will and unflinching energy of the Prime Minister.... Upon the whole,
whatever may be thought of its merits or demerits, it can hardly be
disputed that the Act of the Disestablishment of the Irish Church,
introduced and carried into a law within somewhat less than five months,
was the most remarkable legislative achievement of modern times."

The parliamentary session of 1870 was rendered memorable by the passing
of a scarcely less popular and important measure--the Irish Land Bill.
Mr. Gladstone, in speaking of Ireland, had referred to three branches of
an Upas tree, to the growth of which her present sad condition was
largely owing--the Irish Church, the Irish Land Laws, and the Irish
Universities. The first branch had fallen with the disestablishment of
the Irish Church, and Mr. Gladstone, pressing on in his reform, now
proposed to lop off the second branch by his Irish Land Bill, which was
in itself a revolution. It was claimed for Mr. Gladstone's new bill, or
Land Scheme, that while it insured for the tenant security of holding,
it did not confiscate a single valuable right of the Irish land-owner.
Mr. Gladstone remarked that he believed there was a great fund of
national wealth in the soil of Ireland as yet undeveloped, and said he
trusted that both tenant and landlord would accept the bill because it
was just. The bill passed, and received the approval of the Queen,
August 1, 1870.

[Illustration: The Old Lion]




CHAPTER XV