me one said,
"Well, there's an end for ever of coercion at any rate," and every one
assented as to an obvious truth. Accordingly the result of the new
departure of the Salisbury Cabinet in 1885 was to convince even doubters
that Home Rule must come, and to make those already convinced anxious to
see it come quickly, and to find the best form that could be given it.
Many of us expected the Tory Government to propose it. Rumour declared
the new Lord Lieutenant to be in favour of it. His government was
extremely conciliatory in Ireland, even to the recalcitrant corporation
of Limerick. Not to mention less serious and less respected Tory
Ministers, Lord Salisbury talked at Newport about the dualism of the
Austro-Hungarian Monarchy with the air of a man who desired to have a
workable scheme, analogous, if not similar, suggested for Ireland and
Great Britain. The Irish Nationalists appeared to place their hopes in
this quarter, for they attacked the Liberal party with unexampled
bitterness, and threw all their voting strength into the Tory scale.

As it has lately been attempted to blacken the character of the Irish
leaders, it deserves to be remarked that whatever has been charged
against them was said or done by them before the spring of 1885, and
was, practically, perfectly well known to the Tory leaders when they
accepted the alliance of the Irish party in the House of Commons, and
courted their support in the election of 1885. To those who remember
what went on in the House in the sessions of 1884 and 1885, the horror
now professed by the Tory leaders for the conduct and words of the Irish
party would be matter for laughter if it were not also matter for just
indignation.

Why, it may be asked, if the persuasion that Home Rule was certain, and
even desirable, had become general among the Liberals who had sat
through the Parliament of 1880, was it not more fully expressed at the
election of 1885? This is a fair question, which I shall try to answer.

In the first place, the electors made few inquiries about Ireland. They
disliked the subject; they had not realized its supreme importance.
Those of us who felt anxious to explain our views (as was my own case)
had to volunteer to do so, for we were not asked about them. The Irish
party in the constituencies was in violent opposition to Liberal
candidates; it did not interrogate, but denounced. Further, it was felt
that the issue was mainly one to be decided in Ireland itse