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1870.]

THE EDUCATION BILL.

395 we think that he looks too much to the section of the community which he adorns, and too little to the interests of the people at large, we must then recollect that we, who have assumed the heavy responsibility of the government of this great country, must endeavour to forget the parts in the whole, and to propose to ourselves no narrower object than the welfare of the empire at large.'

It was fortunate that the committee had nearly concluded its arduous labours when the war between France and Prussia broke out. Had this event occurred at an earlier period, it would no doubt have exercised a very distracting and mischievous influence on the consideration of so complicated a measure. It was also a matter of congratulation, that as the foundations of a national system of education had now been laid, we might hope in any future war in which we might be engaged, to have the advantage of an educated soldiery-an advantage the value of which had been recently illustrated by the war between Prussia and Austria, and which was speedily destined to receive farther and still more signal illustration in the war that had now commenced. The bill was received by the peers with a remarkable unanimity of approbation, and went through the House of Lords without any important alteration.

We are not yet sufficiently distant from the period of the passing of this great measure to be able to predict its future working with full confidence; but there can be no doubt that it is the greatest educational step in advance that has yet been taken; and though a measure of so difficult and complicated a nature will probably require many amendments, the nature of which must be determined by experience of its working, yet it so far settles the question as to leave no room for any other measure on the subject of anything like equal magnitude and importance. In some places it has been already so successfully worked that there is scarcely a single child of the school-age who is not receiving elementary instruction. In other places little has yet been done, because the immense amount of labour thrown on the educational department has prevented it from establishing school-boards in many parts of the country, and especially in its more thinly-populated districts. But the results which have thus far attended the introduction of the act in places where it has been sufficiently

tested seem to afford a promise and a guarantee of future success. It is indeed much to be regretted that Mr. Bright was disabled by illness from taking a part in the preparation of a measure, in the framing of which his assistance would have been highly valuable. It is probable that if he had taken part in the discussion held on it in the cabinet and the legislature, the agitation that afterwards arose would have been prevented.

The last days of the session were marked by an earnest and well-meant effort to avert the unhappy war between France and Prussia, which brought on the former of these two countries such a series of unparalleled calamities and disasters. Unhappily the two governments were far too blinded by passion to be influenced by the efforts made on our part to prevent them from rushing into this sanguinary folly.

Parliament was prorogued on the 10th of August. Much of the legislation brought forward by the government had been abandoned for want of time for its due consideration. But two measures of inestimable value-each of them of far greater importance than the whole of the legislation of parliament during the period that had elapsed between the commencement of the Palmerston and the Gladstone administrations-had been carried; and there was reason to expect that they would be followed in the next session by others of scarcely inferior magnitude and value.

Within a month after the prorogation, news arrived in England which spread grief and horror through every household. The Captain, one of the finest and most costly of our iron-clad ships of war, had gone down off Cape Finisterre, with all hands on board except a few sailors, who managed to escape in a boat. A trial of the sailing qualities of twelve of her majesty's ships had been made, and none of them had passed through it more satisfactorily than this ill-fated vessel, which had been built on a new plan, under the direction of Captain Coles. After it was over she was on her way with the other ships of the fleet to their appointed rendezvous off the coast of Spain. A violent gale commenced, which compelled the ships to lower their topsails. When the day broke only ten ships out of the eleven which composed the squadron could be discerned from the deck of the Admiral's vessel. The Captain had

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1871.] WAR BETWEEN FRANCE AND PRUSSIA.

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overturned. With her went down above five hundred men, all belonging to the naval service, and many of them distinguished by professional or scientific acquirements, or by important services.

At the commencement of 1871 the attention of our countrymen was engrossed by the terrible struggle which was being carried on in France, and especially by the siege of Paris. At the outbreak of the war public opinion of this country had strongly condemned the conduct of the French Government in its negociations with Prussia. But the calamities that had fallen on the French people had excited a general feeling of sympathy for our ally, who had suffered terrible reverses, and was now maintaining a hopeless struggle for the defence of his beleaguered capital. It was felt that France had made a full atonement for the recklessness with which the war had been commenced by the overthrow of the Empire, and that the King of Prussia, having solemnly declared that the war he was waging was not against the French people, but against the Imperial Government, ought to agree to reasonable terms of peace, when that government had been repudiated and swept away by the French people. Mingled with this feeling was a dread of the ambition of Prussia, and alarm at its prodigious aggrandisement. Her unscrupulous conduct in reference to the Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein was not forgotten, and, though England would have regarded with feelings of satisfaction the constitution of a united Germany, she was not prepared to regard with a like feeling the establishment of a Prussianised Germany. However, she had neither the wish nor the opportunity to interfere in the struggle which was being carried on so near to her own coasts, and the only way in which our sympathy with our French neighbours was manifested was by the raising a large sum of money to purchase supplies of food for the starving inhabitants of Paris.

