state a report in writing of such provisional grant, specifying the circumstances on account of which such grant is made. It shall be lawful for the secretary of state to confirm such provisional grant, and upon such confirmation the license or certificate shall be granted accordingly; but the said provisional grant, unless and until it is so confirmed, shall have no effect. The justices at the general annual licensing sessions may, at their discretion, remove a license or certificate from premises in their division, or in any adjoining division within the same county, to any other eligible premises, if in their opinion the removal is necessary in order to meet the wants of the neighbourhood to which the removal is to be made. DISESTABLISHMENT OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH. mons. On Tuesday, May 9th, the question of the disestablishment of the English Church was for the first time seriously entertained by the British House of ComOn that day Mr. Miall rose to propose a resolution "That it is expedient, at the earliest practicable period, to apply the policy initiated by the disestablishment of the Irish Church to the other churches established by law in the United Kingdom." He presented the question, not as a Dissenters' grievance, but as a matter of national policy; and in combating the usual objections to an abstract resolution, he said his chief object was to ascertain practically how far the house was disposed to apply to Great Britain those principles which it had put into operation in Ireland. Vindicating the opportuneness of the motion, he disclaimed all hostility to the Church or Church parties; and he asserted that the raison d'être of the Establishment had disappeared, and that she herself was convulsed by internal dissensions. Next he went on to argue that the Church system had failed in every way, and that it was unwise any longer to be bound by its fetters. It had failed to secure universality, harmony, and uniformity of worship; and it had failed to supply the spiritual wants of the country, for the greater part of recent Church extension was due to the voluntary principle working within its borders, not to connection with the state. On the unjust appropriation of the whole ecclesiastical revenues of the country to one particular Church he expatiated at length; and he held that the precedent of Ireland was conclusive in favour of the disestablishment of the Church in England. Next he touched on the social mischiefs of an Established Church, and of the disadvantages to the Church of being cramped by state control, and urged that she would be all the safer by disestablishment when the time of revolutionary attacks should come. Mr. Miall spoke well, and made a decidedly favourable impression; and although the majority against his proposal was overwhelming, the debate was not without interest, and may yield fruit in the future. THE METROPOLITAN WATER ACT. On the 31st of August an Act was passed to secure a constant supply of water to the metropolis. It enacts that every company may, and after the expiration of eight months from the passing of the Act shall, when required so to do, provide and keep a constant supply of pure and wholesome water sufficient for the domestic purposes of the inhabitants. The water is to be laid on at such pressure as will cause it to reach the top story of the highest houses. On Sundays, as on other days, sufficient pure and wholesome water for domestic use is to be supplied. After the expiration of six months from the passing of the Act, the local metropolitan authority shall, whenever they are of opinion that there should, in any district, be a constant supply, make application to the water company requiring compliance | with the terms of the Act. There is a right of appeal to the Board of Trade upon this application being made to a company. The Board of Trade may order a constant supply to be given if after inquiry the metropolitan authority refuses to act, or unreasonably delays acting, or if, by reason of the insufficiency of the existing supply of water in such district, or the unwholesomeness of such water in consequence of its being improperly stored, the health of the inhabitants is, or is likely to be, prejudicially affected. A company shall not be subject to any liability for not giving a constant supply if the want of such supply arises from frost, unusual drought, or other unavoidable cause or accident. Any company which neglects to comply with any of the provisions of the Act shall be liable to penalties. MISCELLANEOUS MEASURES. On the 16th of June an Act was passed to alter the law respecting religious tests in the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Durham. Persons taking lay academical degrees, or holding lay academical or collegiate offices, are not required to subscribe any formulary of faith, &c. An Act was also passed for the safe keeping of petroleum and other substances of a like nature. An Act to amend the law relating to the Table of Lessons and Psalter contained in the Prayer Book, and an Act to enable clergymen permanently incapacitated by illness to resign their benefices, with provision of pensions, were also passed. A most severe measure was passed on the 21st of August, entitled "An Act for the more effectual Prevention of Crime." The