The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke, Vol. 2

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'On Sunday, May 17th, I dined with Edward Levy Lawson, [Footnote:
Afterwards the first Lord Burnham.] and met the Prince of Wales and
Randolph Churchill; and Randolph told the Prince and myself that
which he had previously told the Irish members--namely, that
Salisbury had promised to have no coercion; but I noted in my diary
that I did not believe this. I was wrong, for Salisbury afterwards
said at Newport that his mind had been made up against coercion long
before the change of Government. I knew that Randolph had seen
Parnell, as I had twice seen them together in Gosset's room, which
only Randolph and I ever used before 5 p m.'

There were now two separate subjects of division leading to resignations
in the Cabinet. There were those who would resign unless coercion was
renewed, and there was the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who was
resigning because he could not get his way as to the Budget. His
resignation was 'suspended'; but Mr. Gladstone was evidently anxious to
be out of it all.

'On the Sunday Childers informed us that he would go on for three
weeks. On Wednesday afternoon, May 20th, Mr. Gladstone spoke to me
at the House, and told me that he would go on until the end of the
Session, and would then resign, and that Hartington would try to
form a Government, although he might fail in getting one that could
agree on Irish proposals. Mr. Gladstone said nothing about land
purchase, but in the course of the afternoon he suddenly announced
publicly the introduction of a Land Purchase Bill, thinking, I
believe, that he had Chamberlain's consent to a Bill limited to one
year. I at once wrote him a letter of resignation, and then sent off
for Chamberlain, Lefevre, and Trevelyan.

'Chamberlain's interview with Mr. Gladstone that had misled the
latter had taken place after the Cabinet of Saturday--I think on the
morning of Monday, the 18th--and their meeting was on the subject of
Childers's Budget proposals. Chamberlain, writing to me about it,
said: "We are likely to want four millions less money. Therefore,
says Childers, let us have a new Budget and clap an additional tax
of L300,000 on wine." Chamberlain also wrote to me, after his
interview with Mr. Gladstone, on the Monday afternoon, telling me
that Randolph Churchill was going to give notice of a Committee to
inquire into the state of Ireland, that Churchill thought that we
should be out by that time and supporting him, and that he
contemplated a separation from his own leaders, and a union, on a
Radical Irish policy for "Local Government," and against coercion,
of the two sides from below the gangway. Chamberlain added that, if
the Russian matter "were out of the way, Mr. Gladstone would let us
go, and I think _we must go_." This correspondence had left me
unaware of any change in Chamberlain's view, if there was any, about
the Land Purchase Bill. As soon as Chamberlain reached the House on
the 20th, and heard from me what I had done, he also wrote a letter
of resignation; but he was not pleased, and perhaps rightly, at my
having taken so strong a step without consulting him on the precise
point.

'In Chamberlain's letter, which was sent at 6 p.m. on the 20th, he
said: "Dear Mr. Gladstone,--I have heard with great surprise that
you have this afternoon given notice of the introduction of a Land
Purchase Bill for Ireland, unaccompanied by any reference to the
large scheme of Local Government, the promise of which for next year
was the condition of the assent given by Sir Charles Dilke and
myself to the proposal for dealing with Land Purchase during the
present Session. I am convinced that a measure of the kind suggested
by Lord Spencer will have a distinct tendency to increase the
agitation for a separation between the two countries, and at the
same time will seriously prejudice the success of any such scheme of
Local Government as I have submitted to the Cabinet.... In the
circumstances I feel that I have no alternative but to place my
resignation in your hands."

'On the morning of May 21st Lefevre informed us that he should go
with us, and also wrote a letter of resignation, in which he said
that he did not agree with us as to Land Purchase, but that as we
went he must go, too, on coercion.

