Minister, therefore, the incident closed. During its progress the cheers and counter-cheers had been almost incessant.

The Land Values (Scotland) Bill was disposed of on Monday, August 26, by a more direct method than its fellow measure. Its second reading was moved by Lord Hamilton of Dalzell, who ridiculed the estimates of the cost of valuation under it, contemplated careful consideration in Committee of the change proposed in the system of rating, and scouted the idea that it would be a basis for "predatory schemes." Lord Robertson moved an amendment condemning the Bill as merely causing fruitless expense and prejudicing important questions as to taxation and rating, which it made no attempt to solve; and he vigorously denounced it as in fact committing Parliament to land nationalisation in the expiring hours of the session. After a long debate, partly anticipated in the Commons, but in which great stress was laid on the lack of time afforded for the consideration of the Bill, and (by the Marquess of Lansdowne) on the objections to the policy of taxing land values, the second reading was negatived by 118 to 31, and Lord Robertson's amendment was agreed to.

Meanwhile the House of Commons was engaged with the Lords' amendments to the two remaining Land Bills. The alterations in the Lords' amendments to the Evicted Tenants Bill had been dealt with by the Peers only a few hours previously and their amendments were not yet available; but the Prime Minister intimated that the House must go on. Mr. Birrell, in moving that the amendments be considered, explained the course contemplated by the Government. Mentioning first a point which he regarded as of supreme importance, he observed that the Lords had adhered "with grim pertinacity to Lord Robertson's amendment preventing the compulsory expropriation of planter tenants who were bond fide farmers. This, he said, meant the triumph of Lord Clanricarde, and deprived the Bill of its greatest value in his own eyes, its pacificatory message to the people of Ireland. His interest in it was now largely gone; but he was advised that what was left of it would be of considerable value, and he was prepared to yield to superior force. He would, therefore, ask the House to let the amendment stand. Of the other amendments, he would propose to disagree with Lord Atkinson's providing that a landlord should be paid "compensation" instead of "fair market value" for the land, though the Government were willing to give an appeal on the value of the land and to make it clear that land must not be taken if the owner's other land would be thereby injured in value; the Lords' limitation of the number of tenants. who might be restored compulsorily to 2,000 would not be opposed, because the number could not reach that figure; the amendment regarding appeals he could not accept, but there would be an appeal to Mr. Justice Wylie, with two assessors; that reserving the sporting rights to owners would be conceded;

and so the Government had shown their desire to secure the passing of the Bill even in a mutilated form.

After a defence by Mr. Long of the Lords' action, Mr. John Redmond repudiated the Bill in toto as it stood. He charged the Lords and the Opposition with a desire to cause turmoil in Ireland that winter, and said that nothing could be more fatal to peace than their wrecking of this Bill. Clearly, if Ireland desired useful legislation she must make her movement sufficiently strong and menacing to overcome opposition. He saw trouble ahead among the excluded Clanricarde tenants, and they would have the sympathy of their countrymen.

Mr. Balfour condemned Mr. Redmond's speech, as an incitement to violence, and ridiculed the prediction that the landlords desired to provoke an agitation against themselves; and, after a denunciatory speech from Mr. T. P. O'Connor (Scotland, Liverpool), the Nationalists declined to discuss the Bill as amended, and walked out. It was then dealt with in accordance with Mr. Birrell's statement.

The Lords' amendments to the English Small Holdings Bill were next considered for more than six hours. Mr. Harcourt (Rossendale, N.E. Lancs) said that they were of three classes. Some were explanatory, or had been accepted by the Government. These they would accept. Some were either nonsensical or mischievous, sometimes both. Others were purely destructive. A nicely balanced machine like this Bill could easily be put out of gear by rough handling, and some of the amendments made were positively treacherous if they were the manoeuvres of allies. Ten of the Lords' amendments would be accepted and eighteen disagreed with.

In the subsequent discussion Mr. Masterman (West Ham, N.), in a speech described by Mr. Balfour as smacking more of the political partisan than of the social reformer, complained that all the Lords' amendments were directed to the protection of class interests, and that the Bill had better be dropped than passed as it was; and Mr. Jesse Collings and Lord Robert Cecil protested against attacks on the Peers. The first amendment disagreed with had deprived the central authority of its power to carry out schemes refused by a local authority, and to recover the cost from such authority; and Mr. Chaplin's amendment, omitting this latter provision, was rejected by 145 to 44. The option of purchase given to small holders by the Lords was struck out by 121 to 30 on the ground that County Councils would take advantage of it to evade their responsibilities; the amendment reserving sporting rights was also disagreed with, though Mr. Harcourt proposed and carried words making clear that they should be taken account of in fixing the rent, and the amendment providing that the rent of land compulsorily hired should be fixed by arbitration instead of by valuation was also disagreed with by 137 to 39, the Solicitor-General (Sir W. Robson) condemning arbitration as costly and dilatory.

