Board, would be sympathetically and promptly carried out. The demonstrators were not by any means satisfied, and in Hyde Park some violent speeches were made.

The brief remainder of the year passed in what was to all intents and purposes-though the dissolution had not actually been announced-the first stage of a general election; even the Christmas week being charged with electioneering oratory. On the Liberal side the most considerable demonstration was a meeting held at the Albert Hall on December 21, when the Prime Minister, who was accompanied on the platform by most of his colleagues, addressed an immense and enthusiastic audience. In the course of a confident speech, he said that their policy was well known even to those who feigned ignorance of it. In regard to the unedifying controversy which had arisen on questions of Indian military administration they would seek to restore the spirit of proportion and vigorous common sense which had been the boast of British rule in India, and assuredly would make themselves party to no steps that would involve any evasion of the sacred principle of the subordination of the military to the civil power. With regard to the Colonies, it was unnecessary for the Government to make public protestation of their affection for them. In our relations with them, everything was at present smooth except in the one ruffled spot of South Africa. There the difficulties and complications were great, and the Government had not had time to examine them; but they had decided to stop, so far as possible, the recruitment of coolies in China and their importation to South Africa. He proceeded to declare his cordial adhesion to the policy of the entente with France, and to advocate friendly relations with Russia and Germany. He looked to the further application of the principle of arbitration to permit of a readjustment of military armaments, the growth of which he believed to be a great menace to the peace of the world. Passing to the question of financial reform, Sir Henry thought they might derive something from land, and something from licensing, and redress some of the more irksome inequalities of taxation. But even so, with the increasing military expenditure, how could they do the work of reform that remained to be done at home and at the same time bring relief to the taxpayer? The Premier went on to indicate among the aims of the new Ministry the reform of the land and rating systems-in which he included the imposition of a rate on ground values--the application of the principles of self-government and popular control in education and licensing, and, with regard to Ireland, that "those domestic affairs which concerned the Irish people only and not ourselves should, as and when opportunity offered, be placed in their hands." They had to face a terrible list of problems in London. He wanted to see the poor law brought into harmony with present conditions, and to see experiments made with a view to mitigating the evils of non-employment. They desired, without

delay, to amend the law in regard to combination, so as to give freedom and security to the trade unionists in the pursuit of their legitimate aims. They must also reform electoral methods, and restore the impaired authority of Parliament.

In pursuance of the policy announced by the Prime Minister a telegram (published Dec. 22) was despatched by Lord Elgin to Lord Selborne in which "while reserving their opinion and action in the whole matter," the High Commissioner was informed that His Majesty's Government considered "that the experiment of the introduction of Chinese labourers should not be extended farther until they could learn the opinion of the colony through an elected and really representative Legislature, and they had accordingly decided that the recruiting, embarkation, and importation of Chinese coolies should be arrested pending a decision as to the grant of responsible government to the Colony. They were not prepared in all the circumstances to be responsible for further importation." The circumstances here referred to included various points, such as the experimental character of a new system of magisterial control for the coolies recently established, the uneasiness which had existed as to lawless acts by the coolies, the increase in the amount of native African labour obtained at the mines, and the indications of local opposition to the importation, which Lord Elgin briefly reviewed in the first part of his telegram.

An interesting speech by Mr. Burns, the working-man President of the Local Government Board, had little in it to cause real anxiety to sober people as to the likelihood of rash social and economic experiments, and was remarkable for its full recognition that social amelioration could only be brought about by slow degrees. Nevertheless, it must be noted that the extreme vehemence of Mr. Burns's retrospective denunciation of the South African War, coupled with what was somehow felt to be the infelicitous quality of the Prime Minister's allusions at the Albert Hall both to Home Rule and to the subject of disarmament, went to produce the impression that the apparent strength of the new Government might prove before long to cover sharply divergent tendencies both on domestic and foreign questions. It was also increasingly recognised that Mr. Balfour, who spoke both in East Lothian on Boxing Day and in London on December 29, was quite safe in asserting on the latter occasion that the Liberal party would find it had been much easier to obstruct-and denounce-the Education Act of 1902 as they had done, than to find a better working solution of the complex problems with which it dealt. The accession of the new Government to power, no doubt, promised an end to the friction which in Wales had resulted in an extensive revolt of local authorities-the Councils of Merioneth and Montgomeryshire having been most conspicuously in default-against the discharge of their statutory duties, to the great disadvantage of large numbers of children for whose welfare they were respons

ible, and which in various parts of England had resulted in the infliction of fines and brief terms of imprisonment on Nonconformists of excellent character who refused to pay rates which they regarded as applied to the teaching of doctrines distasteful to them. But all impartial persons recognised that unless any amending educational measure introduced by the Liberal Cabinet was framed with an extraordinary amount of wisdom and in a most considerate and equitable spirit, it would be certain in removing one class of grievance to create others which would be most profoundly resented and would tend neither to social peace nor to educational efficiency. And it must be added that, widely as the system of Chinese labour in the Transvaal mines was disliked in this country, it was also recognised by most persons of sobriety that interference with it by the Imperial Government at the stage which had been reached might induce very serious economic and possibly even political dangers in South Africa.