'Mr. Gladstone sent for me on the 21st, and I suggested a way out,
in our acceptance of the Land Purchase Bill, with a promise of "the
Local Government Scheme" for 1886. Mr. Gladstone fell in with this
view, and proposed that at Dublin, for which I was starting on
Friday morning, May 22nd, I should try to get Spencer's consent to
the limitation of the new Coercion Bill to a single year, and the
promise of the "Local Government Bill" for 1886. On the 21st Mr.
Gladstone wrote to me several times, as did also Chamberlain. Mr.
Gladstone had written to Chamberlain on the night of the 20th: "I
have never been in greater surprise than at the fresh trouble
developed this afternoon. I believed myself to be acting entirely
within the lines of your and Dilke's concurrence, and surely I am
right in thinking that you could not have supposed that the notice
of an intention to bring in a Bill offered the occasion on which to
refer to the distinct though allied subject of Local Government.
What I understood to be your and Dilke's procedure was to agree to a
Land Purchase Bill with a provision of funds for one year, which
would leave the whole measure ... dependent on a fresh judgment
which might be associated with Local Government as its condition. It
seems to me to be a matter which we may perfectly well consider, and
hope to arrange, in what terms reference shall be made to Local
Government when the Bill is brought in. Will not that be the time to
part, if part we must, which I do not believe? I send a copy of this
to Dilke, and will only add, to the expression of my surprise, my
deep concern."

'When I received a letter from Mr. Gladstone, enclosing a copy of
his to Chamberlain, I replied (first showing my answer to Lefevre
and sending it to Chamberlain) to the effect that the proposal to
introduce a Land Purchase Bill had been discussed by and rejected by
the Cabinet, that I could not concur in the reversal of its
judgment, and that, thinking as I did that a deliberate opinion of
the Cabinet had been disregarded without warrant, and having, so
thinking, resigned, I should be unable to attend any meeting of the
Cabinet if one were summoned. I have a letter from Chamberlain to Mr
Gladstone dated 21st, and two later ones from Mr. Gladstone to
myself. Chamberlain said:

'"My Dear Mr. Gladstone,

'"I fear there has been a serious misapprehension on both sides with
respect to a Land Purchase Bill, and I take blame to myself if I did
not express myself with sufficient clearness. I certainly never
imagined that the promise of introduction would be made without
further reference to the Cabinet, or without some definite decision
as to Local Government. I doubt very much if it is wise or even
right to attempt to cover over the serious differences of principle
that have lately disclosed themselves in the Cabinet. I think it is
now certain that they will cause a split in the new Parliament, and
it seems hardly fair to the constituencies that this should only be
admitted after they have discharged their functions, and when they
are unable to influence the result.

'"I am,

'"Yours sincerely,

'"J. CHAMBERLAIN."

'They _did_ "cause" a split in the new Parliament, but Spencer the
Coercionist and Chamberlain the Nationalist had changed places!'

'I do not know which of Mr. Gladstone's two letters dated the 21st
is the earlier. In the one Mr. Gladstone wrote: "I hope that my note
may have shown you that the time for considering your difficulty (if
there be one) has not arrived. Please to tell me if this is so, as
if it were not I should have to summon the Cabinet this afternoon to
report what has happened. The messenger will wait for an answer.--
Yours sincerely, W. E. Gladstone.--This is also for Chamberlain." I
replied somewhat curtly that if there were a Cabinet I could not
attend. The other letter referred to a conversation which had taken
place between Hamilton and Chamberlain, and said that the latter was
"willing that his letter should stand as _non avenu_ until after the
recess--i.e. (so I understand it), we should, before the Bill is
introduced, consider in what terms the subject of Local Government
should be referred to when the Bill is introduced. I am not trying
to bind you to this understanding, but if you and he will come here
at 3.0 we will try to get at the bottom of the matter." My reply
was:

'"21st May.

'"I certainly cannot withdraw my resignation unless the incident is
explained to the whole of the members of the Cabinet. If you could
see your way to circulate a box explaining that we were not
consenting parties to the reversal of the opinion of the Cabinet,
then I would try to help find some way out. I am, however, hopeless
as to the wisdom of doing so. We differ so completely on the
questions which will occupy the time of Parliament for the remainder
of the Session that I feel that the Cabinet cannot hold together
with advantage to the country. Lefevre strongly agrees with this
view Northbrook and Hartington, who, with Lefevre, were against
Chamberlain and myself on the merits, evidently felt as amazed as we
were at the reversal of the decision."'

