ng the Queen's reign amounted to nearly
100,000,000 pounds.

[1] McCarthy's "History of Our Own Times," V, 487.

Mr. Gladstone, the Liberal Prime Minister (1893) made a vigorous
effort to secure "Home Rule" for Ireland. His bill granting that
country an independent Parliament passed the House of Commons by a
very large majority, but was utterly defeated in the House of Lords.
Five years later (1898) Lord Salisbury, the Conservative Prime
Minister, passed a bill which, though it did not give Ireland "Home
Rule," did give it local self-government on the same popular
foundation on which it rests in England (S608) and Scotland.
Mr. Bryce, the British Ambassador at Washington, recently said (1911)
that he was convinced that the condition of the people of Ireland had
greatly improved and was "still advancing," and that "before long
nearly all the land wouyld belong to the cultivators" (S605).

The recognition of the principle of international arbitration by
England in the Alabama case (S598), in the Bering Sea Seal Fisheries
dispute (1893), in the Venezuela boundary controversy (1896), and in
the Newfoundland Fisheries case (1910) proved that the English people
saw that the victories of peace are worth as much to a nation as the
victories of war. The Hague Peace Conference Treaty, ratified by
Great Britain with the United States and the leading nations of Europe
and the Far East (1899), provided for the establishment of a permanent
Court of Arbitration at The Hague between all of the great powers
which signed it. All appeals to it, however, are entirely voluntary.

Ten years earlier, a proposition to establish such a court for the
purpose of strengthening the cause of international peace would have
been looked upon as "a splendid but delusive dream." To-day many of
the ablest men on both sides of the Atlantic believe that the time is
not far off when England and America will agree to settle by
arbitration all questions which diplomacy cannot deal with, which may
arise between them. Sir Edward Grey, Secretary for Foreign Affairs in
Mr. Asquith's Liberal Cabinet, fears that the continued expenditure on
larger and larger armaments "will end in international revolution."
On the other hand, those who are constantly advocating the building of
more and bigger battleships admit that the Peace Party presents strong
arguments in support of its views, and that "the war against war" is
making progress.

621. Death of Gladstone