ch measures as
were not offensive to Liberal Unionist principles. It still seemed
possible, moreover, that the Gladstonians might be brought to modify
their Home Rule proposals, and in January 1887 a Round Table conference
(suggested by Mr Chamberlain) was held between Mr Chamberlain, Sir G.
Trevelyan, Sir William Harcourt, Mr Morley and Lord Herschell. But no
_rapprochement_ was effected, and reconciliation became daily more and
more difficult. The influence of Liberal Unionist views upon the
domestic legislation of the government was steadily bringing about a
more complete union in the Unionist party, and destroying the old lines
of political cleavage. Before 1892 Mr Chamberlain had the satisfaction
of seeing Lord Salisbury's ministry pass such important acts, from a
progressive point of view, as those dealing with Coal Mines Regulation,
Allotments, County Councils, Housing of the Working Classes, Free
Education and Agricultural Holdings, besides Irish legislation like the
Ashbourne Act, the Land Act of 1891, and the Light Railways and
Congested Districts Acts. In October 1887 Mr Chamberlain, Sir L.
Sackville West and Sir Charles Tupper were selected by the government as
British plenipotentiaries to discuss with the United States the Canadian
fisheries dispute, and a treaty was arranged by them at Washington on
the 15th of February 1888. The Senate refused to ratify it; but a
protocol provided for a _modus vivendi_ pending ratification, giving
American fishing vessels similar advantages to those contemplated in the
treaty; and on the whole Mr Chamberlain's mission to America was
accepted as a successful one in maintaining satisfactory relations with
the United States. He returned to England in March 1888, and was
presented with the freedom of the borough of Birmingham. The visit also
resulted, in November 1888, in his marriage with his third wife, Miss
Endicott, daughter of the United States secretary of war in President
Cleveland's first administration.

At the general election of 1892 Mr Chamberlain was again returned, with
an increased majority, for West Birmingham; but the Unionist party as a
whole came back with only 315 members against 355 Home Rulers. In August
Lord Salisbury's ministry was defeated; and on the 13th of February 1893
Mr Gladstone introduced his second Home Rule Bill, which was eventually
read a third time on the 1st of September. During the eighty-two days'
discussion in the House of Commons Mr