rd Hartington wrote to him, and here is his reply:--

_August 2, 1886._--I fully appreciate the feeling which has
prompted your letter, and I admit the reality of the difficulties
you describe. It is also clear, I think, that so far as title to
places on the front opposition bench is concerned, your right to
them is identical with ours. I am afraid, however, that I cannot
materially contribute to relieve you from embarrassment. The
choice of a seat is more or less the choice of a symbol; and I
have no such acquaintance with your political views and
intentions, as could alone enable me to judge what materials I
have before me for making an answer to your inquiry. For my own
part, I earnestly desire, subject to the paramount exigencies of
the Irish question, to promote in every way the reunion of the
liberal party; a desire in which I earnestly trust that you
participate. And I certainly could not directly or indirectly
dissuade you from any step which you may be inclined to take, and
which may appear to you to have a tendency in any measure to
promote that end.

A singular event occurred at the end of the year (1886), that produced an
important change in the relations of this group of liberals to the
government that they had placed and maintained in power. Lord Randolph,
the young minister who with such extraordinary rapidity had risen to
ascendency in the councils of the government, suddenly in a fatal moment
of miscalculation or caprice resigned (Dec. 23). Political suicide is not
easy to a man with energy and resolution, but this was one of the rare
cases. In a situation so strangely unstable and irregular, with an
administration resting on the support of a section sitting on benches
opposite, and still declaring every day that they adhered to old liberal
principles and had no wish to sever old party ties, the withdrawal of Lord
Randolph Churchill created boundless perturbation. It was one of those
exquisite moments in which excited politicians enjoy the ineffable
sensation that the end of the world has come. Everything seemed possible.
Lord Hartington was summoned from the shores of the Mediterranean, but
being by temperament incredulous of all vast elemental convulsions, he
took his time. On his return he declined Lord Salisbury's offer to make
way for him as head of the government. The glitter of the prize might have
tempted a man of schoolboy