lections. I may be wrong in my view of
the matter generally; but I can only judge for the best. I do not
see that I am wanted or should be of use in the House of Lords,
and there would be more discrepancy between rank and fortune,
which is a thing on the whole rather to be deprecated. On the
other hand, I know that the line I have marked out for myself in
the H. of C. is one not altogether easy to hold; but I have every
disposition to remain quiet there, and shall be very glad if I can
do so.

VI

Letters from two of his colleagues explain the catastrophe. The shrewd
Lord Halifax says to him (Feb 12):--

As far as I can make out people are frightened--the masters were
afraid of their workmen, manufacturers afraid of strikes,
churchmen afraid of the nonconformists, many afraid of what is
going on in France and Spain--and in very unreasoning fear have all
taken refuge in conservatism. Ballot enabled them to do this
without apparently deserting their principles and party. Things in
this country as elsewhere are apt to run for a time in opposite
directions. The reaction from the quiet of Palmerston's government
gave you strength to remove four or five old-standing abuses which
nobody had ventured to touch for years. The feelings of those who
suffer from the removal of abuses are always stronger than those
of the general public who are benefited. Gratitude for the Reform
bill and its sequel of improvements hardly gave a liberal majority
in 1835, and gratitude for the removal of the Irish church,
purchase, etc., has not given us a majority in 1874.

(M157) Mr. Bright wrote to him that as things had turned out, it would
perhaps have been wiser first to secure the budget; with that and better
organisation, the result might have been better three or six months later.
In Lancashire, said Bright, publicans and Irishmen had joined together,
one for delirium tremens and the other for religious education. The 25th
clause and Mr. Forster's obstinacy, he added, had done much to wreck the
ship. Mr. Gladstone's own diagnosis was not very different. To his brother
Robertson he wrote (Feb. 6):--

For many years in the House of Commons I have had more fighting
than any other man. For the last five years I have had it almost
all, and of it a considerable part has been against those
"independent" liberals whose charact