n down
as a party engine. It had made the Ministry of 1868, but it had failed
to preserve it. Mr. Gladstone retired from the leadership of the party
to the greater freedom of an independent member of Parliament, and in
this capacity led the stormy agitation against Lord Beaconsfield, making
the foreign policy of England a party question.

Meanwhile the theory of the Southport speech, and the results which had
attended it, were not forgotten in Ireland. The Home Rule movement,
which was denounced so angrily at Aberdeen, enlisted all the resources
of local sentiment, feelings similar to those which make a Lancashireman
proud of Lancashire, a Scotchman delight in Scotch associations. Among
its promoters were professors, poets, Irish Catholics, who were glad to
show themselves on a public platform without being the puppets or the
opponents of their bishops, Irish Protestants, who were irritated at the
desertion of the Irish Church, a number of well-meaning people who were
attracted by the opportunity of talking eloquently and vaguely about
nothing in particular. This Academic scheme of Home Rule found an
admirable exponent in Mr. Butt, an able lawyer of ambitious politics.

What answer were Liberals to give to this new embodiment of their great
statesman's theory? They denounced Mr. Butt, pondering feebly meanwhile
what it all meant; but the Home Rule organization, once set a-going, was
soon permeated by the Fenian spirit. Platitudes about 'patriotism' and
'green Erin' meant to an Irish crowd, 'Down with England and with
landlords.' That great hotbed of disatisfaction, Irish popular feeling,
supplied stimulating nutriment to the new party. In proportion as
hostility to England was more openly declared, funds came in rapidly
from the Irish in America. Year by year the Home Rule members gained in
parliamentary power, one section of the Liberal party after another
giving them encouragement--in the first place because they were
troublesome to a Tory Ministry, in the second because the flaccid
thought of modern Liberalism made them welcome any organization, which
would save them the trouble of facing the difficulties of Irish
administration.

In 1880 the public took no heed to Lord Beaconsfield's historic warning,
that danger was brewing in Ireland. The Liberal legislation of ten years
before had, they tried to believe, disposed of Irish difficulties in
their most serious aspect. Both before and after the General Election
the