vision two members of the cabinet abstained, and so did two other
ministers out of the cabinet. In other cases, the same thing happened, not
only breaking discipline, but breeding much trouble with the Queen. Then
an unusual number of men of ability and of a degree of self-esteem not
below their ability, had been left out of the inner circle; and they and
their backers were sometimes apt to bring their pretensions rather
fretfully forward. These were the things that to Mr. Gladstone's
temperament proved more harassing than graver concerns.

II

All through the first two months of its business, the House showed signs
of independence that almost broke the spirit of the ministerial whips. A
bill about hares and rabbits produced lively excitement, ministerialists
moved amendments upon the measure of their own leaders, and the minister
in charge boldly taxed the mutineers with insincerity. A motion for local
option was carried by 229 to 203, both Mr. Gladstone and Lord Hartington
in the minority. On a motion about clerical restrictions, only a strong
and conciliatory appeal from the prime minister averted defeat. A more
remarkable demonstration soon followed. The Prince Imperial, unfortunate
son of unfortunate sire, who had undergone his famous baptism of fire in
the first reverses among the Vosges in the Franco-German war of 1870, was
killed in our war in Zululand. Parliament was asked to sanction a vote of
money for a memorial of him in the Abbey. A radical member brought forward
a motion against it. Both Mr. Gladstone and Sir Stafford Northcote
resisted him, yet by a considerable majority the radical carried his
point. The feeling was so strong among the ministerialists, that
notwithstanding Mr. Gladstone's earnest exhortation, they voted almost to
a man against him, and he only carried into the lobby ten official votes
on the treasury bench.

The great case in which the government were taken to have missed the
import of the election was the failure to recall Sir Bartle Frere from
South Africa. Of this I shall have enough to say by and by. Meanwhile it
gave an undoubted shock to the confidence of the party, and their
energetic remonstrance on this head strained Mr. Gladstone's authority to
the uttermost. The Queen complained of the tendency of the House of
Commons to trench upon the business of the executive. Mr. Gladstone said
in reply generally, that no doubt within the half century "there had been
considerable