receiving requests or injunctions from their bishops to give up the practices held by the archbishops to be illegal in the Church of England, refused compliance, was very small-probably not more than thirty in the whole country. The practical certainty, however, of hearty congregational support to recalcitrant clergy could not but serve to enhance the difficulty of the question, how to deal with the cases of the very small minority of clergy who persistently refused obedience. In November rumours were current of a possible resolution of the bishops to initiate prosecutions in their several dioceses against those incumbents who declined their requests for conformity with the Lambeth decision. In an Advent pastoral to his diocese, however, the Archbishop of York said that he did not believe that there was "a single bishop who would think of taking such a step," although unquestionably it lay within their power, and "it was important that this should be made clear, not so much to justify its use if necessary, as to afford ground for opposing as needless any further legislation of a more stringent and vexatious character. But," his Grace proceeded, "although the bishops themselves may abstain from prosecutions, it is unlikely that they would place any impediment in the way of others who desired to take this step." In view of this intimation, and of the fiery zeal of the extreme Protestant party, there appeared little doubt that if the requisite handfuls of "aggrieved parishioners" could be found, or formed, a new era of anti-ritualist prosecutions of locally popular and reverenced clergy would speedily set in. Such a prospect could in no case have been favourable to the peace and efficiency of the Church of England as a whole. It had, moreover, to be remembered that, for some unexplained reason, the Primates had held back their decision on another matter-that of the legality of the reservation of the sacrament-which also had been before them in the summer. If, whenever given, that decision also should be altogether against the practice of many of the advanced clergy, it was recognised that the strain placed thereby on their loyalty might prove very severe.

In a year which closed in the midst of a great, and so far most unsuccessful war, and which brought much anxiety in the ecclesiastical sphere, it is at least pleasant to be able to record that trade and commerce flourished exceedingly. In almost all the great manufacturing industries of the country 1899 either reached or approached the highest output ever known. It was so in the chief centres of the metal industries, and the engineering and shipbuilding trades resting thereupon. It was so, and with prices for the first time for many years at fairly remunerative rates, in the Lancashire cotton industry. Great activity also reigned in the principal woollen and worsted centres of the West Riding, where, especially in Bradford, which in past years has been principally dependent on the American market, there was marked evidence of in

creasing adaptability to the needs of the, happily, very exigeant home market. Employment was remarkably good throughout the country, and, speaking generally, the workmen shared substantially in the benefits of excellent trade. This participation, happily, was brought about in the great majority of cases by friendly negotiation, or by the working of automatic systems for the adjustment of wages in accordance with prices, and the number of serious trade disputes recorded during the year was exceptionally small. At the Trade Union Congress, which was held at Plymouth early in September, a series of gloomy observations in the address of the President, Mr. W. J. Vernon, on the unjust subjection of labour to capital, and the generally miserable results of our existing industrial system, had a curiously unreal sound. Nor did the circumstances of the time seem particularly appropriate to a resolution which the congress adopted unanimously, setting forth that "no scheme dealing with old-age pensions would be satisfactory to the whole of the workers of this country which made a condition of thrift, or disregarded the inability of a large proportion of the industrious and deserving poor to make provision for the future." On the other hand the revival of prosperity, already referred to, in the Lancashire cotton trade, might be held to reduce the force of the opposition still vainly maintained by the representatives of that industry at the congress to the renewal of a violently worded resolution in favour of the prohibition of all child labour under fourteen. It was reported at the congress that the General Federation of Trade Unions, inaugurated as the result of a special congress held at Manchester in January, already included a large number of important societies of both skilled and unskilled labour, such for example as the Amalgamated Engineers and the Lancashire Cotton-Spinning Operatives and the Gasworkers and General Labourers' Union, and had a total enrolment of 360,000 members. High hopes were expressed by Mr. Frank Mitchell of Glasgow, the secretary of the federation, as to the concessions which it would be possible to obtain by peaceful pressure from employers, of which there would have been no chance in the disorganised condition of labour before the formation of the federation. It must be added, however, that among acute and well-informed observers much doubt prevailed as to the capacity of the federation to stand any severe financial strain, and as to the likelihood that some of the great unions which had joined it would submit in practice to the kind of control which it imported into their own relations with their employers.

CHAPTER VI.

SCOTLAND AND IRELAND.

I. SCOTLAND.

A SURVEY of Scottish affairs in 1899 was calculated to encourage the expectations avowed by Lord Rosebery as to the advancing predominance of Liberal imperialism. In domestic affairs, so far as could be judged from bye-elections, the type of Liberalism specially in favour with Scotsmen-sober, but yet by no means without "advanced" sympathies-was making distinct progress, as the Edinburgh and other elections showed. It was thought that the marked growth in the Radical vote in the metropolitan constituencies was largely due to the popularity of the recently pushed propaganda for the taxation of land values, and a numerously attended conference held at Glasgow in October, when 112 local authorities as well as various political, social and industrial organisations were represented, in connexion with the same movement, showed that it was taking a considerable hold on the public mind. A fiscal policy of that kind, with or immediately after the abolition of the House of Lords, was placed by resolution of the annual meeting of the Scottish Liberal Association at Aberdeen in December in the forefront of the Liberal programme. Yet along with the apparent growth in the quantity and intensification of the quality of Scottish Liberalism there was to be observed on all sides a proud contemplation of the participation of Scotsmen in the discharge of distant imperial enterprises. The heroes of the year, Sir Archibald Hunter and General Hector Macdonald, were warmly welcomed in recognition of their brilliant services in the Omdurman campaign. Lord Rosebery's watchword, "We mean to see this thing through," spoken in Edinburgh after some of the early South African checks, could nowhere have been uttered with more absolute certainty of sympathetic response. The appointment of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman as successor to Sir William Harcourt in the leadership of the Liberal party in the House of Commons was grateful to the feelings of the Scottish Liberals, who recognised the skill with which he discharged the difficult duties of that office. But the strongly imperial speeches in which Mr. Asquith on various occasions dealt with the South African war and its causes commended them to popular feeling more directly than the cautious, critical attitude maintained by Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman. In Radical Caithness-shire, Dr. Clark's "pro-Boer" attitude in Parliament after the war began excited great indignation, which took the form at Wick of a resolution of protest from the Town Council, and at Thurso of a burning of him in effigy.