government were constrained to pass "an Act to empower the Lord-Lieutenant or other chief governor or governors of Ireland to apprehend and detain for a limited time persons suspected of being members of the Ribbon Society, or of being concerned in the commission of any crime or outrage under the direction or influence of the said Ribbon Society, in the county of Westmeath, or in certain adjoining portions of the county of Meath and the King's County; and to continue the Peace Preservation (Ireland) Act, 1870.'" The Ecclesiastical Titles Act was repealed this session. CLOSE OF THE SESSION. Parliament was closed by commission on the 21st of August. Her Majesty's Speech, as usual, contained a recital of the bills passed during the session. The condition of the revenue, the revived activity of trade, and the prospects of the harvest were all matters of congratulation. The parliamentary session of 1871 will be more memorable for the spread of opinions out of which action must certainly come, than for what was actually realised. The principle of so shaping the national organization as to give the utmost possible comfort and protection to our excessive population is fast gaining ground. It is felt that every member of the state must be duly represented in the state, in order that the best interests of each and all may be served. principle underlies the demand for the ballot, for woman suffrage, for sanitary legislation, for due regulation of the liquor traffic, for the extension of education, for the remedying of all class evils, and for the removal of all religious obstacles to freedom. The same The legislative work of the session on this broad national basis was most important. One of the ramparts of religious bigotry was demolished this year by the removal of university tests. The temper of the nation in respect to the state Church, evidenced by the demand for disestablishment, has aroused the Church dignitaries to the necessity of revising the Charch services, and bringing the institution into harmony | files of Hibernians that had rendezvoused on the left with the needs of the time in which we now live. The flank. But long before he had finished he had so enpower of money and aristocratic influence received a thralled his audience that impatient disgust was ex-¦' check in the abolition of purchase. The Ballot Bill, pressed at the handful who still continued their abortive although parried this session, was only delayed for an- efforts at interruption." other session. A fairly good Trades' Unions Act was passed. Even the Women's Suffrage Bill, though defeated, was successful as far as the recognition of its principle was concerned. Although but few of the measures announced in the speech from the throne passed into law, what was done was in the right direction. MR. GLADSTONE AT GREENWICH. Mr. Gladstone was very active after the close of the session. Whatever might be the general opinion of the history of that session, he was, at least, not backward in defending it. He addressed large gatherings at Aberdeen and Whitby. Later in the year Mr. Gladstone addressed his constituents at Greenwich in one of the most remarkable speeches that he ever made-remarkable as much for the surrounding circumstances as for the matter and manner of it. A covered hustings was erected on the north-eastern corner of Blackheath, in front of which an assembly, variously estimated at from twelve thousand to twenty-five thousand persons, was gathered; and for two continuous hours, bareheaded, did the premier address this vast audience with unfaltering voice and unfailing energy. Amongst the crowd were a large number who had come with no object except to create an uproar, but the most persistent were soon hushed into silence by the power of the speaker's oratory--a triumph which those most opposed to him must admit to have been in its kind rarely rivalled. A contemporary report thus describes the scene on the arrival of the premier at the hustings:"The dense mass heaved, and there rose from it an audible gasp as a burst of cheering was heard in the offing. Nearer rolled the cheers, mingled with some yells, but the silence of keen expectancy reigned before the hustings. The door at the back of the booth opened, there was some confusion among its occupants, and then here was Mr. Gladstone standing at the right hand of Mr. Angerstein. Then the throng broke the silence of expectancy. Peal after peal of cheering rent the air. There was a waving forest of hats. The cheering was spasmodic-it was too loud to be sustained, and ever, as it dropped a little, was audible a steady automaton-like hissing. But as yet there was little or no hooting, only the bitter persistent hissing in the lulls of the cheering. The noise that drowned Mr. Angerstein's introductory speech was simply indescribable. When his brief preface was over, Mr. Gladstone stood forward bareheaded. There was something deeply dramatic in the intense silence which fell upon the vast crowd when the renewed burst of cheering with which he was greeted had subsided. But the first word he spoke was the signal of a fearful tempest of din. From all around the skirts of the crowd rose a something between a groan and a howl. So fierce was it that for a little space it might laugh to scorn the burst of cheering that strove to