In one direction, however, there had been no advance.  Following the example of Scotland (S513), Ireland was politically united to Great Britain (S562); at the beginning of the century when the first Imperial Parliament met (1801), but long after the Irish Catholics had obtained the right of representation in Parliament, they were compelled to submit to unjust land laws, and also to contribute to the support of the Established (Protestant) Church in Ireland.  Finally, through the efforts of Mr. Gladstone and others, this branch of the Church was disestablished (1869) (S601); later (1870, 1881, 1903), important reforms were effected in th eIrish land laws (SS603, 605, 620).

To supplement the great electoral reforms which had so widely extended the power of the popular vote, two other measures were now carried.  One was that of Civil-Service Reform, 1870, which opened all clerkships and similar positions in the gift of the government to the free competition of candidates, without regard to their political opinions (S609).  This did away with most of that demoralizing system of favoritism which makes government offices the spoils by which successful political parties reward “little men for little services.”  The “secret ballot,” another measure of great importance, followed (1872) (S609).

The same year, 1870, England, chiefly through Mr. Forster’s efforts, took up the second measure, the question of national education.  The conviction gained ground that if the working classes are to vote, then they must not be allowed to remain in ignorance; the nation declared “we must educate our future masters.”  In this spirit a system of elementary government schools was established, which gives instruction to tens of thousands of children who hitherto were forced to grow up without its advantages (S602).  These schools are not yet entirely free, although the legislation of 1891-1894 practically puts most of them on that basis.

England now has a strong and broad foundation of national education and of political suffrage.

34.  Imperial Federation; Labor enters Parliament; Old Age Pensions;
    Budget of 1910; Veto Power of the Lords.

The defeat of the Boers in the Great Boer War (1899-1902) led to the completion of the scheme of Imperial Federation, by the establishment of the Union of South Africa (1910) as the fourth of the self-governing colonies, of which Australia, New Zealand, and Canada are the other three.

In 1906, in the reign of Edward VII, organized Labor secured for the first time adequate representation in Parliament, through the overwhelming victory gained at the elections by the combined Liberal and Labor parties (S628).  The “Laborites,” as they are popularly called, claim that their influence obtained the passage of the Old Age Pensions Act of 1908.

Two years later the Liberal Government compelled the Lords to accept a Budget calling for an enormous increase of taxes imposed in large measure on land and incomes and levied partly for the purpose of paying the new pensions (SS629, 630).