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16 had intrenched themselves, but they were shelled from their positions, and an engagement was fought in which the Boers were decimated, and the survivors fled for their lives, a mere routed rabble. The shame of Majuba Hill was avenged at last. The power of the British arms was now thoroughly restored, and it was decided by the English Government to once more annex the Transvaal. This proposition met with very determined opposition from the Liberals, the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone being particularly loud in his denunciation of what he was pleased to term a policy of "Annexation and Bloodshed." It was clear, however, that the feeling of the country was with the Government, and so the Transvaal once more became part of the British dominions. It would have been well indeed if this had been the only serious difficulty that faced the Government. But it was simply one thread cut of the intricately-tangled skein. There were wrathful mutterings in Ireland, and the Irish Party in the House were no longer at the slightest pains to disguise their true intent, and they soon became known as the "Separatists." Severance from the Union that bound them to England was what they clamoured for, and severance they insisted upon. That fatal optimism that had induced Mr. Gladstone to place so much political power in Mr. Parnell's hands was, as it was now seen, leading to disastrous issues; and so patent was this fact to every one, except those who allowed their partisan zeal to blind them to the dangers that menaced their country, that many prominent Liberals publicly avowed their defection from their party.

The tactics pursued in the House of Commons were disgraceful and unparalleled. The extreme Radicals allied themselves to the Separatists in a policy of obstruction, and that grand dignity and high-souled honour, which erstwhile had distinguished the British Parliament, was sacrificed to blatant, demagogic insolence and hatred. One would have to go very far back in history indeed to find an English Government that was so degraded and harassed by an organised band of unpatriotic men as was Sir Stafford Northcote's Government during this eventful period in England's story. But, in spite of it all, the Government struggled to uphold the honour of the country, and to counteract the enormous mischief wrought by their predecessors. But the