None the less was it regarded on all hands as certain that the Unionist party were about to encounter a heavy defeat at the polls. The fiscal question dominated all others in the minds of the public, and it was evident both that Mr. Chamberlain had failed to convert his countrymen in any considerable proportion to his point of view, and that the ingenious devices by which Mr. Balfour had endeavoured to hold the Unionist party together had been distinctly uncongenial to the British mind. His resignation, moreover, and the defence he had offered for it, amounted also in the general opinion to a practical abdication of the claim to rule, which could not be neutralised by subsequent efforts, however strenuous, as in the speeches above mentioned, to prove that the Liberal party would be likely to break up the United Kingdom and the Empire. Put in its simplest terms he said (Dec. 30) that the true issue before the country was: Would they have Home Rule on the one side or Fiscal Reform on the other? The country so far as could be judged was not likely to accept that as the true issue before it. There were two policies which it hated-about equally-Home Rule and Protection. Its disposition was to hold that a Liberal victory would almost certainly not give it the first, but that a Unionist victory would almost certainly give it the second.

CHAPTER VI.

SCOTLAND AND IRELAND.

I. SCOTLAND.

THE Report of the Royal Commission on the great Churches Cause was issued on April 19. In the main it proceeded on lines generally anticipated and approved. The Commissioners (Lord Elgin, Lord Kinnear and Sir Ralph Anstruther), having

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expressed in strong terms their regret at the "extreme bitterness" shown by the Churches in question towards one another, declared that, in their view, the Free Church, from the paucity of its numbers and the poverty of its resources, was incapable of carrying on the religious work of the Church which it represented, and therefore of putting to their proper purpose the enormous endowments with which it claimed to be entrusted. On the other hand, they held that it would be unjust that those endowments, or the greater part of them, should be handed over absolutely and without condition to the United Free Church. In these circumstances, the Commissioners recommended that a Commission should be constituted by Act of Parliament; that the whole of the funds and property of the Free Church as at October 31, 1900, should be vested in that authority; and that it should be charged to arrange for the allocation of the said funds and property, primarily with a view to securing “adequate provision for the due performance of the purposes for which the funds were raised and the trusts on which they are held."

With this general view the Commissioners went on to recommend "That where it should appear that the Free Church was unable adequately to execute the trusts the Commission (to be set up) should be empowered to transfer the funds and property; and that the United Free Church, by virtue of its institutions and traditions, its material and moral resources, and its organisation as a national Presbyterian Church, was entitled to be preferred on the ground that it could adequately perform the trust purposes. That no such transference should take place except on equitable conditions, and especially that, the due performance of the trust being secured, liberal provision should be made for the equipment of the Free Church for its mission as a Christian Church, according to the standard which prevails in the other Presbyterian Churches in Scotland, proceeding on a full estimate of its numbers, and making allowance in determining the amount of such equipment for any unfavourable circumstances arising out of the poverty of congregations or otherwise. That, as regarded congregational property, the Commission should be empowered to forthwith institute such further inquiry as it might deem expedient to determine the cases in which it might be decided without the investigation of local circumstances that the churches or other property should be held and enjoyed by a congregation of the Free Church, or of the United Free Church, and to transfer or confirm the possession accordingly. That where the investigation of local circumstances was necessary it should be made without delay, with the help of assistant Commissioners if advisable, and where the facts so elicited admitted of a prompt decision the Commission should so pronounce."

The Royal Commissioners added, however, that provision should be made for a postponement of the final decision as between the Churches in respect of congregational or general

property when for any cause that procedure should appear more just, suitable temporary arrangements being made in regard to the allocation of income. In regard to the great body of general property, and particularly the funds devoted to foreign missions, the Commission should be empowered to deal at once with them where the facts were clear.

The Report encountered some angry and scornful comment from the "Wee Frees," although it certainly treated them with consideration. The United Free Church naturally received it with satisfaction, if not exactly with enthusiasm, and in its General Assembly on May 26 the announcement by Principal Rainy that they had reason to hope that the Government Bill dealing with the subject would be on the lines of the Royal Commission was received with cheers. On the same day in the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Lord Balfour made an important motion on behalf of the Church Interests Committee, of which he was joint-convener. It was to the effect that Parliament be asked to grant the Church liberty in regard to the formula of subscription required from her ministers under the Act of 1693, so that a minister on being ordained instead of being required to declare the Confession to be the "Confession of his Faith, and that he owns the doctrine therein contained to be the true doctrine which he will constantly adhere to," would only make a "declaration of his faith in the sum and substance of the doctrine of the Reformed Churches therein contained, according to such formula as may from time to time be prescribed by the General Assembly." motion was seconded by the Rev. Dr. Donald Macleod, and supported by several other prominent members of the Assembly, including the Master of Polwarth and Lord Aberdeen, and, after one or two amendments had been moved and withdrawn, was carried unanimously.

This

It was in response to this appeal that clause 5 of the Ministerial Bill dealing with the Scottish Churches was introduced into that measure. Its successful and mainly smooth course through Parliament is related in Chapter IV. The principal opposition to clause 5 came from English Low Churchmen and Nonconformists, on account of the precedent it might be supposed to afford in the direction of the emancipation of the Church of England, while still established, from State control. Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman and some other Scottish Members objected to it as out of place in a measure of which the raison d'être was the settlement of a dispute between other Churches, but many Liberal representatives of Scottish constituencies showed themselves altogether averse to denying the Church of Scotland the liberty for which it asked.

The Act established a strong executive Commission to carry out its provisions, which was at work, but with scarcely any announced results, during the last months of the year. As the Act also provided for the allocation of property, as between the