y secretaries to the treasury; Lord F. Cavendish and Mr.
A. Greville were appointed lords of the treasury. On Sir John
Coleridge being appointed lord chief justice, and Sir George Jessel
master of the rolls, they were succeeded by Mr. Henry James as
attorney-general and Mr. Vernon Harcourt as solicitor-general. "We
have effectually extracted the brains from below the gangway," Lord
Aberdare wrote, Nov. 19, 1873, "Playfair, Harcourt, James, and Lord
Edmond Fitzmaurice, who is Lowe's private secretary, being gone,
will leave Fawcett all alone, for Trevelyan does not share his
ill-will towards the government."

294 30 and 31 Vict., cap. 102, sec. 52, and schedule H.

295 Sir Spencer Walpole thinks that Perceval's case (_Life of Perceval_,
ii. P. 55) covered Mr. Gladstone. In its constitutional aspect this
is true, but the Act of 1867 introduced technical difficulties that
made a new element.

M151 The Greenwich Seat

296 Yet Lord Selborne says that Coleridge 'must have been
misunderstood'!--_Memorials_, i. pp. 328-9.

297 21 and 22 Vict., c. 110 (1858).

298 Mr. Childers (_Life_, i. p. 220) writing after the election in 1874,
says, "It is clear to me that he would not have dissolved but for
the question about the double office." In the sentence before he
says, "Some day perhaps Gladstone will recognise his mistake in
August." This mistake, it appears, was going to the exchequer
himself, instead of placing Mr. Childers there (p. 219). I am sure
that this able and excellent man thought what he said about "the
question of the double office," but his surmise was not quite
impartial. Nor was he at the time a member of the cabinet.

_ 299 Memoir of Hope-Scott_ ii. p. 284.

M152 The Bath Election

300 To Lord Grey de Wilton, Oct. 3, 1873.

301 In 1871-73 the tories gained twenty-three seats against only one
gained by the liberals; in the first three years of the government
nine seats had been lost and nine gained.

"Individuals may recover from even serious sickness; it does not
appear to be the way with governments."--Mr. Gladstone, _Nineteenth
Century_, Sept. 1887.

M153 Actual Occasion For Dissolution

302 Dec. 2, 1873.

303 The conservatives had gained a seat at Stroud on Jan. 6, and greatly
reduced the liberal majority at Newca