The year closed with a more serious event in the world of literature, the death (on the 22nd of December) of George Eliot, whose novels were ever a perennial source of pure enjoyment to the Queen. George Eliot was, at her death, the first of living novelists, and the womanhood of England in the Victorian period produced no genius that in culture, strength, tenderness, spiritual insight, and humour, could be compared with hers. The sombre fatalism of the Greek tragedians overshadows her “Mill on the Floss.” The humour of Shakespeare ripples through the taproom scenes in “Silas Marner.” In “Romola,” were it not overweighted with psychological analysis, she would have defeated Scott in the glowing field of historical romance, and did defeat the author of “Esmond” in an arena in which he was supposed to be peerless among his contemporaries. In “Adam Bede,” which has probably been read more widely than any other story of our time by the English-speaking race, she revealed all the grace, sweetness, delicacy of feeling, nobility of intellect, and purity of heart, that formed her fascinating and sympathetic personality. CHAPTER XXIV. COERCION. Lord Beaconsfield Attacks the Government--The Irish Crisis--The Coercion Bills--An All-night Sitting--The Arrest of Mr. Davitt--The Revolt of the Irish Members--The Speaker’s _Coup d’État_--Urgency--New Rules of Procedure--The Speaker’s _Clôture_--End of the Struggle against Coercion--Mr. Dillon’s Irish Campaign--Mr. Forster’s First Batch of “Suspects”--The Peers Censure the Ministry--Mr. Gladstone’s “Retort Courteous”--Abolition of the “Cat”--The Budget--Paying off the National Debt--The Irish Land Bill--The Three “F’s”--Resignation of the Duke of Argyll--The Strategic Blunder of the Tories--The Fallacy of Dual Ownership--Conflict between the Lords and Commons--Surrender of the Peers--Passing the Land Bill--Revolt of the Transvaal--The Rout of Majuba Hill--Death of Sir George Colley--The Boers Triumphant--Concession of Autonomy to the Boers--Lord Beaconsfield’s Death--His Career and Character--A “Walking Funeral” at Hughenden--The Queen and Lord Beaconsfield’s Tomb--A Sorrowing Nation--Assassination of the Czar--The Queen and the Duchess of Edinburgh--Character of the Czar Emancipator--Precautions for the Safety of the Queen--Visit of the King and Queen of Sweden to Windsor--Prince Leopold becomes Duke of Albany--Deaths of Dean Stanley and Mr. Carlyle--Review of Scottish Volunteers--Assassination of President Garfield--The Royal Family--The Highlands--Holiday Pastimes--The Parnellites and the Irish Land Act--Arrest of Mr. Parnell--No-Rent Manifesto.