ABSTRACT
In the Queen’s Speech with which a new Parliamentary Session had been opened on March 12, 1894, the Rosebery Government had found it necessary to promise every Mr. Gladstonian section the Bill or Bills by which it set particular store. Despite the Prime Minister’s brave words, new French demands on the Queen of Madagascar, accompanied by war-preparations, and a Japanese invasion of China proper, after successes in Korea, as weak domestically as Rosebery’s, could get adequate attention for the British viewpoint abroad. The omens grew worse for the Government when, in December, Conservatism captured another Liberal seat in the Brigg Division of Lincolnshire despite the clamant Radical rhetoric against the House of Lords on which Rosebery himself, defying Royal displeasure, had been induced to rest his dwindling electoral hopes. On June 21st Campbell-Bannerman, Secretary for War, reported to the House the result of the long and delicate negotiations on “Army Reform” on which he had been engaged.
