combine with that insurrection, and, it might be, to render it impossible that the Union should ever again be restored? I say, that single statement, whether it came from a public writer or a public speaker, is enough to stamp him forever with the character of being an insidious enemy of both countries. . . .

...

Remembering the past, remembering at this moment the perils of a friendly people, and seeing the difficulties by which they are surrounded, let us, I entreat of you, see if there be any real moderation in the people of England, and if magnanimity, so often to be found amongst individuals, is absolutely wanting in a great nation.

Now, whether the Union will be restored or not, or the South achieve an unhonoured independence or not, I know not and I predict not. But this I think I know, that in a few years, a very few years, the twenty millions of freemen in the North will be thirty millions, or even fifty millions a population equal to or exceeding that of this kingdom. When that time comes I pray that it may not be said amongst them that in the darkest hour of their country's trials England, the land of their fathers, looked on with icy coldness and saw unmoved the perils and calamities of their children. As for me, I have but this to say: I am but one in this audience, and but one in the citizenship of this country; but if all other tongues are silent, mine shall speak for that policy which gives hope to the bondmen of the South, and which tends to generous thoughts and generous deeds between the two great nations who speak the English language, and from their origin are alike entitled to the English name.

Only a minority of the governing classes of England agreed with John Bright in his views of the American struggle. But as time went on their numbers increased, and admiration for the character of Lincoln, at least, became quite general. This feeling is well reflected in the following anonymous poem from the English humorous journal Punch, when the news of his assassination was received.

440. A recantation,

Punch (May 6, 1865)

You lay a wreath on murdered Lincoln's bier,
You, who with mocking pencil wont to trace,
Broad for the self-complacent British sneer,

His length of shambling limb, his furrowed face,

His gaunt, gnarled hands, his unkempt, bristling hair,
His garb uncouth, his bearing ill at ease,

His lack of all we prize as debonair,

Of power or will to shine, of art to please.

You whose smart pen backed up the pencil's laugh,
Judging each step, as though the way were plain :
Reckless, so it could point its paragraph,

Of chief's perplexity or people's pain.

Beside this corpse, that bears for winding sheet
The Stars and Stripes he lived to rear anew,
Between the mourners at his head and feet,
Say, scurril jester, is there room for you?

Yes, he had lived to shame me from my sneer,
To lame my pencil and confute my pen
To make me own this hind of princes peer,

This rail splitter a true-born king of men.

My shallow judgment I had learnt to rue,

Noting how to occasion's height he rose,

How his quaint wit made home truth seem more true,
How, iron like, his temper grew by blows.

How humble yet how hopeful he could be:
How in good fortune and in ill the same:
Nor bitter in success, nor boastful he,

Thirsty for gold, nor feverish for fame.

He went about his work - such work as few
Ever had laid on head and heart and hand-

As one who knows, where there's a task to do,

Man's honest will must heaven's good grace command.

The uncleared forest, the unbroken soil,

The iron-bark that turns the lumberer's axe,
The rapid that o'erbears the boatman's toil,

The prairie, hiding the mazed wanderer's tracks,
The ambushed Indian, and the prowling bear-

Such were the needs that helped his youth to train:
Rough culture but such trees large fruit may bear
If but their stocks be of right girth and grain.

So he grew up, a destined work to do,

And lived to do it: four long-suffering years!
Ill fate, ill feeling, ill report lived through,

And then he heard the hisses change to cheers,

The taunts to tribute, the abuse to praise,

And took both with the same unwavering mood:
Till, as he came on light, from darkling days,

And seemed to touch the goal from where he stood,

A felon hand, between the goal and him,

Reached from behind his back, a trigger prest
And those perplexed and patient eyes were dim,
Those gaunt, long-labouring limbs were laid to rest!

III. THE COMPLETION OF PARLIAMENTARY REFORM

Some idea of the differences of opinion on political questions that existed just before the adoption of the Reform Bill of 1867 can be gathered from the debate that took place on an earlier and unsuccessful bill introduced by Mr. Gladstone in 1866. The closing speech is one of the best examples of the fervid eloquence with which Mr. Gladstone discussed practical problems.

Lord Cranborne entreated the chancellor of the exchequer 441. A debate to let the House know who their new masters were to be. In in the House of Commons proposing so great an alteration, it was right to ask for inforon a promation as to the extent of the change that was to take place, posed Reform the number of new voters to be introduced, the class of the Bill in 1866

Mr. Hughes,

a Radical

Mr. Lowe, a

community to which they belonged, and how far they represented the wealth and numbers of the country. .

...

Mr. Hughes supported the bill as an honest attempt to extend the franchise, the most important part of reform,— and because (according to the opinion of an influential man among them) it would admit a large body of the best of the working classes. He defended trades unions and their leaders from imputations which had been made against them, described the great results which had been achieved by cooperative societies, and argued that if the working classes had been more effectually represented in the House, it would have been able to deal more effectually with such questions as the relations between workmen and employers, the improvement of dwellings, the restriction of noxious trades, and the like. He derided the notion that the working classes were not as much divided on political matters as any other class, and urged the national importance of riveting their adherence to the constitution by this concession. . . .

Mr. Lowe pointed out the danger arising from the power Conservative of the working classes to combine for the accomplishment of their objects, and the ease with which trades unions might be converted into political organizations. Trades unions were far more unions against the best, most skillful, industrious men themselves than against the masters. They made war upon all superiority and skilled industry, and made themselves the slaves of clumsiness, idleness, and ignorance. And see what a tremendous machinery they would have if they only allowed them to possess the one thing they wanted - the parliamentary vote. Adopt this bill, and there was no saying where they would stop in the downward direction of democracy. Among the consequences which might be anticipated from it were the profession of politics as a last resource when every other had failed, a disposition to war, opposition to free trade, and the concentration of power. Democratize the House of Commons, and it would not rest until it had swept away the institutions which now stood between it and the throne, and supplied their places by other institutions deriving their origin directly from the people, and not having

the quasi-independence which those corporations and privileged classes now enjoyed. When that was done, they would have face to face, with nothing to break the shock between them, the monarch for the time being and a great democracy; and history had taught us little if we thought that those two powers would go on harmoniously. ..

tive leader

The franchise would again be extended; all command over Mr. Disraeli, the executive would cease; and when that was the state of the Conservathings they would have a hall of selfish and obscure mediocrities, incapable of anything but mischief, and that mischief devised and regulated by the raging demagogue of the hour. The question before the House was, not whether the workingmen should be introduced to the franchise, but whether the working of the English constitution could be improved; and he was convinced that, although it was the opinion of the thoughtful portion of the community that the choicest members of the working classes should form a part, and no unimportant part, of the estate of the Commons, they recoiled from attaining that result by an undistinguishing reduction of the franchise. He did not say that the working classes had their full share of the franchise; but before proceeding to invest them with it, the House ought to obtain accurate information, and, above all, they should legislate in the spirit of the English constitution, so that this House should remain a House of Commons, and not the house of the people or of an indiscriminate multitude. In voting for this bill they would act not in the spirit of the British constitution but in the spirit of the constitution of America. . . .

Liberal leader

My right honorable friend says we know nothing about the Mr. Gladlaboring classes. Is not one single word a sufficient reply, stone, the and that word is "Lancashire," associated with the sufferings of the last four years, so painful and bitter, but so nobly and gloriously borne? The qualities then exhibited were the qualities, not of select men here and there among a depraved multitude, but of the masses. For my own part, I cannot believe that the men who exhibited those qualities were only a sample of the people, and that the rest would not have done the same had occasion arisen. I cannot see what argument