fear he expressed at Edinburgh, that it would be a
'vital danger' to the Empire, if Home Rule came on for discussion
'without the presence in Parliament of a party totally independent of
the Irish vote,' on these questions, with which all England was busy,
Mr. Gladstone said never a word. He relied on the virtue he assumed to
protect him from inconvenient questionings, and meanwhile the
Nationalists were invited to reflect during the Christmas holidays, that
perhaps after all their best friend was at Hawarden.

Mr. Chamberlain followed up the rumour of a settled scheme by a prompt
denial that he was a party to it, and added an emphatic statement of the
way in which he and his friends read the Midlothian speeches--'all
sections of the party were determined that the integrity of the Empire
should be a reality, and not an empty phrase.' Mr. Chamberlain had
listened to his great leader too long not to be aware of the importance
of marking the distinction between a 'reality' and a 'phrase.' In a few
days Lord Hartington too wrote to say, that he was no party to the
suggested policy.

The ultimate result of the elections left the government at Christmas
only 251 votes, and the Liberals 333. Had it been clear that the
Liberal party were united in a scheme, which was consistent with the
current of British opinion, the solution would have been simple enough.
Had the appeals for straightforward dealing, made more than once during
the election by Lord Salisbury and Lord Randolph Churchill, been
responded to, the Government might have made way for a Liberal Ministry,
the best men on both sides recognizing, what the soundest public opinion
required, that the Irish vote of 86 should be disregarded on questions
affecting the existence of a Cabinet; but before the elections were all
over, the divisions in the Liberal party were obvious. Mr. Gladstone had
returned with more eagerness than ever to the policy of Irish ideas,
whilst experience had at length opened the eyes of his ablest
lieutenants.

In such a condition of affairs, the only course for Lord Salisbury's
Government was to await the onset of their opponents, meanwhile applying
themselves to settle that scheme of Irish policy which they as a party
were prepared to champion in office or out of office. They met
Parliament with an emphatic declaration to maintain the Union, and a few
days afterwards announced that further legislation in defence of public
order was necessary. Th