hcote, however,
had special difficulties to face. Mr. Gladstone, still full of energy
and fire, was leading the majority. After a few months Lord
Beaconsfield's mantle no longer covered Northcote (that redoubtable
strategist died in April 1881), and a small but active group of Tory
members set up an irregular skirmishing Opposition on their own
account, paying little heed to his moderate counsels. The Tory party
was then furious at its unexpected defeat at the election of 1880. It
was full of fight, burning for revenge, eager to denounce every
trifling error of the Ministry, and to give battle on small as well as
great occasions. Hence it resented the calm and cautiously critical
attitude which Northcote took up. He had plenty of courage; but he
thought, as indeed most impartial observers thought, that little was
to be gained by incessantly worrying an enemy so superior in force and
flushed with victory; that premature assaults might consolidate a
majority within which there existed elements of discord; and that it
was wiser to wait till the Ministry should begin to make mistakes and
incur misfortunes in the natural course of events, before resuming the
offensive against them. There is a natural tendency to reaction in
English popular opinion, and a tendency to murmur against whichever
party may be in power. This tendency must soon have told in favour of
the Tories, with little effort on their own part; and when it was
already manifest, a Parliamentary attack could have been delivered
with effect. Northcote's view and plan were probably right, but, being
too prone to yield to pressure, and finding his hand forced, he
allowed himself to be drawn by the clamour of his followers into
aggressive operations, which, nevertheless, himself not quite
approving them, he conducted in a half-hearted way. He had not Mr.
Gladstone's power of doing excellently what he hated to have to do.
And it must be admitted that from 1882 onwards, when troubles in
Ireland and oscillations in Egyptian policy had begun to shake the
credit of the Liberal Ministry, he showed less fire and pugnacity than
the needs of the time required from a party leader. In one thing the
young men, who, like Zulu warriors, wished to wash their spears, were
right and he was wrong. He conceived that frequent attacks and a
resort to obstructive tactics would damage the Opposition in the eyes
of the country. Experience has shown that parties do not greatly
suffer from th