overmaster it. The battle raged between the two sounds, and looking straight upon the excited crowd stood Mr. Gladstone, calm, resolute, patient. It was fine to note the manly British impulse of fair play that gained him a hearing when the first ebullition had exhausted itself, and the revulsion that followed so quickly and spontaneously on the realisation of the suggestion that it was mean to hoot a man down without giving him a chance to speak for himself. After that Mr. Gladstone may be said to have had it all his own way. Of course, at intervals there were repetitions of the interruptions. When he first broached the dockyard question there was a long, loud, and fervent groaning; when he named Ireland a cry rose, 'God save Ireland!' from the serried The speech itself ranged over all the topics then interesting the public mind, and was one of great power. One of the chief charges against the government related to the dismissal of dockyard labourers, upon which question they had incurred much unpopularity. On this point Mr. Gladstone made the unanswerable defence of figures. "I will give you," he said, "in a concise form, the particulars. But, in the first place, let me say that, in my opinion, the closing or the restriction of government establishments, so far from being a crime, may be a duty to the nation (cheers), and has been recognised as such duty by both parties when they have been in office. That it is a¦ serious misfortune to many of those whom it affects I || am the first to assert; but the true inference to be drawn from that is-what? Not that men are to be kept in indolence at the expense of the nation; not that useless work is to be created in order to employ them; but this, that the original creation of government establishments, and that every extension of government establishments, ought to be watched with the utmost jealousy, and ought never to be allowed except upon clear and stringent necessity. (Cheers and interruption.) Now, with regard to dockyard labourers, listen to the figures, for they are worth hearing. The number of H dockyard labourers employed on January 1, 1868, was 20,313. On December 1, 1868, which was the day before I received my summons to the presence of her Majesty at Windsor, that number of 20,313 had been reduced to 15,974. (Hear, hear.) The difference, showing the reduction since the beginning of the year, was 4,359. The number of dockyard labourers which we found was 15,974; and the number of dockyard labourers on October last, which is the latest return I can give you, was 14,511. (Cheers.) The result of that statement is that the reduction since we came into office has been 1,463. The reduction before we came into office was 4,359, so that three-fourths of the whole reduction of which we now hear so much was not our work, but the work of our predecessors. (Cheers.) But I have told you the work was a work not undertaken either by them or by us upon our own arbitrary will. A plan devised by a former government, and sanctioned by a committee of the House of Commons, on the application of that government, was the plan which the present and the late administration carried into effect." Mr. Gladstone then proceeded to a general exposition and defence of the government policy. "In attacking purchase in the army," he said, "we were perfectly well aware that we were assailing class interest in its most favourite stronghold, and I rejoice to think that in a single session we have been able to achieve the accomplishment of a work so formidable. (Cheers.) It is achieved at a great cost, because, when the people of England set about practical reforms, they never accom plish them in a niggardly spirit; but their practice is to make generous compensation to those who may have suffered, or may imagine themselves to suffer by them, and in every doubtful case to adopt the liberal course of action. But, gentlemen, what is the real case in the British army ?-because you have been practised upon by writers who seem to find a kind of luxury in paric and alarm, and endeavour to propagate those feelings | through the country; although for my part I regard them with little less of charity-I do not mean the people, but the rumours (a laugh),—with little less of goodwill or sympathy thun I should regard the propa gation of the smallpox or the cattle plague. (Cheers and laughter.) Gentlemen, we have always had in this country, both in oflicers and men, an army of the noblest and the very best material. (Cheers). Allow importance (cheers); and I will now say a word or two me to give you a short anecdote to vary the weari- of the future. (Cheers.) ness of my discourse. I dare say many of you may have heard the name of Bewick, who was a famous wood-cutter, and also an artist of great celebrity-a northern man. He lived, I think, in the time of the American war. Besides his wood-cutting he determined that, as it was a time of danger, having an English heart in his bosom, he would learn a little soldiering. So he and two or three of his friends sent for the drillsergeant. The drill-sergeant put them through their exercise; but he only gave them one precept, and that was this: he said to them, Mind, my lads, what you have to do is this--when you go into action you must stand like a brick wall. And that has been the great quality of