Gordon lost his life while defending Khartoum, and that Canadian boatmen helped to take a British army up the Nile in boats.
14. Reform Bills.—Let us new turn from these events in other lands and see what changes were taking place at home. While Lord Palmerston lived great reforms were not encouraged, but after his death the question of giving more political power to the working classes came to the front. Lord John Russell tried to pass a Reform Bill in 1866, and failed. Then Mr. Disraeli took office and, under his leadership, the Conservatives helped in carrying through a Reform Bill much more radical than that of Lord John Russell. The Reform Bill of 1867 gave votes to householders and lodgers in boroughs who paid rates and £10 rent, while in counties those who paid £12 rates were allowed to vote. Voting by ballot was made law in 1872, and a third Reform Bill was passed in 1884, by Mr. Gladstone, which gave votes to nearly every man, whether in town or county, and added 2,500,000 voters to the roll of electors, In 1885 a Redistribution Bill divided the country into more equal electoral districts, and increased the number of members for Scotland. In 1858 the volunteers were more thoroughly organized, and, in 1860, Cobden succeeded in making a treaty with France which encouraged freer trade between the two countries.
14. American Civil War.—In 1861 a civil war broke out in the United States of America, which led to great suffering among the operatives in the cotton factories of Lancashire. Most of the raw cotton used by England was brought from the Southern States, and as the war closed the ports of the South, its cotton could not find its way to the English markets. Thousands of workers were, in consequence, thrown out of employment when the mills were closed for want of raw cotton, and large sums of money had to be raised to keep the families of the operatives from starving. Nor was this the only bad effect of the war. Some of the British people were in sympathy with the South, and their desire to see the revolt successful led to allowing the Southerners to have ships built in British dockyards. One of these, the Alabama, did a great deal of injury to the merchant vessels of the North, and when the war was over England had to pay a heavy bill of damages for allowing the Alabama to escape from British ports.
15. Important Acts.—The year 1861 is memorable for the
