Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 20.djvu/35

Forster in the programme of the Imperial Federation League ; and about the same time he was elected lord rector of Aberdeen University.

During the bitter party disputes which marked the years 1876-8, between the outbreak of the revolt in Herzegovina and the signature of the Berlin treaty, Forster held a somewhat middle position, and was blamed by both extremes. In the autumn of 1876 he paid a visit to Servia and Turkey, and on his return he made an important speech to his constituents. While denouncing Turkish maladministration, he insisted upon the objections to English interference. His positive proposal was that the concert of Europe should be used to obtain from the sultan a constitution similar to that of Crete for the Christian provinces of Turkey. Then the Russo-Turkish war broke out, and from that time to the conclusion of the Berlin treaty Forster's unceasing efforts were devoted to keeping England from any part in such a war.

At this time the extreme liberals were beginning to organise the so-called Caucus. The old dispute between Forster and Birmingham broke out again. He declined to submit his political destiny to the judgment of a committee of the party in Bradford, and declared that he should offer himself to the constituency at the next election whether the association chose him or not. After some display of feeling the association accepted him. On the formation of Mr. Gladstone's ministry in 1880 he would have preferred to be secretary of state for the colonies, but, in the extremely threatening state of the Irish question, felt bound to consent to the prime minister's request that he should become chief secretary, with Lord Cowper as lord-lieutenant. The winter had been marked by something approaching to a famine in the west of Ireland, and the Land League agitation, headed by Mr. Parnell, had grown to formidable dimensions. The question immediately arose whether the government should attempt to prolong the existing Coercion Act, which was to expire in a very few weeks. The cabinet, however, determined to attempt the government of the country under the ordinary law. In June Forster persuaded Mr. Gladstone to allow the introduction of a temporary bill providing compensation for evicted tenants, and to appoint a strong commission to inquire into the working of the Land Act of 1870. The new bill, known as the Compensation for Disturbance Bill, was carried in the House of Commons in spite of the vigorous opposition of the conservatives, but on 2 Aug. 1880 it was rejected in the House of Lords by an immense majority. Forster was indignant and dismayed by this, as he thought, desperate act of the landlord party, which immensely increased the difficulty of his task in governing Ireland. The Irish party instantly proceeded to identify the lords who had rejected the Compensation for Disturbance Bill with the government which had brought it in, and to stir up popular feeling throughout Ireland against the whole English connection. The autumn and winter were marked by one continuous struggle between Forster and the Land League on the one hand, and Forster and the more 'advanced' section of his colleagues in the government on the other. The machinery of the ordinary law was strained to the uttermost, and to no purpose, as was shown by a number of abortive trials of persons believed to be guilty of outrages, and, above all, by the equally abortive state trial in Dublin, in which fourteen leading members of the league, Mr. Parnell, Mr. Dillon, Mr. P. J. Sheridan, and others, were prosecuted for conspiracy to prevent the payment of rent and other illegal acts. Forster wished to summon parliament in the autumn, but this was refused, and only when it met on 7 Jan. 1881 was it announced that the government had decided to ask for fresh powers. Long and angry debates followed, and, after unprecedented scenes, caused by the obstructive action of the Irish members, the bill was passed. Forster said in introducing it: 'I never expected it, and if I had thought that this duty would have devolved on me, I certainly should not have been Irish secretary. Indeed, I think I may go further, and say that if I had foreseen that this would have been the result of twenty years of parliamentary life, I think I should have left parliamentary life alone. But I never was more clear in my life as to the necessity of a duty.' The essence of the bill was the clause which enabled the Irish government to imprisonment without trial 'on reasonable suspicion' of crime, outrage, or conspiracy. In consequence of this clause within a short time some nine hundred men were imprisoned, most of them of the class whom Forster had described as 'village ruffians,' who were really well known to be guilty of crime or planning crime, but whom no jury of their neighbours dared to convict. With them were imprisoned a certain number of men of a superior class, who were believed, on evidence sufficient to convince the government, to be guilty of incitement to murder and of organising intimidation. In Ireland Forster had to face the performance of what he believed to be a duty, but of the most distressing kind. He had to hurry backwards and forwards between London and Dublin, and 