the British soldier--that under all circumstances he has been ready to stand, and he has stood, like a brick wall. (Cheers.) And there was a time when standing like a brick wall was about enough to win a battle. That won't do now. War, instead of a rude contest of strength, has become one of the most highly-developed of all the arts practised by mankind: I know not whether to regret it or to rejoice in it-I only state the fact; but, instead of trusting simply to the native and sterling qualities of the country, we must now endeavour to add to these qualities every advantage that can be imparted by the most skilful and effectual training. "Now, gentlemen, there is a question of the future on which you have heard much said of late. I mean the question of the constitution of the House of Lords. [A voice-Leave the constitution of the House of Lords alone!'] Well, I am not prepared to agree with my friend there (cheers and a laugh), because the constitution of the House of Lords has often been a subject of consideration among the wisest and most sober-minded men; as, for example, when a proposal, of which my friend disapproves, perhaps, was made a few years ago to make a moderate addition to the House of Lords of peers holding their peerages for life. (Cheers.) I am not going to discuss that particular measure; I will only say, without entering into details that would be highly interesting, but which the vast range of the subject makes impossible on the present occasion-I will only say that I believe there are various particulars in which the constitution of the House of Lords might, under favourable circumstances, be improved. (Cheers.) And I am bound to say that, though I believe there are some politicians bearing the name of Liberal who approve the proceedings of the House of Lords with respect to the Ballot Bill at the close of the last session (cheers and interruption), I must own that I deeply lament that proceeding. (Cheers.) I have a shrewd suspicion in my mind that a very large proportion of the people of England have a sneaking kindness for the hereditary principle. (Cheers and laughter.) My observation has not been of a very brief period, and what I have observed is this, that wherever there is anything to be done, or to be given, and there are two candidates for it who are exactly alike-alike in opinions, alike in character, alike in possessions, the one being a commoner and the other a lord--the Englishman is very apt indeed to prefer the lord. (A laugh.) Once on a time, about fifteen years ago, it was supposed that the Whig party was too aristocratic, too exclusive, and a popular combination of members of parliament was formed for the purpose of making a practical protest against this supposed exclusiveness. I don't think the charge was made good; but that is immaterial. This body of membersmost respectable and excellent men-organized themselves, and after they had organized themselves for the purpose of making a practical protest of this kind there came a petition from some rather important town in favour of the object of the association. This petition, I think, was handed to some one who acted as secretary; but, at any rate, the question arose among them who should present the petition on the part of the body. I believe there were about forty of these gentlemen; there was only one of them who was a lord, and these gentlemen determined that the lord should present the petition. (Cheers and laughter.) Well, now, gentlemen, we have had another instance -an amusing instancewithin the last few days. You have all heard of the "Then, were we wrong in dealing with the question of education? Has there ever been-I would venture to say even to the most jealous critic of the Education Act, has there ever been achieved in this country so great a step in advance towards the attainment of an object which we believe to be vital to the welfare of the nation? (Cheers.) It is not all done at once; it cannot be all done at once. A great and comprehensive measure of that kind hardly can be perfect. The differences of opinion that prevail in their very nature make it quite impossible to meet the views of all. Indulgence, equity, the sacrifice of extreme opinions must be asked for in every quarter. (Cheers.) But I ask those who are least satisfied with the Education Act this one and simple question-whether it is not a great stride, and a great stride achieved upon a path of real progress? (Cheers.) I have no doubt that the question is a grave and serious question; and I will not now attempt to say more upon it than this-on the one hand we shall endeavour to adhere to that principle of the Act which aims at the severance between the application of state funds and controverted matters in religion; and on the other I must pause, for my own part, and I believe my colleagues would feel themselves obliged to pause before they could resolve to say to the parent desirous to send his child to a school of his own pursuasion, compelled by public authority to send it to school, and unable to pay the charge, If you attempt to send the child to a school of your own persuasion, if you don't consent to send him to a school the principles of which you disap-seven points.' (Laughter.) I am not going to enter prove-namely, the rate school-we shall send you to prison. (Hear, hear.) I