ne interferes with him ... as if he could go
to Suakim, 'summon' a barbarous potentate, make him supply his
escort to Khartoum, and, when at Khartoum, issue edicts right and
left; as if he could act without subaltern officers, money, stores,
gold, etc.; as if he were an _homme drapeau_, and had an old army
out there ready to troop round him, as the French veterans round
Bonaparte at Frejus."

In Parliament, the principal work of 1884 was to extend the
Parliamentary Franchise to the Agricultural Labourer. A Tory Member said
in debate that the labourers were no more fit to have the franchise than
the beasts they tended; and Lord Goschen, who had remained outside the
Cabinet of 1880 sooner than be party to giving them the vote, used to
say to the end of his life that, if the Union were ever destroyed, it
would be by the agricultural labourers. I, however, who had lived among
them all my life and knew that they were at least as fit for political
responsibility as the artisans, threw myself with ardour into the
advocacy of their cause. (By the way, my speech of the Second Reading of
the Franchise Bill was answered by the present Speaker[39] in his maiden
speech.) All through the summer the battle raged. The Lords did not
refuse to pass the Bill, but said that, before they passed it, they must
see the accompanying scheme of Redistribution. It was not a very
unreasonable demand, but Gladstone denounced it as an unheard-of
usurpation. We all took our cue from him, and vowed that we would smash
the House of Lords into atoms before we consented to this insolent
claim. Throughout the Parliamentary recess, the voices of protest
resounded from every Liberal platform, and even so lethargic a
politician as Lord Hartington harangued a huge gathering in the Park at
Chatsworth. Everything wore the appearance of a constitutional crisis.
Queen Victoria, as we now know, was seriously perturbed, and did her
utmost to avert a rupture between Lords and Commons. But still we
persisted in our outcry. The Lords must pass the Franchise Bill without
conditions, and when it was law, we would discuss Redistribution. A new
Session began on 23rd of October. The Franchise Bill was brought in
again, passed, and sent up to the Lords. At first the Lords seemed
resolved to insist on their terms; then they wavered; and then again
they hardened their hearts. Lord Salisbury reported that they would not
let the Franchise Bill thr