'At this moment Chamberlain wrote to Mrs. Pattison' (in India) 'to
say that the times were "most anxious. Mr. Gladstone is certainly
going to retire soon, and the influence which has held together
discordant elements will be removed with him. Fortunately, we know
our own minds, and are not deficient in resolution, but it is not
always easy to see clearly the right times and way of giving effect
to our decisions. I do not myself believe that the struggle between
us and the Whigs can be long postponed. It has nearly come over the
question of Ireland, and even now we may be compelled to break off
on this vital point. In any case we shall not join another
Government nor meet another Parliament without a decision; and if it
is against our views, the split will be final and complete, and we
shall be out of office until we can lead a purely Radical
Administration. We must win in the end, but the contest will be a
bitter one, and may lead us farther than we contemplate at
present.... I was dining last Saturday with Lord Ripon, who
professed to be well pleased ... and declared his full adhesion to
the new gospel; but the majority of his class and school are getting
thoroughly frightened, and will probably quicken and intensify the
movement by setting themselves against it, instead of trying to
guide and direct it. A good deal depends on Lord Hartington. He is
constitutionally contemptuous of, and unsympathetic with, the
democratic sentiment of the times."

'By our telegrams of May 21st, I saw that on the 20th Sir John Kirk,
our man at Zanzibar, had been snubbed by Lord Granville, and I felt
that if I went out upon the Irish Question I should be able at least
to speak my mind as to the manner in which we had pandered to the
Germans on the Zanzibar coast.

'On May 21st I wrote to Grant Duff: "Mr. G. will resign at the end
of the session. I rather doubt Hartington being able to form a
Government."

'On the morning of Friday, May 22nd, I left for Dublin, and by
teatime was at the Viceregal Lodge.'

On the previous day Sir Charles had written:

'Local Government Board,
'May 21st, 1885.

'My Dear Grant Duff,

'Off to Ireland, where I expect to be Boycotted by both sides
[Footnote: It turned out the other way.]--by the Nationalists
because I stay with Spencer, and by the Orangemen because we sit at
the Mansion House.

'Yours,
'Chs. W. D.'

'As Mr. Gladstone at our last interview had bid me convert Spencer
if I could, and virtually promised that he would support our views
if Spencer would, I had asked Trevelyan and Harcourt to back me up
in letters. Harcourt made delay. Trevelyan wrote on the 23rd: "I am
sorry the whole thing is in the newspapers, and see in it another
reason for getting it settled. If you and Chamberlain make it a
point to have the Bill for a year, I should be glad to see the
concession made. The concession on the part of those who take
another view would not be greater than was made by those of us who
objected to have a Land Bill that was not based upon a new system of
Local Government."

'Early in the morning of Saturday, the 23rd, before the meeting of
my Commission at the City Hall, I had had a long talk with Spencer,
and I felt, more strongly than I ever had before, that his position
in Dublin was untenable, and that he ought to be allowed to go. On
Whit Sunday I attended church with Spencer, and in the afternoon
took him for the only walk which he had enjoyed for a long time. We
passed the spot where Lord Frederick Cavendish was killed, and
accompanied by a single aide-de-camp, but watched at a distance by
two policemen in plain clothes, and met at every street corner by
two others, walked to the strawberry gardens, and on our return, it
being a lovely Sunday when the Wicklow Mountains were at their best
and the hawthorn in bloom, met thousands of Dublin people driving
out to the strawberry gardens on cars. In the course of the whole
long walk but one man lifted his hat to Spencer, who was universally
recognized, but assailed by the majority of those we met with shouts
of, "Who killed Myles Joyce?" [Footnote: One of several men hanged
for the Maamtrasna murders. All the other men sentenced protested
that Myles Joyce was innocent, and died protesting it. Strong
efforts were made to gain a reprieve for this lad.] while some
varied the proceedings by calling "Murderer!" after him. A few days
later, when I was driving with Lady Spencer in an open carriage, a
well-dressed bicyclist came riding through the cavalry escort, and
in a quiet, conversational tone observed to us, "Who killed Myles
Joyce?" At his dinner-party on the Sunday evening Spencer told us
that a Roman Catholic priest [Footnote: Father Healy, parish priest
of Bray, and most famous of modern Irish talkers.] who was present
(the Vicar of Bray, I think, but not _the_ Bray) was the only priest
in Ireland who would enter his walls, while the Castle was boycotted
by every Archbishop and Bishop. On Monday morning, the 25th, Whit
Monday, I paid a visit to the Mansion House at the request of the
Lord Mayor of Dublin, taking by Spencer's leave the Viceregal
carriages there, where they had in his second viceroyalty not been
before, and was received by the Lord Mayor in state, which consisted
in much exhibition of the most gorgeous porter (in green and gold)
that my eyes had ever beheld. I afterwards went on to see Hamilton,
[Footnote: Sir Robert Hamilton, who had succeeded Mr. Bourke as the
permanent head of Dublin Castle.] the Under-Secretary. He offered us
as a maximum County Boards plus a Central Education Board for
Ireland, to administer all the grants with rating powers, and to be
called a great experiment to be extended if it answered. In the
evening I discussed this with Spencer, who went a little farther,
and offered, in addition to County Boards, four elective Central
Boards for Ireland, to discharge much the same duties which
Chamberlain's scheme gave to the Central Board; but Spencer
obstinately refused to take the plunge of making the four Boards
into one Board. It was on this point that we broke off; and he never
got farther forward until after the Government had gone out. He has
since declared that his conversion to a more advanced Home Rule
scheme than that of Chamberlain, which he had refused, was caused by
the return of a certain majority of Nationalist members; but he was
perfectly aware at this time what that majority would be, and I
confess that I have never been able to understand why Hamilton and
Spencer should have held out as they did in May against the moderate
scheme, and have supported the extreme one as early as July, which I
believe to have been the case. Had Spencer yielded at this moment,
it is at least possible that the Irish question would have been
settled. At all events, there has never been in our time so fair a
chance of settlement.

