Changes

====The Irish Question====

====The Irish Question====

Gladstone united his party, which had several factions based on personalities. He got the Liberals to agree on the [[Irish question]], which dominated British politics from the 1870s to 1914.  One achievement was to disestablish the Church of Ireland—a branch of the Church of England that Irish Catholics did not want to support. In 1870, Gladstone tried to resolve the agrarian problem, long a major cause of Irish unrest, in which Protestants and absentee English owners controlled most of the good farmlands in Ireland. He extended to to predominantly Catholic southern Ireland the "Ulster Tenant Right", which had protected Protestants in northern Ireland. The new act provided that tenants who were arbitrarily evicted by landowners had to be compensated by them, and paid for improvements they had made to the farm. The act did not reduce the high rents nor give tenants any security. These problems were resolved when Gladstone passed a second Irish land act in 1881, which provided for The Three F's, (fair rent, free sale, and fixity of tenure), and established a land court to which landlords and tenants might appeal voluntarily. The land court reduced average rents by 25%, and helped resolve the agrarian problem. But the Irish kept demanding more power (although not yet agitating for independence). Following the reforms there was an alarming increase of violent outrages and lawlessness in rural Ireland directed against protestant landlords. In 1886 Gladstone, after a brief Conservative interlude, became prime minister for the third time. He now realized that '''Home Rule'' was the only answer to the Irish question, but this solution split the Liberal party. A faction of radical imperialists led by [[Joseph Chamberlain]] broke off from the party and became known as the "Liberal Unionists". The Liberal Unionists voted with Conservatives to defeat Gladstone's Home Rule bill. The Liberals again came into office in 1892, after a campaign during which both parties stressed the Irish issue. In 1893 the House of Commons passed Gladstone's second Home Rule bill, but it was thrown out by the House of Lords. The Liberals stayed in office for more than a year after Gladstone's resignation in March 1894; but Home Rule went off the Liberal Party agenda until 1910.

Gladstone united his party, which had several factions based on personalities. He got the Liberals to agree on the [[Irish question]], which dominated British politics from the 1870s to 1914.  One achievement was to disestablish the Church of Ireland—a branch of the Church of England that Irish Catholics did not want to support. In 1870, Gladstone tried to resolve the agrarian problem, long a major cause of Irish unrest, in which Protestants and absentee English owners controlled most of the good farmlands in Ireland. He extended to predominantly Catholic southern Ireland the "Ulster Tenant Right", which had protected Protestants in northern Ireland. The new act provided that tenants who were arbitrarily evicted by landowners had to be compensated by them, and paid for improvements they had made to the farm. The act did not reduce the high rents nor give tenants any security. These problems were resolved when Gladstone passed a second Irish land act in 1881, which provided for The Three F's, (fair rent, free sale, and fixity of tenure), and established a land court to which landlords and tenants might appeal voluntarily. The land court reduced average rents by 25%, and helped resolve the agrarian problem. But the Irish kept demanding more power (although not yet agitating for independence). Following the reforms there was an alarming increase of violent outrages and lawlessness in rural Ireland directed against Protestant landlords. In 1886 Gladstone, after a brief Conservative interlude, became prime minister for the third time. He now realized that '''Home Rule'' was the only answer to the Irish question, but this solution split the Liberal party. A faction of radical imperialists led by [[Joseph Chamberlain]] broke off from the party and became known as the "Liberal Unionists". The Liberal Unionists voted with Conservatives to defeat Gladstone's Home Rule bill. The Liberals again came into office in 1892, after a campaign during which both parties stressed the Irish issue. In 1893 the House of Commons passed Gladstone's second Home Rule bill, but it was thrown out by the House of Lords. The Liberals stayed in office for more than a year after Gladstone's resignation in March 1894; but Home Rule went off the Liberal Party agenda until 1910.

====Reform legislation====

====Reform legislation====

Liberals prided themselves on being reformers.  The "Education Act of 1870" greatly enlarged the schooling opportunities of the working class. Previously only voluntary schools provided opportunity for the education of the poor, and of 4,300,000 children of school age in England, about half were not in school. The act of 1870 divided England and Wales into school districts with board schools in every district in which there was not an approved voluntary school. At first, elementary schooling was neither free nor compulsory, but it soon became both. Within a generation illiteracy decreased from 19.4% to 1.4%. The "Universities Test Act" of 1871 dropped the requirement of supporting Anglican doctrines and made it possible for non-Anglicans to receive degrees and teach there.  The "Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1871", upgraded the legal standing of labour unions by declaring them to be neither criminal conspiracies nor unlawful combinations. The "Judicature Act, 1873," reorganized court system. The "Franchise Act of 1884" gave the vote to every man who was the head of a household, virtually established manhood suffrage. Along with it was a law that made one-member constituencies the norm.  The buying and selling of officers' commissions in the army was ended.  None of the reforms was reversed when the Conservatives came to power, and they became part of Britain's unwritten constitution.

Liberals prided themselves on being reformers.  The "Education Act of 1870" greatly enlarged the schooling opportunities of the working class. Previously only voluntary schools provided opportunity for the education of the poor, and of 4,300,000 children of school age in England, about half were not in school. The act of 1870 divided England and Wales into school districts with board schools in every district in which there was not an approved voluntary school. At first, elementary schooling was neither free nor compulsory, but it soon became both. Within a generation illiteracy decreased from 19.4% to 1.4%. The "Universities Test Act" of 1871 dropped the requirement of supporting Anglican doctrines and made it possible for non-Anglicans to receive degrees and teach there.  The "Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1871", upgraded the legal standing of labour unions by declaring them to be neither criminal conspiracies nor unlawful combinations. The "Judicature Act, 1873," reorganized court system. The "Franchise Act of 1884" gave the vote to every man who was the head of a household, virtually established manhood suffrage. Along with it was a law that made one-member constituencies the norm.  The buying and selling of officers' commissions in the army was ended.  None of the reforms was reversed when the Conservatives came to power, and they became part of Britain's unwritten constitution.