and Fenians, aided by branches in Scotland and England, and by
funds from America, defying the law of the land in Ireland. Not a word
in all this about Home Rule, or the Union of Hearts, but we cheered it
to the echo, little dreaming what the next six months had in store for
us.

Though I was thoroughly in favour of resolute dealing with murder and
outrage, I was also--and this was a combination which sorely puzzled
_The Spectator_--an enthusiastic Radical, and specially keen on the side
of social reform. My views on domestic politics were substantially the
same as those set forth with extraordinary vigour and effect in a long
series of speeches by Mr. Chamberlain, who was now unmuzzled, and was
making the fullest use of his freedom. He was then at the very zenith of
his powers, and the scheme of political and social reform which he
expounded is still, in my opinion, the best compendium of Radical
politics; but it tended in the direction of what old-fashioned people
called Socialism, and this was to Gladstone an abomination. One day, to
my consternation, he asked me if it was true that Socialism had made
some way among the younger Liberals, of whom I was then one.
Endeavouring to parry a question which must have revealed my own guilt,
I feebly asked if by Socialism my venerable Leader meant the practice of
taking private property for public uses, or the performance by the State
of what ought to be left to the individual; whereupon he replied, with
startling emphasis: "I mean both, but I reserve my worst Billingsgate
for the attack on private property."

On the 18th of September Gladstone issued his Address to the Electors of
Midlothian--an exceedingly long-winded document, which seemed to commit
the Liberal Party to nothing in particular. _Verbosa et grandis
epistola_, said Mr. John Morley. "An old man's manifesto," wrote the
_Pall Mall_. By contrast with this colourless but authoritative
document, Mr. Chamberlain's scheme became known as "The Unauthorized
Programme," and of that programme I was a zealous promoter.

As soon as the Franchise Bill and the Redistribution Bill had passed
into law, it was arranged that the dissolution should take place in
November. The whole autumn was given up to electioneering. The
newly-enfranchised labourers seemed friendly to the Liberal cause, but
our bewildered candidates saw that their leaders were divided into two
sections--one might almost say, two camps. This was a condition of