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  From the Reform Act of 1867 to the Home Rule Bill of 1886; Part 5

From the Reform Act of 1867 to the Home Rule Bill of 1886; Part 5

During these troublous years Gladstone's own cabinet was not harmonious. In ability the ministry was strong. The Duke of Argyll and Lord Spencer, both able men, belonged to it. Lord Hartington was at the India Office, and Lord Granville at the Foreign Office. The more advanced sections in the party were represented by John Bright and Mr. Chamberlain. The Speaker, however, expressed the opinion that it would be a difficult team to drive, and so it proved. The old Whigs and the new Radicals contained elements too diverse for a satisfactory combination. The former, like political boa constrictors, as someone said of Lord Hartington, had to swallow instalment after instalment of the diet provided by the latter, a process which soon led to the retirement of the Duke of Argyll. This was not the only resig­nation; disagreements about Irish coercion led to that of Forster, the Irish secretary, and about Egyptian affairs, to that of Bright. Threats of such a course were plentiful; it is said, indeed, that within a period of one month nine of the cabinet, for one reason or another, contemplated resignation. Moreover, though the official opposition, under Sir Stafford Northcote (Lord Beaconsfield died in 1881), was somewhat feeble in its criticism, a small group of four independent Conservatives, calling themselves the "Fourth Party" (The Irish party was the third party), of whom Lord Randolph Churchill and Mr. Balfour afterwards became the most famous, made pungent and unceasing attacks upon the policy pursued by the Government.

Finally, in 1885, Gladstone was beaten on a small point in the House of Commons, and resigned. He was succeeded by the Marquis of Salisbury, who had served in Disraeli's Govern­ment, first as secretary of state for India, and then, on Lord Derby's resignation in 1878, as foreign secretary. He was in power, however, for only a short time, as, in the general election which ensued in 1886, Gladstone was again successful, and returned to office. But Ireland was to be Gladstone's undoing. He had gradually come to the conviction that the only solution of the Irish question lay in allowing the Irish to have Home Rule— a Parliament of their own, subject, in such matters as customs duties, the army and navy, and foreign policy, to the Imperial supremacy. His opponents maintained that his final decision in favour of this policy was due to the fact that a combination of the Conservative and the Irish members in the new House of Commons exactly balanced the Liberal members, and that therefore, without Irish support, his position was extremely precarious. But, whatever his motives, he produced the Home Rule Bill, with a result that was disastrous to his own party. / Many of his chief supporters deserted him, including Lord Hartington, Mr. Chamberlain, and Mr. Bright. Opponents of the bill feared that under the bill the Protestant and progressive minority that lived in the north of Ireland would be sacrificed to the Roman Catholics, and that Home Rule for Ireland was but a stepping-stone to complete separation. As a consequence the bill was thrown out in the House of Commons, amidst great excitement, by a majority of 30 votes. Gladstone, on appealing to the country, was beaten, and Lord Salisbury returned to office.

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