don't think public opinion would sustain us in such a course. (Cheers.) "Well, gentlemen, with regard to the other of those great objects, the ballot (cheers), I believe it to be your opinion that we made a good and wise choice in pressing that important question upon the attention of parliament. (Cheers.) The enfranchisement of the working class was intended to give the boon of political power not only to the class, but to every individual in that class. Now, gentlemen, I will for the present assume that as regards the class of greater subjects on which I had the honour of addressing you at the time of my election, and as regards those questions to which we have invited parliament principally to apply itself, you may be disposed to think that we have not made an unreasonable or injudicious selection, although we had to choose from among many matters of deep interest and into the mysterious and mystical part of that transaction, which, I have no doubt, is destined, under the action of time, which brings all things to light, to undergo further elucidation. But there is one gentleman there is no doubt about at all, for he is in the thick of it. I believe he is a very distinguished man. Mr. Scott Russell seems to have cast his eyes around, and after surveying the whole circuit of the community, he thought he had got a secret whereby the discords of classes could be removed. So he proceeded to organize a body of working men whom he considered in some degree-great or small, I don't say-to represent the working men on the one side, and he also organized a body to represent the other classes on the other side, and in the middle Mr. Scott Russell. (Laughter.) Mr. Scott Russell comes in communication with both of these bodies. He speaks first to one and then to the other. (Laughter.) You have seen a clergyman in a answer. with which for one I venture to look forward to the future of this country. He says— "The ancient virtue is not dead, and long may it endure, May wealth in England-" and I am sure he means by wealth that higher sense of it, prosperity and sound prosperity large church when he gives out his text; he first of all How are the ravages of strong drink to be. looks to the people in one part of the church, and says, arrested? (Cheers.) In an age when, from year to You will find it written so-and-so,' and then to the year, more and more women are becoming self-dependent other side of the congregation, You will find it so- members of the community, how, without tampering and-so.' (A laugh.) This is exactly, or almost exactly, with the cardinal laws that determine providentially what seems to have been done by Mr. Scott Russell. their position in the world, are we to move the serious || The only difference is this-that, unfortunately, Mr. social inequalities under which I for one think they Scott Russell gives a text out of one Testament to the labour? (Cheers.) How, in a country where wealth people on this side, and a text out of the other Testa- accumulates with such vast rapidity, are we to check ment to the people on the other side. (Much laughter.) the growth of luxury and selfishness by a sound and But the point to which I wish to call your attention is healthy opinion? How are we to secure to labour its this, the description-it is a very narrow and a very due honour; I mean not only to the labour of the clear one-which Mr. Scott Russell gives to the working hands, but to the labour of the man with any and all i men of the nature and composition of the body he had the faculties which God has given him? (Cheers.) organized. He might have said, I have organized a How are we to make ourselves believe, and how are we body of educated, intelligent, and independent men, to bring the country to believe, that in the sight of God and, perhaps, that would have occurred in another and man labour is honourable and idleness is contempt. || country. But what is the language he used? Heible? (Cheers.) Depend upon it, gentlemen, I do but said, I have organized this body, and what does it con- speak the serious and solemn truth when I say that betain? It contains peers, lords, baronets, and one com- neath the political questions that are found on the surmoner (laughter)-one solitary commoner among peers, face lie those deeper and more searching questions that lords, and baronets. (Continued laughter.) Mr. Scott enter into the breast and strike home to the conscience !! Russell must have known the dispositions of those and mind of every man; and it is upon the solution of whom he was addressing. No doubt when he leant to these questions that the well-being of England must this side of the congregation he used the language depend. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, I use the words of a which would be agreeable to their sympathies and feel-popular poet when I give vent to this sentiment of hope, ings, and yet so it fell out that there was but one commoner in this illustrious body-like a solitary noncommissioned officer preferred from the ranks to the messtable. (Laughter.) That is the description-it is by describing men as peers, lords, and baronets that he finds he will make his prescription most acceptable to those for whom it was intended. Now this is all very well-I know there cannot be much force in any particular illustration with respect to a matter that can only be judged by a long course of observation; but this I do say in my own conviction-the general sentiment of the mass of the population of this country is, they think in some way or other that the people who compose the House of Lords in a very large proportion are either themselves men or the descendants of men who were put into the House of Lords for public services (cheers); and where men have been put into the House of Lords for public services they are disposed to look with considerable favour upon the descendants of such men until they have proved themselves unworthy. (Cheers.) They know, too, that in fact and not by compulsion, but by the free will of the people, this body of gentlemen called the House of Lords exercise through out the country a vast social and political influence; and, lastly, they know, although the good ones have to carry upon their backs the responsibility of the bad, that many of them perform their duties in an admirable and exemplary manner. (Cheers.) Well, under these circumstances-and I hope while I remain in public life I shall be able to act zealously and cheerfully with you for the promotion of Liberal opinions-I for one never understood by Liberal opinions either precipitate conclusions or subversive conclusions, and I trust we shall well consider before we commit ourselves to vast changes and the introduction of new principles, and that we shall know before we commit ourselves something of what the results are likely to be." (Cheers.) After enumerating the advantages which the legislation of the last eighteen years had secured for the working man-such as free trade, the removal of taxation to the extent of twenty millions sterling per annum, an education bill, and a cheap press-Mr. Gladstone arrived at his peroration, concluding his speech very happily, his argument being that whatever legislation might do, it was on Englishmen themselves that their future well-being and improvement must depend. Those who promised Utopian benefits to the working man were "quacks-deluded and beguiled by a spurious philanthropy. What we have to ask ourselves are questions which depend on ourselves individually, in the main, to "May wealth in England never fail, nor pity for the poor." (Cheers.) May strength and the means of material prosperity never be wanting to us; but it is far more important that there shall not be wanting the disposi tion to use those means aright. Gentlemen, I shall go from this meeting, having given you the best account of my position in my feeble power, within the time and under the circumstances of the day-I shall go from this meeting strengthened by the comfort of your kindness and your indulgence to resume my humble share in public labours. No motive will more operate upon me in stimulating me to the discharge of duty than the gratitude with which I look back upon the, I believe, unexampled circumstances under which you made me your representative. (Cheers.) But I shall endeavour --I shall make it my hope-to show that gratitude less by words of idle compliment or hollow flattery than by a manful endeavour, according to the measure of my gifts, humble as they may be, to render service to a Queen that lives in the hearts of her people (cheers), and to a nation with respect to which I will say that, through all pos terity, whether it be praised or whether it be blamed, whether it be acquitted, or whether it be condemned, it will be acquitted or condemned upon this issue, of having made a good or a bad use of the most splendid opportunities; of having turned to proper account or failed to turn to account the powers, the energies, the faculties which rank the people of this little island as among the few great nations that have stamped their name and secured their fame among the greatest nations of the world." THE "SEVEN POINTS." The story of the "seven points," or "new social movement," to which the premier so pleasantly alluded in his speech at Greenwich, was a curious mystery which enlivened the dull months of the year. The public were suddenly startled by the appearance of a document said to have been signed by certain Conserva tive peers on behalf of their order, and certain prominent working men on behalf of theirs. This document was said to result from a laudable desire to unite the, upper and the working classes of the community in a legislative scheme for the amelioration of the social and political condition of the people, and embodied the seven following resolutions, which the strange allies had agreed to draw up : "1. To rescue the families of our workmen from the dismal lanes, crowded alleys, and unwholesome dwellings of our towns, and plant them out in the clear, where, in the middle of a garden, in a detached homestead, in wholesome air and sunshine, they may live and grow up strong, healthy, and pure, under the influence of a well-ordered home. "2. To enable this to be effectually carried out there must be created a perfect organization for the selfgovernment of counties, towns, and villages, with powers for the acquisition and disposal of land for the common good. "3. The next condition of the well-being of the skilled workman is that a day's labour shall consist of eight hours of honest work. Dilke at Newcastle. The speech charged the Queen with