The situation was thus extremely critical; but next day (Tuesday, August 27) the Lords judiciously gave way. In rather more than an hour's discussion they waived those of their amendments to the Evicted Tenants Bill which had been rejected by the Commons, and waived also nearly all those in the Small Holdings Bill, even that introducing purchase as an alternative to hiring. They retained, however, that providing for arbitration instead of valuation in fixing the rent of land hired compulsorily; but the Commons having modified this amendment at the instance of the Government so far as to allow arbitration on the compensation payable to a tenant displaced in order to provide small holdings, the Lords gave way. On two other points of very minor importance a compromise was effected, and the Bill, like the Evicted Tenants Bill, received the Royal Assent just before the prorogation.

The last days of the session saw other hurried compromises. The Cabs and Stage Carriages (London) Bill, passed after the dispute as to the restoration of the privileged cab system at the London stations, which was desired by the Lords, had been settled by an agreement that the system should be abolished for two years experimentally. Power was reserved for the Home Secretary to reinstate it, and was exercised in respect of all but the terminal stations on December 11. In the Marriage with a Deceased Wife's Sister Bill the Lords' amendments were agreed to after a strong protest from Mr. Napier (Faversham, Kent) against the amendment giving a clergyman the right to refuse his church for the celebration of such marriages. The Criminal Appeal Bill was accepted by the Commons with the Lords' amendments, a motion by Mr. Salter (Basingstoke) to disagree with that modifying the power of appeal (p. 223) being rejected on August 19 by 90 to 19. The Vaccination Bills for England and Scotland were also slightly amended in the Lords and accepted by the Commons (Aug. 22, 23). In the Factory and Workshop Bill (p. 223) a compromise was effected in regard to "institutional" laundries, in which, it was believed, long hours were sometimes worked and insanitary conditions were prevalent. It had been complained in a letter to the Press signed by Bishop Gore of Birmingham and various eminent charitable workers (July 3) that the Bill did not go so far as the Liberals had formerly desired (ANNUAL REGISTER, 1895, p. 54; 1901, p. 179), and that imperfect information would be afforded under it to workers in such laundries of the means of redress. Roman Catholics, on the other hand, argued that such institutions often sheltered a class most difficult to manage, and that inspection would destroy discipline. The compromise provided that, as a rule, the Inspector should not examine inmates except in the presence of the managers or their representative; but that the Secretary of State might suspend the provision where there was reason to suspect the violation of the Act. The Public Health Bill, which the Lords had referred to a Select Committee, was hastily passed

by them with some amendment, and accepted by the Commons. The passing of the Qualification of Women Bill has been already noted (p. 195). A number of other Bills were passed likewise, though several Peers complained bitterly that no time was given for amendment or even for due consideration of them.

Parliament was prorogued by Royal Commission at midday on Wednesday, August 28. The King's Speech "in His Majesty's own words," read by the Lord Chancellor, referred with satisfaction to the visits of the King and Queen of Denmark and of Prince Fushimi, to the Anglo-Spanish Agreement (p. 160), and to the Hague Conference then sitting, and expressed a hope for satisfactory results. "Certain passing difficulties" in India had not deterred the Government from framing plans for improving the machinery of administration, and steps had already been taken to place Indian members on the Indian Council. The Home Fleet was spoken of in terms of very high praise. The Speech also referred to the grant of full self-government to the Orange River Colony, and alluded specifically to seventeen of the measures passed, the Deceased Wife's Sister Act being mentioned as removing a grievance of long standing. The Speech concluded with an expression of thanks to the two Houses for the zeal devoted to their arduous labours and an invocation of the Divine blessing on the results.

