1880, Gladstone granted the demands of the Land League. The Irish land The Conservatives under the leadership of Lord problem. Salisbury and Arthur James Balfour found a final

settlement for the Irish

land question by the passage of a series of land purchase acts, which have enabled many thousands of Irish peasants to buy the farms that they tilled. In 1886 Gladstone proposed to solve the Irish quesHome rule tion once for all by granting home rule. The measure proposed was defeated, however, as was also a second measure which the house of commons passed in 1893. In 1894 Gladstone re

for Ireland.

tired, and two years

ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR

later the Conservative, or Unionist, party again came into control of the English government. Not till nearly twenty years later, was a serious effort made to give home rule to Ireland.

REFERENCES

THE PARLIAMENTARY REFORM OF 1867. Beard, Introduction to the English Historians, 572-581 (Walpole); Masterman, History of the British Constitution,

201-202.

THE FIRST GLADSTONE MINISTRY. Innes, History of England, 894-900; Ransome, Advanced History of England, 1008-1014; Tout, Advanced History of Great Britain, 676-679.

THE LAND LEAGUE. - Johnston and Spencer, Ireland's Story, 325-326;

695-708; Wrong, History of the British Nation, c. xxii.

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE UNIONISTS AND THE BRITISH EMPIRE

538. England in Africa. During the last half century England has made important additions to her territories over the seas, notably in Africa. In the Dark Continent English expansion has been from three directions: from Egypt southward English expan- into the Soudan; from British East Africa northsion in Africa. westward to the head waters of the Nile; and from Cape Colony northward into the valley of the Zambezi River and beyond. England has thus come into possession of a broad and almost continuous strip of territory extending from the mouth of the Nile to the Cape of Good Hope. The two political parties have both shared in this expansion; but the greater credit belongs to the Unionists. Many a venturesome Briton has found great wealth in these regions; but the history of England in Africa also illustrates the more serious phase of empire building, for much of this territory was purchased by the war with the Boers, the most expensive single war in English history.

539. Cape Colony and the Boer Republics. The Dutch founded a settlement at the Cape of Good Hope in the days of The Dutch at Cromwell and held the colony till 1796 when it the Cape. was seized by the English. Ten years later it became definitely a British possession. Cape Colony had already a considerable population composed chiefly of Dutch farmers or Boers; the number was soon materially increased by English immigration. The slow-moving Boer did not like the more aggressive Englishman and there was friction in the colony from the very beginning of English rule. The Boers had enslaved the native blacks in large numbers; but in 1834