not paying the income-tax or having too much pin-money, or something of that kind. No harm would have come to any one but the lecturer, if the matter had been answered and allowed to drop. The charges were unfounded, as far as her Majesty was concerned, and could easily have been confuted. But this did not suit the respectable old alarmists: the toadies subsidised the rowdies-(who would do anything for unlimited beer, having had good training in elections) to assault and molest Sir Charles Dilke, and any one else who was supposed to share his views, whenever they attempted to appear in public: proving that mobs, whether composed of one section of society or another, are a contemptible and cowardly rabble. The chief objection to the policy of the advanced republicans is, that they are doing all they can to divert the public mind from the attack of real grievances into a war with shadows. A contemporary thus cogently wrote upon this subject:-" Republicanism, of one sort or another, is growing rapidly, and not only among working men; and though the sorts are at present too many, and the motives put forward are too diverse to "4. In addition to schools for elementary education, there shall be provided schools for the practical knowledge and technical skill in the midst of their home-render republicanism a very powerful force just now, steads. "5. For the moral and physical well-being of the people, places of public recreation, knowledge, and refinement shall be organized as parts of the public service. "6. Public markets shall be erected in every town for the sale of goods in small quantities, of best quality, at wholesale price. "7. There shall be provided a great extension of the organization of the public service, on the model of the Post Office, for the common good." On this extraordinary story being made public, several of the alleged signataries denied the signing of any such document. What appears to have really taken place was, that Mr. Scott Russell,—in the name of a representative council of working men, of which he was chairman,-made an application to some leading members of both Houses, that they should consent to act together in considering the reasonable requirements of the working class and such legislative measures as might be proposed to them. The result was that Lords Salisbury, Carnarvon, Lichfield, John Manners, Sandon, with Sir John Pakington, Sir Stafford Northcote, and Mr. Gathorne Hardy, signed a memorandum, in which they declared that, "at the request of Mr. Scott Russell, as chairman of a council of representative working men," they undertook "to consider in a friendly and impartial spirit whether and in what measure we can co-operate with this council in measures calculated to remove the disadvantages which affect the well-being of the working classes;" but reserving "to ourselves the most unfettered discretion in the selection of objects and the modification or rejection of measures proposed to us for consideration." All concerred in the matter professed to explain their share in the transaction, but the new "social alliance' remained a mystery, and nothing further was heard of it. REPUBLICANISM. This year was specially remarkable, according to certain timid politicians, for attempts to sap the foundations of the English constitution, that wonderful structure which, we are assured, has been carefully elaborated during a millennium or so, and brought to its present state of perfection by an overruling Providence, though, in its perfection, it so totters that it is in danger of destruction at the hands of any bold minister or rabid democrat who attempts to interfere with it. These self-styled "defenders" of the crown were terribly shocked and alarmed at a speech made by Sir Charles VOL. IV. they who object to it in any shape may well feel alarmed at the prospect, and look with dread at the progress it has made during 1871. There are other and kindred movements, however, at which they may be yet more alarmed. Republicanism, in so far as it is a distinct effort to abolish the form of monarchy in this country, is not likely to triumph very speedily; but the republicanism which aims to clear away the abuses that have held their ground while monarchy has passed from substance to shadow, which proposes to cut down those oligarchic institutions that have continued to be a reality, and have become more obnoxiously real than ever, while monarchical institutions have been reduced to a sham, has in it far more elements of vitality, because it has far more reason to live. Just as there is more pressing need to reform the House of Lords than to abolish the crown, so this need has been more urgently, if less noisily advanced; and it would have been advanced far more vigorously, but for the fact that the popular mind has been directed yet more earnestly towards still more important movements. It is a healthy sign that people are getting to think more and more about attacking abuses at their roots instead of beating down their fruits and lopping off their branches. If they care little about such republicanism as Mr. Bradlaugh preaches, it is because they are caring for the true republican that would demolish all remnants of feudalism, and make England as complete a commonwealth in reality as it is by the fiction of its constitution." |