DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16877#0006
Vol. L.]
INTRODUCTION.
[January to Juki! 1866.
PAU!:
mittoe to make provision for the better prevention of bribery
and corruption at elections.
After another debate of four nights on a motion of Capt.
Hatter, a Liberal member, “that in the opinion of this
House the system of grouping proposed by Government [ in
their Redistribution scheme] is neither convenient, nor
equitable, nor sufficiently matured to form the basis of a
satisfactory measure,” which ended without a division—the
House went into Committee on the combined Bills, Govern-
ment generally maintaining its ground until Lord Dun-
kellin moved an amendment to the clause settling the
Borough franchise, by which he proposed to substitute
rating for rental as the standard of value. Ministers opposed
this alteration, and there followed what proved to be the
most important debate of the whole series, for it resulted
in the defeat of the Government by a majority of eleven,
the annihilation of the Bill, the resignation of the Ministry
—its members considering the adverse decision on Lord
Dunkellin’s amendment as equivalent to a vote of want of
confidence—and the formation by the Earl oe Derby of a
new administration.
Before quitting this subject, it maybe serviceable to point
out one or two memorable phrases which came into vogue
during the Reform Debates. In the first speech addressed
by Mr. Bright to the Blouse on the Bill, referring to Mr.
Horsman, who had attacked him on the previous night,
he said—“He is the first of the new party who has ex-
pressed his great grief, who has retired into what may be
called his political Cave of Adullam, and he has called about
him every one that was in distress, and every one that was
discontented.” Erom this allusion, the section of the
Liberal party before mentioned as opposing the Bill became
familiarly known as the “ Adullamites ” and the “Cave.
Mr. Gladstone’s reference to the working man as “our
own flesh and blood” should also be quoted; and the
same statesman, in a remarkable speech he delivered at
Liverpool during the Easter recess, before the second read-
ing of the Bill, spoke of the ministry as having “ passed
the Rubicon, broken the bridge, and burned the boats
behind them.”
Among the other public events which are the subject of
comment and illustration in this volume were the Cattle
Plague ; the occurrences arising out of the insurrection in
Jamaica and the conduct of Governor Eyre in that emer-
gency ; the continuance of the Eenian Conspiracy, to which
the escape of Stephens, the “Head Centre,” gave a fresh
impetus, obliging Parliament to suspend the Habeas Corpus
Act in Ireland; the great City Panic; and the events which
led to the conflict between Prussia and Italy, and Austria
—“for which,” to quote the words of the Earl oe Claren-
don, then Foreign Secretary, “ there was no casus belli, and
which was not only without cause, but without justifica-
tion.”*
On the 30th of June, 1866, Punch completed his twenty-
fifth year and fiftieth volume.
* “Before the end of March a secret treaty of alliance was entered into
between Prussia and Italy, the terms of which, so far as they were known,
show how resolved the two countries were to engage in war with Austria.
According to these, Italy engaged to declare war against Austria, as soon
as Prussia should have either declared war, or commit* ed an act of hos-
tility. Prussia engaged to carry on the war until the mainland of Venetia,
with the exception of the fortresses in the city of Venice, either was in
the hands of the Italians, or until Austria declared herself ready to cede
it voluntarily; and Kino Victor Emmanuel promised not to lay down
his arms until the Prussians should be in legal possession of the Elbe Duchies.”
—Annual Register.
INTRODUCTION.
[January to Juki! 1866.
PAU!:
mittoe to make provision for the better prevention of bribery
and corruption at elections.
After another debate of four nights on a motion of Capt.
Hatter, a Liberal member, “that in the opinion of this
House the system of grouping proposed by Government [ in
their Redistribution scheme] is neither convenient, nor
equitable, nor sufficiently matured to form the basis of a
satisfactory measure,” which ended without a division—the
House went into Committee on the combined Bills, Govern-
ment generally maintaining its ground until Lord Dun-
kellin moved an amendment to the clause settling the
Borough franchise, by which he proposed to substitute
rating for rental as the standard of value. Ministers opposed
this alteration, and there followed what proved to be the
most important debate of the whole series, for it resulted
in the defeat of the Government by a majority of eleven,
the annihilation of the Bill, the resignation of the Ministry
—its members considering the adverse decision on Lord
Dunkellin’s amendment as equivalent to a vote of want of
confidence—and the formation by the Earl oe Derby of a
new administration.
Before quitting this subject, it maybe serviceable to point
out one or two memorable phrases which came into vogue
during the Reform Debates. In the first speech addressed
by Mr. Bright to the Blouse on the Bill, referring to Mr.
Horsman, who had attacked him on the previous night,
he said—“He is the first of the new party who has ex-
pressed his great grief, who has retired into what may be
called his political Cave of Adullam, and he has called about
him every one that was in distress, and every one that was
discontented.” Erom this allusion, the section of the
Liberal party before mentioned as opposing the Bill became
familiarly known as the “ Adullamites ” and the “Cave.
Mr. Gladstone’s reference to the working man as “our
own flesh and blood” should also be quoted; and the
same statesman, in a remarkable speech he delivered at
Liverpool during the Easter recess, before the second read-
ing of the Bill, spoke of the ministry as having “ passed
the Rubicon, broken the bridge, and burned the boats
behind them.”
Among the other public events which are the subject of
comment and illustration in this volume were the Cattle
Plague ; the occurrences arising out of the insurrection in
Jamaica and the conduct of Governor Eyre in that emer-
gency ; the continuance of the Eenian Conspiracy, to which
the escape of Stephens, the “Head Centre,” gave a fresh
impetus, obliging Parliament to suspend the Habeas Corpus
Act in Ireland; the great City Panic; and the events which
led to the conflict between Prussia and Italy, and Austria
—“for which,” to quote the words of the Earl oe Claren-
don, then Foreign Secretary, “ there was no casus belli, and
which was not only without cause, but without justifica-
tion.”*
On the 30th of June, 1866, Punch completed his twenty-
fifth year and fiftieth volume.
* “Before the end of March a secret treaty of alliance was entered into
between Prussia and Italy, the terms of which, so far as they were known,
show how resolved the two countries were to engage in war with Austria.
According to these, Italy engaged to declare war against Austria, as soon
as Prussia should have either declared war, or commit* ed an act of hos-
tility. Prussia engaged to carry on the war until the mainland of Venetia,
with the exception of the fortresses in the city of Venice, either was in
the hands of the Italians, or until Austria declared herself ready to cede
it voluntarily; and Kino Victor Emmanuel promised not to lay down
his arms until the Prussians should be in legal possession of the Elbe Duchies.”
—Annual Register.