Heretofore special
privileges were accorded to members of the Established Episcopal Church,
and all others were cut off from the full enjoyment of the
universities.
A bill to establish secret voting was rejected by the Lords, but was
passed the next session. The House of Lords, emboldened by their success
in throwing out the voting bill, defeated a bill to abolish the purchase
of commissions in the army, but Mr. Gladstone was not to be turned from
his purpose, and startled the peers by a new departure--he dispensed
with their consent, and accomplished his purpose without the decision of
Parliament. Finding that purchase in the army existed only by royal
sanction, he, with prompt decision, advised the Queen to issue a royal
warrant declaring that on and after November 1, 1871, all regulations
attending the purchase of commissions should be cancelled. The purchase
of official positions in the army was thus abolished. It was regarded as
a high-handed act on the part of the Prime Minister, and a stretch of
executive authority, and was denounced by Lords and Commons, friends and
foes. Tories and Peers especially were enraged, and regarded themselves
as baffled.
The condition of affairs in Ireland was alarming.
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