speeches of Bright in former days contained, and contain to this day, the most convincing and eloquent arguments in favour of Home Rule which I have ever read. How he could have taken the course he did a little later is to me a mystery. I had the warmest admiration for Bright in life, and I truly reverence him in death; but I think his course on the Irish Question shows the frailty even of the noblest and best among us.

'Towards the end of the Session I went down to Richmond to dine at a public dinner in connexion with Cyrus Field, a great hero of Transatlantic Telegraph. I expected a very interesting dinner, but, following the usual course of expectations, found it very dull. But the incident made me moralize. I remembered how wise and well-intentioned and hopeful men predicted, when first the Atlantic Cable was established, how it would greatly promote the peace of the world, Longfellow expressing the idea in the beautiful lines :

'Weave on, swift shuttle of the Lord, beneath the Deep afar The bridal-robe of Earth's accord, the funeral-shroud of War. The funeral-shroud of war"! and where are we now? Echo answers "where?"

But time went on, and the eyes of all politicians were turned to the General Election due in the Autumn, which was to decide the issue between Salisbury and Gladstone. I find my rough summary of events detailed in a manner which seems tolerably true, and I venture to reproduce it. 'The Autumn was spent in electioneering. Chamberlain made strong Radical speeches, which somewhat pleased Liberals and greatly displeased Tories. Gladstone issued a manifesto which did not say much, but implied that he was pretty ready to do what the new Parliament should desire. Salisbury raised the cry of "The Church in danger." 1

The immediate occasion of this cry was an article on Disestablishment in The Radical Programme, edited by the Right Hon. J. Chamberlain, M.P.

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When the Election came the Boroughs went very Tory -notably Leeds and Manchester, but the balance was redressed by the Counties, in which the new electorate gave many surprising Liberal victories. The Irish, who as a rule voted for the Tories everywhere, and who to a considerable extent caused the Liberal reverses in the Boroughs, got 85 Parnellites returned for Ireland, which also returned 15 Tories and not a single Liberal. On December 4, the Cockermouth Division of Cumberland polled as follows:

'I have always understood that the principal reason for this defeat was that the Irish in the Constituency, under the direction of Parnell (and there were 400 or 500 of them) voted for the Tory. Nobody likes to be beaten--whatever hypocrites may say—and I did not like it better than anybody else. When long ago, Macaulay was beaten at Edinburgh by one of the usual combinations of all the "Interests" against the march of progress, he sat down in the evening and wrote one of the most touching and beautiful poems extant. But, even if I had had the power to write a good poem on this defeat, there were not the elements for it, for even at the very moment of my overthrow the comic features of the affair presented themselves to me quite irresistibly. Here was I, who, in my humble way, had worked as hard as anyone to obtain the Franchise for my poorer countrymen, kicked out of Parliament by the labourers on the very first occasion. when they were able to use their new votes. Here, also, were the Irishmen, for whom I, almost alone among English Members, used to vote in the House of Commons, rallying almost solid for my overthrow. It was too funny, and even

now I smile when I think of it, notwithstanding the political discouragement of such a catastrophe, which, being brought about (as I have said above) by those who one thought were one's friends, recalled to mind Byron's lines on the Struck Eagle-though in applying it to myself the reader had better substitute Crow or Jackdaw for Eagle.

'So the struck Eagle, stretched upon the plain,
No more through rolling clouds to soar again,
Viewed his own feather on the fatal dart,
And winged the shaft that quivered in his heart;
Keen were his pangs, but keener far to feel
He nursed the pinion which impelled the steel,
While the same plumage that had warmed his nest
Drank the last life-drop of his bleeding breast.

'A little incident which occurred on the declaration of the Poll shows how unprepared were the public for this Tory triumph. The Cockermouth Post-Office was exactly opposite the place where the Poll was declared, and there were the newspaper correspondents gathered together with their telegrams ready for sending off instanter, and in every case they had prepared the name of Lawson at the top and Valentine at the bottom. But alas! It was a case of "the first being last and the last first"!

'My opponent was a worthy man who appealed pretty much to the working-men voters on Protectionist grounds. He was also a steady advocate of Temperance, and as he was ready to vote for the people being entrusted with the power to protect themselves from the Liquor-Traffic, I particularly impressed on the managers of the "Alliance" that they must not employ the funds and influence of that Association against my opponent. Very possibly, had they done otherwise, the small majority which decided the matter might not have been gained by the Tories. But it was far better to lose an Election than to do anything which might have

put the Alliance in a false position. The course taken was the straight one, and it is a true saying that "No one was ever lost on a straight road."

'A rather marvellous thing now happened. When the returns of the General Election were made up, it appeared that the two parties were equally divided, reckoning the eighty-five Irish Nationalists on the Liberal side. This, of course, really made the Irishmen masters of the situation, and able to defeat Lord Salisbury's Government, whenever they joined hands with the Liberals. This was just what Mr. Gladstone in one of his Election speeches had entreated the Constituencies to prevent, by returning a clear majority of Liberals; pointing out the great peril to political morality which would arise from such a position of parties. But now things were hurrying on to the greatest political crisis of our time.'

CHAPTER VIII

THE IRISH QUESTION

THE Election of 1885 was of course a bitter disappointment to all, whether enthusiasts or wire-pullers, who had hoped that the Liberal votes of the newly-enfranchised electors in the Counties would outweigh the hostile judgment of the Boroughs. Gladstone and his colleagues had rushed out of office in the previous June (when they could easily have retained their places and have introduced an amended Budget), because they thought that they could compose their internal differences more easily in Opposition than in office; and were serenely confident that the General Election would restore them to power. Their confidence was, as we have seen, not justified by the result; but, though not in office, the Liberals came back from the Election in a very satisfactory position. They were strong in numbers, in enthusiasm, and, at least for the moment, in union. They had at their head Gladstone's unique character and authority. In Mr. Chamberlain they had a wonderfully effective champion; the most skilful of demagogues, and just then at the zenith of his popularity. Their opponents were notoriously distracted by internecine jealousies, and dependent for their continuance in office on the precarious support of the Irish members. In a word, the Liberals were an exceptionally strong Opposition; and it seemed indisputable that, as soon as Parliament met, they would be able to drive the Government into a very tight place. But a totally unsuspected peril was at hand, and it burst with volcanic suddenness and violence. On December 17, 1885, the world was astounded by an anonymous paragraph stating that Mr. Gladstone, if he returned to office, was prepared to deal in a liberal spirit