e
understood, and home rule he understood, but a quasi-parliament in Dublin,
not calling itself such though invested with most of the authority of a
parliament, seemed to him to lead to the demand for fuller recognition. If
we were forced, he said, to move beyond local government as commonly
understood, he would rather have Ireland treated like Canada. "But the
difficulties every way are enormous." On this Mr. Gladstone wrote a little
later to Lord Granville (Aug. 6):--

As far as I can learn, both you and Derby are on the same lines as
Parnell, in rejecting the smaller and repudiating the larger
scheme. It would not surprise me if he were to formulate something
on the subject. For my own part I have seen my way pretty well as
to the particulars of the minor and rejected plan, but the idea of
the wider one puzzles me much. At the same time, _if_ the election
gives a return of a decisive character, the sooner the subject is
dealt with the better.

So little true is it to say that Mr. Gladstone only thought of the
possibility of Irish autonomy after the election.

IV

Apart from public and party cares, the bodily machinery gave trouble, and
the fine organ that had served him so nobly for so long showed serious
signs of disorder.

_To Lord Richard Grosvenor._

_July 14._--After two partial examinations, a thorough examination
of my throat (larynx _versus_ pharynx) has been made to-day by Dr.
Semon in the presence of Sir A. Clark, and the result is rather
bigger than I had expected. It is, that I have a fair chance of
real recovery provided I keep silent almost like a Trappist, but
all treatment would be nugatory without this rest; that the other
alternative is nothing dangerous, but merely the constant passage
of the organ from bad to worse. He asked what demands the H. of C.
would make on me. I answered about three speeches of about five
minutes each, but he was not satisfied and wished me to get rid of
it altogether, which I must do, perhaps saying instead a word by
letter to some friend. Much time has almost of necessity been
lost, but I must be rigid for the future, and even then I shall be
well satisfied if I get back before winter to a natural use of the
voice in conversation. This imports a considerable change in the
course of my daily life. Here it is difficult to organise it
afresh. At Haward