ambition, but Lord Hartington was too
experienced in affairs not to know that to be head of a group that held
the balance was, under such equivocal circumstances, far the more
substantial and commanding position of the two. Mr. Goschen's case was
different, and by taking the vacant post at the exchequer he saved the
prime minister from the necessity of going back under Lord Randolph's
yoke. As it happened, all this gave a shake to both of the unionist wings.
The ominous clouds of coercion were sailing slowly but discernibly along
the horizon, and this made men in the unionist camp still more restless
and uneasy. Mr. Chamberlain, on the very day of the announcement of the
Churchill resignation, had made a speech that was taken to hold out an
olive branch to his old friends. Sir William Harcourt, ever holding
stoutly in fair weather and in foul to the party ship, thought the
break-up of a great political combination to be so immense an evil, as to
call for almost any sacrifices to prevent it. He instantly wrote to
Birmingham to express his desire to co-operate in re-union, and in the
course of a few days five members of the original liberal cabinet of 1886
met at his house in what was known as the Round Table Conference.(220)

A letter of Mr. Gladstone's to me puts some of his views on the situation
created by the retirement of Lord Randolph:--

_Hawarden, Christmas Day, 1886._--Between Christmas services, a
flood of cards and congratulations for the season, and many
interesting letters, I am drowned in work to-day, having just at
1-1/4 P.M. ascertained what my letters _are_. So forgive me if,
first thanking you very much for yours, I deal with some points
rather abruptly.

1. Churchill has committed an outrage as against the Queen, and
also the prime minister, in the method of resigning and making
known his resignation. This, of course, they will work against
him. 2. He is also entirely wrong in supposing that the finance
minister has any ruling authority on the great estimates of
defence. If he had, he would be the master of the country. But
although he has no right to demand the concurrence of his
colleagues in his view of the estimates, he has a rather special
right, because these do so much towards determining budget and
taxation, to indicate his own views by resignation. I have
repeatedly fought estimates to the extremity, with an intention of