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stituencies undoubtedly seduced some Conservative candidates into a dangerous dalliance with the Parnellite programme, and led some to hamper themselves with glib pledges about "equal law for England and Ireland,” which subsequent events have made it difficult for them to redeem.

The key-note of Mr Gladstone's appeal to the country was sounded in his first speech delivered in Edinburgh to the Mid-Lothian electors. He passionately urged his party to hold together, in order that, above all things, they should return a Liberal majority so considerable as to make it independent of the Irish vote in the House of Commons. He expressed the hope "that from one end of the country to the other there will not be a single representative returned. to Parliament who for one moment will listen to any proposition tending to impair the visible and sensible empire. Whatever demands may be made on the part of Ireland, if they are to be entertained they must be subject to the condition that the unity of the empire shall be preserved.”

Mr Parnell was not slow or ambiguous in reply. On November 21, the eve of the elections, the Irish Nationalist Council issued a manifesto, calling on their fellow-countrymen in England and Scotland to vote everywhere against the Liberals, who had "coerced Ireland and deluged Egypt with blood." No doubt this had its effect in contributing to the unexpected success of the Conservatives in that part of the electoral field where, of old, they had been weakest, but it could not account for it all. There had manifestly taken place in urban constituencies a notable growth of that kind of moderate opinion of which Smith had been the foremost exponent, almost the pioneer, when he carried. Westminster in 1868.

But the time had come for Smith to sever his connection with that historical borough. Redistribution, which had

left intact the City of London, abolished the double representation of Westminster, and divided the constituency into three single seats - Westminster, St George's, and the Strand. Leaving the first two to the care of Lord Algernon Percy and Mr Burdett-Coutts, Mr Smith carried his victorious colours into the Strand district, where he had little difficulty in routing his adversary, Mr Johnson, by a majority of 5645 against 2486.

The ground gained by the Conservatives in the boroughs was lost, and more than lost, in the English counties; whereupon Parnell, whose object it was to keep parties so evenly balanced as to leave any Government at the mercy of the Irish vote, became alarmed at the threatened preponderance of the Tories, and circulated fresh instructions that Irishmen were to vote Liberal.

Had that astute politician possessed absolute power of regulating the result of the elections exactly to suit the purposes of his party, he could not possibly have adjusted it with greater nicety, for the number of Liberals returned -335-was precisely the same as that of the Conservatives -249-and Home Rulers-86-added together. Mr Gladstone's entreaty for independence had been refused, and both the great parties were left at the mercy of the Irish vote in Parliament. It looked as if an impasse had been reached; but rumours, treated at first as incredible, got into circulation that the Liberal chief was about to perform a change of front transcending any feat of opportunism ever attempted by an English statesman. These rumours first took definite shape on December 16, when there appeared in some of the newspapers an outline of a scheme of Home Rule for Ireland attributed to Mr Gladstone. That gentleman immediately circulated a telegram to the following effect:

The statement is not an accurate representation of my views, but

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is, I presume, a speculation on them. It is not published with my knowledge or authority, nor is any other beyond my own public declarations.

It is not too much to say that nobody attached any importance to this Delphic utterance: people had learned by experience that its author never committed himself to a statement that was not open at both ends. Before the close of the year it came to be generally understood that Mr Gladstone, determined to regain office at any cost of political honour to himself, and at any hazard to the security of the kingdom, had purchased the Irish vote by undertaking to formulate a complete measure of Home Rule.

It was no holiday task to which Smith had set his hand at the War Office. War had been averted, it is true, but the storm was still rumbling in the East, and England could not afford to relax precautions. On November 15, Smith writes to his daughter Emily:—

I am anxious and low-spirited about Eastern affairs. It looks very much as if the great war was about to break out, and the troubles and calamities which may result from it. God only knows, and He only can deliver this country from great misfortunes.

On December 23 came a letter from H.R.H. the Commander-in-Chief, urging the necessity, in view of the threatening aspect of affairs, of a large increase in the army, and enclosing a letter from Sir Frederick Stephenson, commanding in Egypt, giving a discouraging description of the outlook there.

To this the Secretary for War replied as

I have read General Stephenson's interesting letter. It is not a cheerful one, but it has the great merit of discussing the situation with complete frankness.

I have taken the liberty of sending a copy of it to Lord Salisbury, as he is in the daily receipt of messages from Sir H. D. Wolff praying for a reoccupation of Dongola.

We did not come to any final decision at our meeting yesterday; but my colleagues recognised the extreme difficulty of increasing the strength of the army by any sudden spurt. It appears to be clear that if the time-expired men are allowed to go, we cannot at the present rate of recruiting add more than 8000 men in each year to the total strength. I have therefore inclined to the conclusion that we must first of all fill up our existing cadres, and provide sufficiently strong depots to meet the case of Regiments with both battalions abroad. This will absorb, I think, the whole addition which we can hope to get in the course of the coming year, and I am doubtful whether it will be possible to do so much. I shall not be afraid to say on paper what I should wish to do if men could be got, but we must wait, I think, for the formation of the new cadres until at least some men are available for them.

CHAPTER XIX.

1886-1887.

It would be hard to say to which of the two great parties the events of 1886 were destined to prove the more lasting in their consequences, and the immediate position was almost equally perplexing to both. Lord Salisbury was Prime Minister, but as the Government could only reckon 249 supporters among the 670 members of the House of Commons, it was but a question of how many weeks or days after the meeting of Parliament should run before the inevitable downfall of the Administration. But no indication had been given by their adversaries of a definite policy on the dominant question of the day-the government of Ireland. The project attributed to Mr Gladstone, of conceding Home Rule in such measure as would secure to him the support of the Irish party at Westminster, remained as nebular and hypothetical as when it was first bruited in December.

The Earl of Carnarvon's resignation of the Viceroyalty of

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Ireland was followed by that of his Chief Secretary, Sir William Hart Dyke. This office, which had of late years become the most onerous in the Government, could no longer be adequately filled by a Minister outside the Cabinet. But it was a post which possessed less attractions than any other. During the late Administration it had been filled by three successive Ministers in five years: of these the first had resigned because his colleagues would not suffer him to carry out his policy; the second had been assassinated; of the third, anxiety and worry had changed his comely black beard and hair to snowy white. To whom could Lord Salisbury turn at this most trying juncture but to the man who had never failed in any trial-to his War Minister, W. H. Smith?

Confidential.

HATFIELD HOUSE, Dec. 17, '85.

MY DEAR SMITH,--As you know, has refused the Lord Lieutenancy. But now comes a new complication. Last night Dyke came to Beach, & afterwards to me, & explained that he did not want to go on as Irish Secretary. . Now it is possible to go on without a Viceroy by the help of Lords Justices, but it is not possible to go on without an Irish Secretary. Are you disposed to take it? supposing, of course, that we are not immediately turned out. I need not tell you how much confidence such an appointment would give to the party & the country. It is not a question whether the acceptance of this proposal would be an advantage to the country-of that there can be no doubt-but whether you will take it. It is the post of difficulty now, & therefore the post of honour. . . . The difficulties are formidable: I am afraid you are the only person who can avert them.-Ever yours very truly, SALISBURY.

The offer made in these frank terms was accepted from a plain sense of duty. Everybody understood Smith's motives in doing so, none more clearly than his own colleagues.

One line [wrote Lord George Hamilton from the Admiralty] to say how I admire your patriotism, self-sacrifice, and courage for undertaking the Irish Secretaryship. It is an act as gallant & self-denying as any that has won the V.C. in action. . . . You have extricated the Government from a really serious embarrassment.

From the Board of Trade came a letter from the Right