'On Tuesday, the 26th, I heard from Lefevre, who wrote strongly
against the Coercion Bill for Spencer's benefit, but added in a
separate letter that he regarded the notice in the _Birmingham Post_
as indicating that Chamberlain had been talking freely about the
dissensions in the Cabinet, and that if this was so he considered it
unfortunate, as tending to increase the difficulty of getting any
further concessions from Spencer or other members of the Cabinet who
favoured coercion.

'On Tuesday evening the Commission dined with Gray, and met Dr.
Walsh, the new Archbishop; but at Dr. Walsh's wish I had gone to
Gray's house half an hour before dinner to see the Archbishop
privately, and to be thanked by him for the part that I had taken in
trying to prevent opposition to the choice. In the evening Gray had
a party at which both sides were represented, Chief Justice Morris
being among those present. Gray's house, although the Spencers
disliked him, was one at which the parties always met as much as is
possible at all in Ireland. When Gray came out of gaol after his
imprisonment he gave a small dinner, at which were present the Judge
who had sentenced him, the gaoler who had had him in custody, and
the prosecuting counsel. The most interesting man at Gray's was
Fottrell, the man whose memoirs ought to be interesting, for he had
acted as intermediary between the Castle (that is, Hamilton) and
Parnell at the time when secret communications were passing between
them, although openly they were at war.

'Dickson, the Ulster Liberal member, [Footnote: M.P. For Dungannon,
Tyrone, 1880-1885. He afterwards became a leading Unionist.] was at
Gray's, and he announced that he had at last come over to
Chamberlain's scheme. Now, Hartington was crossing the next day to
stay at the Viceregal Lodge, and was to speak at Belfast under
Dickson's auspices, and the announcement of Dickson's change of
front was a startling blow to him and Spencer.

'On the morning of Wednesday, the 27th, I wrote to Grant Duff: "A
pretty pass you Whigs have brought this country to! I really think
we Radicals ought to be allowed to try. We certainly could not do it
_worse_. 'Poland' has been a byword, yet Poland is far less of a
weakness to Russia than Ireland to us, and the Russians have now the
Polish peasantry with them, if they have the towns and nobles
against them. _We_ have _no_ friends in Ireland. All our policy has
aimed at conciliating at least Ulster, and now Ulster is fast
becoming as Nationalist as Cork. The Liberals carried Belfast
freeholders in the late Antrim election to the cry of 'Down with
coercion!' and 'No special legislation!' Hartington comes to-night,
and I shall try to arrange some compromise with him and Spencer as
to the future--probably an Irish elective education Council."

