The decade of the forties, marked by political discontent, but dignified by ideal aspirations in all spheres — the disruption in the church of Scotland, the Anglican movement in the church of England and the pre-Raphaelite movement in art, belong to that momentous epoch — faded away into a period marked by expanding trade and mental quiescence. Gold discoveries, rail ways, steamships, these were the chief pre occupation of mankind; and under their subtle alchemy democracy and idealism of all kinds vanished for a time, both in England and on the Continent. As often happens in .these ex pansive epochs (which recur after the intro spective, critical and reforming epochs), a collision occurred with another growing power, Russia. The Crimean War, resulted largely from the efforts of that stern autocrat, the Tsar Nicholas I, to browbeat the Turks, whose political power was then thought to be essential to the security of the overland route to India. The hope entertained by the British nation that the Sultan would reform his government and grant religious liberty soon proved to be vain; and England- came to see that she had charn pioned a moribund cause. She gained nothing by the war; and its first reverses did much to promote the ferment in native circles in India which led to the terrible mutiny of 1857.
Affairs in Europe soon engrossed public attention. In the Crimean War, England had had the alliance of Napoleon III of France and of Victor Emanuel II of the Kingdom of Sar dinia. Her relations with the French emperor speedily cooled; and complications in the years 1858-59 brought the two people so near to a conflict as to lead to the revival of the volunteer movement. Far different was the attitude of the nation toward the Italian movement for libera tion and unity. The masterly statecraft of the Piedmontese statesman, Cavour, and the heroic deeds of Garibaldi in southern Italy in 1860 aroused the keenest interest. The diplomatic help given by British statesmen, Palmerston and Lord John Russell, then laid the basis of that friendship which has since subsisted be tween Great Britain and the United Kingdom of Italy.
Amidst these excitements Cobden did good service by promoting a commercial treaty be tween England and France on free trade lines, (it held good for the years 1860-70) and Glad stone, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, by his budgets of the early sixties succeeded in fur ther cheapening the necessaries of life. But no advance was made on purely political lines, firstly because the influence of Palmerston, the Prime Minister, barred the way, and secondly because popular interest centred largely in the wars of that troubled period — the American Civil War (which at one time portended a strife between the two kindred peoples), the Danish War of 1864, and the Austro-Prussiap War of 1866. The end of this last struggle brought a lull which favored the hopes of re formers. The death of Palmerston on 18 Oct. 1865, had removed another barrier; for, since the death of the Prince Consort at the close of 1861, his influence in the political world had been almost without bounds. Other causes now helped to turn attention to home affairs. The cattle plague and the sharp financial crisis of the year 1865, the Fenian outrages of the next year, and the general state of malaise through out the United Kingdom brought men once more to that critical or introspective mood which is favorable to political reform. i A singu lar concatenation of events brought into office in June 1866 a Conservative Ministry headed by Lord Derby and Mr. Disraeli—into office but
not into power, for they were face to face with a hostile majority, irritated by the recent re of a moderate Reform Bill championed y Lord John Russell and Mr. Gladstone. The result was a series of acrobatic performances whereby Disraeli, erstwhile the denouncer of the inconsistencies of Peel, foisted on his party in 1867 a measure far more democratic than that of the previous year. Household suffrage was thenceforth the law of the land for all parliamentary boroughs. After a short time of uneasy balancing, the Conservative Ministry was overthrown by the general election of No vember 1868.
Democracy now came in as with a flood. The Gladstone Ministry (December 1868 February 1874), carried legislative activity to lengths never before seen in England. The dis establishment of the Irish church (1869) ; the Irish Land Act and the Elementary Education Act (1870); the abolition of the system of pur chase in the army, and the appointment of the Local Government Board (1871); the Ballot Act and Licensing Act (1872) ; the Supreme Court of Judicature Act (1873)— these were the chief measures passed in this period, which witnessed also the settlement of the Russian claims respecting the Black Sea and the Ala bama claims urged by the United States. In these matters, as in the sphere of foreign policy generally, the Ministry was deemed to sacrified British interests needlessly.
The outcome of this feeling, and of the alarm felt by many classes at home whose interests were injured or threatened, was seen in the general election of February 1874, which marked a sharp reaction in favor of Imperial ism and a spirited foreign policy. Disraeli (created earl of Beaconsfield in August 1876) came back to power at a time when the Eastern Question entered on an acute phase. The years 1875-78 were overshadowed by the atroci ties committed by the Turks on their Christian fellow subjects, and by the Russo-Turkish War. Sharp differences of feeling were caused by Lord Beaconsfield's treatment of these events, as also by his acquisition of Cyprus (June 1878). Depression of trade at home and the outbreak of wars in Zululand and Afghanistan in 1879 made the Ministry more and more un popular, with the result that the election of March 1880 brought back Gladstone to power with a large majority. His second ministry (April 1880—June 1885), coincided with a time of great ferment in Ireland and of unrest abroad, with which he coped manfully but not very successfully. Irish affairs were not settled by his drastic Irish Land Act of 1881; his very large concessions to the Boers of the Trans vaal in 1881 and 1884 aroused a most bitter feeling among loyalists in South Africa and sowed the seeds of future trouble. British in tervention in Egypt (1882) was successful, but had as an unfortunate corollary the despatch of General Gordon to Khartum; and the dealings of the Ministry with Russia respecting the Afghan frontier at Penjdeh, as also with Ger many respecting various colonial questions on the coasts of Africa and New Guinea, were marked neither by foresight nor firmness. In the midst of these disturbances Gladstone, with characteristic tenacity, pushed through the Reform Bill of 1884 and the Redistribution Bill of 1885 in face of prolonged opposition from the Lords. The former measure extended household suffrage to the counties; the latter divided the whole country into electoral dis tricts with sonic approach to numerical equality.