The authorisation conveyed in the general Telephone Act for municipal competition with the National Telephone Com

pany, was regarded as having been to a large extent promoted by the persistent efforts of the Glasgow Corporation to emancipate that city from the monopoly enjoyed by the company. The same energetic municipality was able to present a balancesheet showing a profit of over 50,000l. on the working of the city tram-lines for the year ending May 31, 1899.

The most steadily prominent feature of the year's life in Scotland was, as in England, a general commercial prosperity. The "record" output attained by the Clyde shipyards, with 466,832 tons in 1898, was surpassed by nearly 25,000 tons in the same district in 1899; and this was only one instance of the state of industry in South-west Scotland, where the iron and steel trade generally, and the production of engines and machinery in particular, were in a most flourishing condition. The textile trades of Dundee, whether dealing with flax or jute, specially the former, had a prosperous year. With the marked activity of all the great metal industries it was inevitable that the prices of coal should rise largely. Happily, the sharing of profit in that and other industries between masters and men was arranged with remarkable smoothness, and in the coal trade a conciliation board was formed on the model of that in operation for several years past in the majority of the English mining districts. At the same time there was a considerable revival in the whaling fishery, and the venturers in it were rewarded by most satisfactory results.

Ecclesiastically the year was marked by the continued progress of the movement for the union of the Free Church and the United Presbyterian Church. The opposition to this step seemed steadily declining, and the realisation of a proposal tending towards economy and the concentration of religious effort was pretty confidently anticipated before the close of the century.

II. IRELAND.

Two important events marked the annals of Ireland in 1899; the coming into operation of the Local Government Act of 1898, establishing democratically elected County and District Councils throughout Ireland, and a drawing together of hitherto mutually jealous and hostile sections of Nationalists. The results shown under the new act were neither uniform nor complete enough to warrant any very confident conclusions as to the future working of the great experiment inaugurated by the Unionist Government and Parliament. The landed proprietors did not as a class stand aside from the elections for the new councils, but as a class they were, where they offered themselves, rejected by the electors. In Connaught and Munster together only about a dozen country gentlemen were chosen, the fatal objection to their candidature being more probably their Unionist politics than their possession of land. The elements of administrative experience and know

ledge were thus conspicuously lacking in the elected councils. In fact there were only six counties-in the north-east-where the Nationalist party did not possess a great majority, composed for the most part of persons who had to learn the first principles of the management of local business. The classes of small farmers, shopkeepers in country towns, and publicans were very strongly represented on the new councils. If with these had been blended a substantial number of members of education and leisure, versed in the treatment of county affairs, this local self-government might have proved more advantageous for the country than the continuance of a system in which all local administration rested in the hands of a single class. A limited element of continuity with the old system of local government was provided by the act of 1898, which required each County Council to co-opt three members of the abolished Grand Jury; but the numerical force of this element was not enough to make its presence really effective. The retention in office in most cases of the old county surveyors and clerks, who, by a clause in the act, could only be dismissed if the County Council were prepared to give really substantial pensions, was no doubt of material service in providing the new bodies with information as to past practice and legal powers. The guiding and restraining influence of these officials was felt much less in the sphere of the District Councils. Under all the circumstances, it was matter for congratulation that in so many of the County Councils the elected members showed a desire to discharge their responsibilities with a single eye to the public benefit, and to obtain a mastery over the problems coming before them. At the same time in a considerable number of both County and District Councils, more particularly the latter, there were tendencies on the one hand towards an unwise parsimony in respect of the salaries of local officials, and on the other towards jobbery and the indulgence of personal preferences. Only too often the new bodies made occasions for political demonstrations and the display of disloyal sentiments. In Westmeath, where, being a Home Ruler, Lord Greville was chosen chairman of the County Council, after a few months he felt obliged to resign that office, his position having been rendered intolerable by a foolish and prolonged quarrel between the councillors and the authorities with regard to the hoisting of a green flag on the court house. A very bitter anti-British feeling was exhibited, as the South African war approached, by several of the district councils and municipal corporations. These bodies, not content with passing resolutions altogether outside the sphere of their duties, occasionally spent their time in framing manifestations of disloyalty. The Limerick Corporation led, and was followed by, the Urban District Council, or the Town Commissioners, of Cashel, Tullamore, Monaghan, Mullingar, Nenagh, Kilrush and (Oct. 6) by the Cork Corporation. All these bodies adopted

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