prediction.
The contest was certainly "bitter," for it carried sorrow and death
into many thousand homes. It was "costly," too, for the total expense
to England amounted to nearly 200,000,000 pounds.

England finally overthrew and formally annexed (1901) the two Boer
republics, aggregating over one hundred and sixty-seven thousand
square miles. But to accomplish that work she was forced to send two
hundred and fifty thousand men to South Africa,--the largest army she
ever put into a field in the whole course of her history. The great
majority of the English people believed that the war was inevitable.
But there was an active minority who insisted that it was really
undertaken in behalf of the South African mine owners. They did not
hesitate to condemn the "Jingo" policy[1] of the Government as
disastrous to the best interests of the country. In the midst of the
discussion Queen Victoria died (January 22, 1901). The Prince of
Wales succeeded to the crown under the title of King Edward VII.

[1] Lord Beaconsfield, the Conservative Prime Minister (1874-1880),
made several petty wars in South Africa and in Afghanistan. A popular
music-hall song glorified his work, declaring:
"We don't want to fight, but by Jingo, if we do,
We've got the ships, we've got the men,
We've got the money, too."

624. Summary.

Queen Victoria's reign of sixty-three years--the longest in English
history--was remarkable in many ways.

The chief political events were:

1. The establishment of the practical supremacy of the House of
Commons, shown by the fact that the Sovereign was now obliged to
give up the power of removing the Prime Minister or members of his
Cabinet without the consent of the House, or of retaining them
contrary to its desire.
2. The broadening of the basis of suffrage and the extension of the
principle of local self-government.
3. The abolition of the requirement of property qualification for
Parliamentary candidates; the admission of Jews to Parliament; and
the overthrow of the Spoils System.
4. The repeals of the Corn Laws; the adoption of the Free-Trade
policy; and the Emancipation of Labor.
5. The Small Agricultural Holdings Act; the Irish Land Acts; the
abolition of Church rates; and the disestablishment of the Irish
branch of the Church of England.
6. The arbitration of the Alabama case.
7. The progress of transportation and o