence, Hawarden Castle, in North Wales
(1898). The "Grand Old Man"--as his friends delighted to call him--
was buried in that Abbey at Westminster which holds so much of
England's most precious dust. His grave is not far from the memorial
to Lord Beaconsfield, the eminent Conservative leader, who was his
lifelong rival and political opponent.
In the autumn (1898) the Cabot monument was opened at Bristol. It is
a commanding tower, overlooking the ancient city and port from which
John Cabot (S335) sailed in the spring of 1497. The monument
commemorates that explorer's discovery of the mainland of the New
World. An inscription on the face of the tower expresses "the earnest
hope that Peace and Friendship may ever continue between the kindred
peoples" of England and America.
In May of the next year, 1899, the one hundredth anniversary of the
establishment of savings banks in Great Britain was celebrated. Near
the closing year of the eighteenth century, 1799, Reverend Joseph
Smith, Vicar of Wendover in Buckinghamshire, invited the laborers of
his parish to deposit their savings with him on interest. "Upon the
first day of the week," said he, quoting St. Paul's injuction, "let
every one of you lay by him in store."[1] He offered to receive sums
as small as twopence. Before the end of the year he had sixty
depositors. Eventually the government took up the scheme and
established the present system of national postal savings banks.
[1] The quotation is from I Corinthians xvi, 2.
They have done and are doing incalculable good. At present there are
over eleven million depositors in the United Kingdom. Most of them
belong to the wage-earning class, and they hold more than 212,000,000
pounds. In this case certainly the grain of mustard seed, sown a few
generations ago, has produced a mighty harvest.