upon the
resignation of Mr. Gladstone's, announced that it would not propose to
renew any part of the Coercion Act of 1882, which was to expire in
August. Here was a surrender indeed! But the Tory leaders went further.
They did not excuse themselves on the ground of want of time. They took
credit for their benevolence towards Ireland; they discovered excellent
reasons why the Act should be dropped. They even turned upon Lord
Spencer, whose administration they had hitherto blamed for its leniency,
and attacked him in Parliament, among the cheers of his Irish enemies.
From that time till the close of the General Election in December
everything was done, short of giving public pledges, to keep the Irish
leaders and the Irish voters in good humour. The Tory party in fact
posed as the true friends of Ireland, averse from coercion, and with
minds perfectly open on the subject of self-government.

This change of front, so sudden, so unblushing, completed the process
which had been going on in our minds. By 1882 we had come to feel that
Home Rule was inevitable, though probably undesirable. Before long we
had asked ourselves whether it was really undesirable, whether it might
not be a good thing both for England, whose Parliament and Cabinet
system it would relieve from impending dangers, while leaving free scope
for domestic legislation, and for Ireland, which could hardly manage her
affairs worse than we were managing them for her, and might manage them
better. And thus, by the spring of 1885, many of us were prepared for a
large scheme of local self-government in Ireland, including a central
legislative body in Dublin.[6]

Now when it was plain that the English party which had hitherto called
for repression, and had professed itself anxious for a patriotic union
of all parties to maintain order and a continuity of policy in Ireland,
was ready to bid for Irish help at the polls by throwing over repression
and reversing the policy it had advocated, we felt that the sooner
Ireland was taken out of English party politics the better. What
prospect was there of improving Ireland by the superior wisdom and
fairness of the British Parliament, if British leaders were to make
their Irish policy turn on interested bargains with Nationalist leaders?
Repression, which we clearly saw to be the only alternative to
self-government, seemed to be by common consent abandoned. I remember
how, at a party of members in the beginning of July, so