mbodying the "three acres and a cow" of the Radical
programme. Unlike Lord Hartington (afterwards duke of Devonshire) and
other Liberals, who declined to join Mr Gladstone in view of the altered
attitude he was adopting towards Ireland, Mr Chamberlain entered the
cabinet as president of the Local Government Board (with Mr Jesse
Collings as parliamentary secretary), but on the 15th of March 1886 he
resigned, explaining in the House of Commons (8th April) that, while he
had always been in favour of the largest possible extension of local
government to Ireland consistently with the integrity of the empire and
the supremacy of parliament, and had therefore joined Mr Gladstone when
he believed that this was what was intended, he was unable to consider
that the scheme communicated by Mr Gladstone to his colleagues
maintained those limitations. At the same time he was not
irreconcilable, and he invited Mr Gladstone even then to modify his bill
so as to remove the objections made to it. This indecisive attitude did
not last long, and the split in the party rapidly widened. At Birmingham
Mr Chamberlain was supported by the "Two Thousand," but deserted by the
"Caucus" and Mr Schnadhorst. In May the Radicals who followed Mr Bright
and Mr Chamberlain, and the Whigs who took their cue from Lord
Hartington, decided to vote against the second reading of the Home Rule
Bill, instead of allowing it to be taken and then pressing for
modifications in committee, and on 7th June the bill was defeated by 343
to 313, 94 Liberal Unionists--as they were generally called--voting
against the government. Mr Chamberlain was the object of the bitterest
attacks from the Gladstonians for his share in this result; he was
stigmatized as "Judas," and open war was proclaimed by the Home Rulers
against the "dissentient Liberals"--the description used by Mr
Gladstone. The general election, however, returned to parliament 316
Conservatives, 78 Liberal Unionists, and only 276 Gladstonians and
Nationalists, Birmingham returning seven Unionist members. When the
House met in August, it was decided by the Liberal Unionists, under Lord
Hartington's leadership, that their policy henceforth was essentially to
combine with the Tories to keep Mr Gladstone out. The old Liberal
feeling still prevailing among them was too strong, however, for their
leaders to take office in a coalition ministry. It was enough for them
to be able to tie down the Conservative government to su