The session had been fruitful in practical and soberly democratic legislation, though fears were expressed by impartial observers that the scanty and ill-apportioned discussion of much of it might have left serious difficulties to be discovered when it became operative. Fifty-six Bills had been passed; the procedure of the House of Commons, however, had been considerably altered, and the closure had never been applied more rigorously. In administration individual Ministers, though leaving their more advanced supporters dissatisfied, had continued to falsify the forebodings of their opponents. As Secretary for India, Mr. John Morley had shown vigour, firmness and independence; as Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey had inspired general confidence, though he had disappointed the humanitarian public by his excess of caution respecting Macedonia and Egypt, by the instructions to the British delegates at the Hague, and by consenting to conclude an agreement with the reactionary Russian Government. He had, moreover, shown that it was still possible for a Foreign Secretary to sit in the Commons. Mr. Asquith's Budget was a new departure; and he had been able to tell a popular audience at Hartham Park, Wilts, on August 24, that in the two years ending March, 1908, the National Debt would have been reduced by 23,200,000l., 3,550,000l. of taxation remitted, military and naval expenditure reduced by 9,000,000l., and that the income tax, allowing for abatements, would be only 9ąd. in the pound. Mr. Birrell's position had not been seriously shaken by the loss of his Bills; the Prime Minister's influence had been augmented; and Mr. Lloyd-George, Mr. Harcourt,

and other Ministers had considerably raised their reputations. One Peer-the Earl of Sefton, Master of the Horse-had severed his connection with the Government, and two or three Liberal members were disposed to revolt; but the Cabinet was still, to all appearance, harmonious and strong in popular support. The Opposition was still divided and discontented; Mr. Balfour's vigorous leadership in the House had been imperfectly seconded by his party, who had seldom mustered there in full force; Tariff Reform had made no visible progress at bye-elections, and the Australian tariff had given it a fresh blow. The conflict with the House of Lords was declared by Liberal Ministers to be the most serious question in politics, and they were preparing for an autumn campaign. It was felt that the struggle would be more acute and more complex during the next session, and much was made in the Opposition Press of the growth of the forces of Labour and of Socialism.

CHAPTER V.

Signature of the Anglo-Russian Agreement-The Trade Union Congress-OldAge Pensions-Mr. Haldane and the Army-Establishment of the County Associations-The King and the Lords-Lieutenant-Party Controversy in the Recess; Fears of Socialism; Unionist Divisions-Kirkdale Election-Prospect for 1908-The Deceased Wife's Sister Question-The Church Congress and Politics-The Prime Minister at Edinburgh-Mr. Lloyd-George on Welsh Disestablishment-The Coming Education Bill; Parental Rights-Mr. Asquith on Socialism-Lord Rosebery's Speeches at Glasgow and elsewhere -The Prime Minister at Dunfermline-Mr. John Morley on India-Lord Cromer Receives the Freedom of the City-Speeches at the End of OctoberThe Municipal Elections-The Railway Servants' Agitation; Points in the Controversy; Mr. Lloyd-George Intervenes; a Strike Averted— Women's Suffrage Agitation; Liberal Meetings Disturbed-Mr. Lloyd-George on the Suffragists' Policy-The Irish County Councils and the Losses on Land Stock -The Guildhall Banquet; Sir John Fisher on the Navy-State of the Navy -The Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs-The Congo Agitation-Reorganisation of the Colonial Office-The King's Birthday-The German Emperor's Visit Other Royal Visits-Mr. Birrell at Southampton-Tariff Reform and the Unionists-The Prime Minister at Bristol; His Illness-Unionist Conference at Birmingham-Resolution on Tariff Reform-Mr. Balfour's SpeechIts Reception by the Press-Mr. Asquith's Comment-Lord Milner on Tariff Reform and Social Reform-Earl Cromer's Defence of Free Trade-Letters from the Duke of Devonshire and Lord George Hamilton-Mr. Bonar Law at the Hotel Cecil-West Hull Election-Ireland; Outrage on Mr. Blake; Mr. Birrell in Ulster; Abortive Trials for Cattle-Driving; Mr. Redmond's Extenuations; Mr. Birrell and the Irish Landowners' Convention; CattleDriving Abates; Nationalist Compromise; University Reform-Small Holdings-Medical Inspection of Children-Licensing Reform-Naval Works at Rosyth; Final Decision-Mr. Lloyd-George Intervenes in the Cotton Trade Dispute Speeches of December; Lord Lansdowne at Sheffield and Glasgow -Lord Milner Advocates Wages Boards-Mr. Austen Chamberlain and the Dreadnought's Boilers--Mr. Asquith at Nottingham and Aberdeen-Mr. Haldane on the Monarchy-Mr. Haldane at Hanley-Sir Edward Grey at Berwick-Application of the Provision of Meals Act-The Board of Education and the Training Colleges-Mr. Haldane's Army Scheme; ProgressLord Curzon as an Irish Representative Peer-The Outlook for 1908.

THROUGHOUT September, except in Ireland, there was a truce in political warfare. The Anglo-Russian Agreement, or set of