Meanwhile, Russia was taking advantage of the helpless condition of France to re-open the Crimean question. The treaty of 1856 had left her in a very humiliating position. While the other European nations were at liberty to have as many ships as they thought fit in the waters that washed their coasts, Russia was bound by that treaty to have on

the Black Sea not more than six ships of war, and those of a very small size. She therefore resolved to seize the opportunity afforded by the helpless condition of France to enable her to get rid of this stipulation. At first the czar was about to proceed in complete disregard of his treaty obligations; but, finding that this course would be strongly disapproved, not only by England, but by victorious Germany, he agreed to submit the matter to a conference of the great European powers in London. The conference was delayed for some time, in order to give M. Jules Favre, the French minister of foreign affairs, then shut up in Paris, an opportunity of taking part in its discussions; but, after a considerable time spent in negociating a safeconduct for him, he came to the conclusion that his presence was more necessary in Paris than in London, and as France sent no other plenipotentiary, the conference, after waiting from the 3rd to the 26th of January, proceeded to consider the business for which it had been convened. The chief results of its discussions were these :The neutralisation of the Black Sea stipulated for by the treaty of 1856 was abrogated, but the Porte was allowed to open the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus to the ships of friendly and allied powers whenever their presence appeared to be necessary for the maintenance of the treaty. Thus a question, the raising of which at such a moment caused no little alarm and indignation, was quietly disposed of to the satisfaction of all parties. Probably, if these terms had been proposed before the commencement of the Crimean war, that terrible and deadly conflict might have been avoided.

The British Parliament assembled this year at a critical moment. An armistice between the French and the Germans had just been agreed on, and an assembly convoked at Bordeaux for the purpose of deliberating on the terms of the treaty, by which it was hoped that the truce might be converted into a lasting peace. The session was opened on the 9th of February. Among the measures recommended in the Queen's speech to the attention of the legislature, were bills for the better regulation of the army and the auxiliary land forces of the Crown;' on religious tests at Oxford and Cambridge, on ecclesiastical titles, on the disabilities of trades combinations, on the courts of justice

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and appeal;' 'on the adjustment of local burdens, and on the licensing of houses for the sale of intoxicating liquors.' It also promised, on 'an early day,' a measure for the establishment of secret voting.

The negociations which had been carried on during the recess naturally engaged the first attention of the legislature, and the conduct of the government was subjected to the ordeal of that severe criticism to which every government in turn, which has to deal with important foreign affairs, is exposed. Its attitude in reference to the original dispute between France and Prussia was strongly condemned, and it was alleged that by expressing in the first instance a more decided disapproval of the French demands, it might have prevented the war. But the conduct of the government in reference to the Russian demands was still more strongly censured. Sir R. Peel, in particular, distinguished himself by the severity of his strictures. He dwelt, amidst the loud laughter of the House, on the frequency with which the word 'ventured' occurred in the foreign correspondence of the government, and contrasted the deferential language of the present foreign minister with the spirited tone adopted by Lord Palmerston in his diplomatic papers. The debate indicated the public feeling on the subject, which was cleverly illustrated and excited by an anonymous pamphlet entitled 'the Battle of Dorking,' in which a veteran, who had escaped from the destruction of the English army in this battle, is represented as recounting to his grand-children in 1921 the glory and greatness of England before this imaginary defeat. The contemplation of the ease with which the Germans had overcome the armies of France raised an alarm. It was supposed that our influence on the continent would be annihilated now that our military impotence was revealed. The nation loudly demanded that our army should be increased, and that our forces, if inferior in numbers, should be at least equal in efficiency to those of the great continental powers. These alarms were entirely groundless. There never had been a period when this country had less reason to apprehend an attack from any quarter. France, conquered, humiliated, bound hand and foot, bleeding at every pore, and loaded with a war indemnity such as no nation had ever borne before, burning with a desire to

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