._--From such information as has indirectly reached Mr.
Gladstone, he fears that the leaders of the majority in the House
of Lords will undoubtedly oppose the second reading of the Irish
Church bill, of which Lord Harrowby is to propose the rejection.
He understands that Lord Salisbury, as well as Lord Carnarvon,
decidedly, but in vain, objected to this course at the meeting
held to-day at the Duke of Marlborough's. Very few of the bishops
were present. Lord Derby, it is said, supported the resolution.
Although a division must now be regarded as certain, and as very
formidable, all hope need not be abandoned that your Majesty's
wise counsels through the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the
sagacity of the peers themselves with reference to the security
and stability of their position in the legislature, may avail to
frustrate an unwise resolution.

"How much more effectually," Mr. Gladstone wrote to Hawarden, "could the
Queen assist in the settlement of this question were she not six hundred
miles off." As it was, she took a step from which Mr. Gladstone hoped for
"most important consequences," in writing direct to Lord Derby, dwelling
on the danger to the Lords of a collision with the Commons. In a record of
these proceedings prepared for Mr. Gladstone (August 4, '69), Lord
Granville writes:--

Before the second reading of the Irish Church bill in the House of
Lords, I was asked by the Archbishop of York to meet him and the
Archbishop of Canterbury. They said it was impossible for them to
vote for the second reading in any case, but before they decided
to abstain from voting against it they wished to know how far the
government would act in a conciliatory spirit. I made to them the
same declaration that I afterwards made in the House, and after
seeing you I had another interview with the Archbishop of
Canterbury. I told his grace that it was impossible for the
government to suggest amendments against themselves, but I gave a
hint of the direction in which such amendments might be framed,
and, without mentioning that the suggestion came from you, I said
that if his grace would tell Dr. Ball that he only wished to
propose amendments which it would be possible for the government
to accept, that learned gentleman would know better than others
how it could be done. The archbishop, however seems chiefly to