Witness her willingness to take part in the Jubilee
Thanksgiving services and pageant, despite the feebleness of her
advanced age.
We need not dwell long on the rather stormy Parliamentary history of
the last decade, on the divisions and disappointments of the Irish
Home Rule party, once so powerful, or on the various attacks aimed at
the Welsh and Scottish Church establishments and at the principle of
"hereditary legislation" as embodied in the House of Lords. Some
useful legislation has been accomplished amid all the strife. We may
instance the Act in 1888 creating the new system of County Councils,
the Parish Councils Act, the Factory and Workshops Amendment Act, and
the Education Act of 1891--measures designed to protect the toiling
millions from the evils of "sweating," and to assure their children
of practically free education.
Substantial good has been done, whether the reins of power have been
held by Mr. Gladstone or by Lord Salisbury--whose long tenure of
office expiring in 1892, the veteran statesman whom he had displaced
again took the helm--or by Lord Rosebery, in whose favour the great
leader finally withdrew in 1894 into private life, weary of the
burden of State.
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