'On the evening of the 27th I had a long conference with Hartington
and Spencer, in which I "worked" Dickson much. Before this I had had
the third meeting of my Commission, and then a public meeting in
connection with the Dublin Ladies' Central Association, a body
dealing with the Housing of the Working Classes. On the morning of
May 28th Spencer came into my bedroom before eight o'clock, and told
me that Hartington was very ill, suffering from sleeplessness and
fever, and that it would be quite impossible for him to make his
Belfast speech.... Dickson soon came to the Viceregal Lodge, and
earnestly begged me to go to Belfast in Hartington's place, but
under the circumstances I felt that it was impossible that I should
do so, although he promised me that a special train should be
waiting at the last moment if I would change my mind.

'I received this day a letter from Cardinal Manning strongly urging
that Chamberlain, Lefevre, and I, should stay in. "If you and the
like of you leave the Whigs, they will fall back and unite in
resisting you. So long as you are in contact with them, they will
yield to reason. These are the thoughts of an Old Testament
Radical." But the Old Testament Radical went on to make proposals to
me with regard to the Roman Catholic vote in Chelsea which would
have astonished the Old Testament prophets.

'Another letter which I received this day was from O'Shea about
Parnell's opinions on the Coercion Bill, but it is so obscure that I
can make nothing of it. It was on a suggestion of Lefevre's with
regard to bringing the Coercion Bill into force only by
"proclamation." It shows, however, if O'Shea is to be believed, that
Parnell was willing to accept a coercion measure of some kind, or,
at all events, to haggle about its terms, if publicly resisting it
as a whole.

'By the same post I received a letter from Heneage [Footnote: Mr.
Edward Heneage, for many years M.P. for Grimsby, and for a short
time Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in 1886. He was afterwards
a leading Unionist.] professing to state the general view of the
House of Commons, and pronouncing in favour of a liberal policy
towards Ireland. "(1) Non-renewal of the Crimes Act. (2) Amendment
of the jury laws. (3) Amendment of the purchase clauses. (4)
Abolition of the Lord Lieutenancy. (5) Improvement of Local
Government." This I showed to Spencer, with a memorandum of my own
in which I said that it was "a curious letter from a Whig." Spencer
wrote on my memorandum in returning the letter: "It is an odd
letter.... He wrote to me the other day about the abolition of the
Lord Lieutenancy, rather apologizing for bringing it on. I replied
deprecating any movement which might not go with action. To denounce
an office without at once abolishing it would weaken the hands of
him who filled it."

'I wrote to Lefevre and Chamberlain that Hartington had come very
well, and was very well at dinner, but bored at having to speak.
"Walker told him what I told him as to the unwisdom of speaking in
favour of coercion in Belfast immediately after the anti-coercion
speeches of the Liberals at the Antrim election; and to-day he is
ill. I do not know how far the two things are connected; but the
papers will _say_ they are."

'I lunched with Sir Edward Guinness and sat in the Speaker's chair
of the Irish Parliament; dined with Sir Robert Hamilton at the Yacht
Club at Kingstown; slept on board the boat and crossed next day;
spent Saturday to Tuesday at Dockett Eddy; and on Tuesday was at the
State Concert, where several of us tried to patch up some means of
being able to meet in Cabinet on June 5th. On Thursday, June 4th, I
had a long talk with Mr. Gladstone, and, on his agreeing to support
the Heneage-Lefevre-O'Shea proposal, now supported by Chamberlain,
for only bringing the Coercion Bill into force by a proclamation,
agreed to attend the Cabinet the next day, but without withdrawing
my resignation, which remained "suspended."

'I began on the 3rd and ended on the 5th June a letter to Grant Duff
in reply to one from him bidding me not break off from the
Government on any but a clear and obvious issue. I told him that (1)
Radicals in a minority would only ever get their way by often
threatening to go, even on secondary points, and that they must not
threaten unless they "meant it." (2) Mr. G. insisted he was "going."
"Therefore we have to count with Hartington. We doubt if we can form
part of a Hartington Government, and we can't do so if we do not ...
impose our terms by threats.... This is why I have been forcing the
pace of late.... Chamberlain is a little timid just now, in view of
the elections and the fury of the _Pall Mall_. I could not drive
Chamberlain out without his free consent, so I am rather tied.
Still, we shall (June 5th) get our own way, I fancy, at to-day's
Cabinet."