y at a general
election.

The prospect was dubious and dark. To Mr. Bright he wrote from Hawarden
(Aug. 14):--

MY DEAR BRIGHT,--(Let us bid farewell to _Misters_.) ... As to the
parliamentary future of the question of education, we had better
talk when we meet. I remember your saying well and wisely how we
should look to the average opinion of the party. What we want at
present is a _positive_ force to carry us onward as a body. I do
not see that this can be got out of local taxation, or out of the
suffrage (whether we _act_ in that matter or not, and individually
I am more yes than no), or out of education. It may possibly, I
think, be had out of _finance_. Of course I cannot as yet see my
way on that subject; but until it is cleared, nothing else will to
me be clear. If it can be worked into certain shapes, it may
greatly help to mould the rest, at least for the time. I think the
effect of the reconstruction may be described as follows: First,
we have you. Secondly, we have emerged from the discredit and
disgrace of the exposures by an administration of mild penal
justice, which will be complete all round when Monsell has been
disposed of. Thirdly, we have now before us a clean stage for the
consideration of measures in the autumn. We must, I think, have a
good bill of fare, or none. If we differ on the things to be done,
this may end us in a way at least not dishonourable. If we agree
on a good plan, it must come to good, _whether_ we succeed or fail
with it. Such are my crude reflections, and such my outlook for
the future. Let me again say how sensible I am of the kindness,
friendship, and public spirit with which you have acted in the
whole of this matter.

In the early part of the year his mind was drawing towards a decision of
moment. On January 8, 1874, he wrote a letter to Lord Granville, and the
copy of it is docketed, "First idea of Dissolution." It contains a full
examination of the actual case in which they found themselves; it is
instructive on more than one constitutional point, and it gives an
entirely intelligible explanation of a step that was often imputed to
injurious and low-minded motives:--

_Hawarden, Jan. 8, 1874._--The signs of weakness multiply, and for
some time have multiplied, upon the government, in the loss of
control over the legislative action of the House of Lord