y of 91. Lord John
Russell was displaced in 1852 by 9. The Derby government was thrown out in
December 1852 by 19. The same government was again thrown out seven years
later by 13. Palmerston was beaten in 1857 by 14, and the next year by 19.
In 1864 Palmerston's majority on the Danish question was only 18. The
second reading of the Franchise bill of 1866 was only carried by 5, and
ministers were afterwards beaten upon it by 11. With Mr. Gladstone's
accession the ruling majority for a long time stood at its highest both in
size and stability.

With invincible optimism, Mr. Gladstone believed that he would now have
"material communications from the heads of the Irish church"; but letters
from Lord Spencer at Dublin Castle informed him that, on the contrary,
they were angrier after they knew what the majority meant, than they were
before. At the diocesan conferences throughout Ireland the bill was
denounced as highly offensive to Almighty God, and the greatest national
sin ever committed. The Archdeacon of Ossory told churchmen to trust to
God and keep their powder dry, though he afterwards explained that he did
not allude to carnal weapons. The cabinet was called a cabinet of
brigands, and protestant pastors were urged to see to it that before they
gave up their churches to an apostate system a barrel of gunpowder and a
box of matches should blow the cherished fabrics to the winds of heaven.

Even Mr. Disraeli's astuteness was at fault. The Archbishop of Canterbury
perceived from his conversation that he was bent on setting the liberals
by the ears, that he looked for speeches such as would betray utter
dissension amid professed agreement, that he had good hopes of shattering
the enemy, and "perhaps of playing over again the game that had destroyed
Lord Russell's Reform bill of 1866." The resounding majority on the second
reading, he told the archbishop, was expected; it created no enthusiasm;
it was a mechanical majority.(179)

The bill swept through the stages of committee without alteration of
substance and with extraordinary celerity, due not merely to the "brute
majority," nor to the confidence that all was sure to be undone in another
place, but to the peculiar powers developed by the minister. From the
speech in which he unfolded his plan, down to the last amendment on
report, he showed a mastery alike of himself and of his project and of the
business from day to day in hand, that routed opposition and gave new