ormality, but in truth
the Cabinet knew nothing of the interview. Lord Salisbury was informed
that it was going to take place, raised no objection to its occurrence,
and on receiving afterwards, both _verbatim_ and in writing, accounts of
what had occurred, praised the discretion of his Viceroy.

In view of what had happened it was not surprising that in the month of
August Mr. Parnell made an explicit demand for the restoration of
Grattan's Parliament, with the right of taxing foreign and even English
imports for the benefit of the Irish home trade--a proposal not so
revolutionary as it would now appear, seeing that less than forty years
had elapsed since the Irish Custom House had for the first time begun to
admit all English goods duty free.

Mr. Parnell's manifesto was followed by Lord Salisbury's speech at
Newport, from which quotation has already been made, in which he
expressed himself of opinion that Home Rule would be safer than popular
local government, and further enhanced the impression that he was moving
in the direction of the safer policy, by proceeding to frame what has
been described as the nearest approach to an apologia for boycotting
which has ever been made by an English statesman. The election address
of Lord Randolph Churchill--the most popular and influential minister in
the country--contained no allusion to the threatened "dismemberment of
the Empire," and in his campaign his only allusion to Ireland was
comprised in boasts of the success of the anti-coercion policy of
Carnarvon; while Sir John Gorst, who had been Solicitor-General,
referred in his election address in disparaging terms to "the
reactionary Ulster members." All the symptoms pointed in the one
direction of an alliance between Salisbury and Parnell on the basis of a
scheme for self-government, and an additional point was given to the
indications in that direction by the fact that Mr. Chamberlain and Lord
Hartington, at variance on most points of policy, were united in
opposition to Mr. Parnell's demand.

The statesmanlike manner in which at this juncture Mr. Gladstone
endeavoured, as he himself put it, to keep the strife of nations from
forming the dividing line between parties, has become very apparent with
the recent publication of documents of the period. Two years before, he
had told the Queen that the Irish question could only be settled by a
conjunction of parties, and on December 20th, 1885, he wrote to the
Conservative le