retirement of Lord
Cowper from the viceroyalty, and the appointment as his successor of Lord
Spencer, who had filled that post in Mr. Gladstone's first government. On
May 2nd, Mr. Gladstone read a memorandum to the cabinet to which they
agreed:--

The cabinet are of opinion that the time has now arrived when with
a view to the interests of law and order in Ireland, the three
members of parliament who have been imprisoned on suspicion since
last October, should be immediately released; and that the list of
suspects should be examined with a view to the release of all
persons not believed to be associated with crimes. They propose at
once to announce to parliament their intention to propose, as soon
as necessary business will permit, a bill to strengthen the
ordinary law in Ireland for the security of life and property,
while reserving their discretion with regard to the Life and
Property Protection Act [of 1881], which however they do not at
present think it will be possible to renew, if a favourable state
of affairs shall prevail in Ireland.

From this proceeding Mr. Forster dissented, and he resigned his office.
His point seems to have been that no suspect should be released until the
new Coercion Act had been fashioned, whereas the rest of the cabinet held
that there was no excuse for the continued detention under arbitrary
warrant of men as to whom the ground for the "reasonable suspicion"
required by the law had now disappeared. He probably felt that the
appointment of a viceroy of cabinet rank and with successful Irish
experience was in fact his own supersession. "I have received your
letter," Mr. Gladstone wrote to him (May 2), "with much grief, but on this
it would be selfish to expatiate. I have no choice; followed or not
followed I must go on. There are portions of the subject which touch you
personally, and which seem to me to deserve _much_ attention. But I have
such an interest in the main issue, that I could not be deemed impartial;
so I had better not enter on them. One thing, however, I wish to say. You
wish to minimise in any further statement the cause of your retreat. In my
opinion--_and I speak from experience_--viewing the nature of that course,
you will find this hardly possible. For a justification you, I fear, will
have to found upon the doctrine of 'a new departure.' We must protest
against it, and deny it with heart and soul."

The way