448 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. (THE NEW MINISTRY.) 



division was taken. Mr. Gladstone intimated 

 that the ministry would resign if the amend- 

 ment were carried. The debate resulted in 

 a vote of 264 Conservatives and Parnellites 

 against 252 Ministerialists. The ministry were 

 at once suspected of inviting their own defeat, 

 since at the last moment the debate might 

 have been adjourned and a ministerial major- 

 ity secured, in order to escape from a dead-lock 

 on the Irish question. The Crimes Act was 

 about to expire, and the Radical members of 

 the Cabinet were opposed to its renewal. Mr. 

 Gladstone desired to discontinue coercion, but 

 the Whigs in the ministry insisted on preserv- 

 ing exceptional powers, though agrarian crime 

 had practically ceased, and Lord Spencer was 

 unwilling to continue in office if the law were 

 allowed to lapse. A compromise was reached 

 by which the coercive clauses were to ba 

 dropped, but the procedure clauses, relating to 

 change of venue and special juries, and the 

 penalties against boycotting, retained. On the 

 question as to whether the boycotting clauses 

 should be left subject to executive discretion, 

 there was an irreconcilable difference of opin- 

 ion. Mr. Gladstone announced the resignation 

 of the Cabinet on June 9, the day after the ad- 

 verse vote. The Marquis of Salisbury was re- 

 luctant to undertake the task of carrying on 

 the Government with a minority in the House 

 of Commons, and without the opportunity of 

 appealing to the country, for a dissolution was 

 out of the question before the registration of 

 voters under the new franchise and redistribu- 

 tion bills should be completed. It was urged 

 upon the Government that they were not justi- 

 fied in exposing the country to a minority ad- 

 ministration under these circumstances, but 

 Mr. Gladstone declared that there was no other 

 way but to resign, and argued that the Con- 

 servatives could not refuse office after their 

 unsparing attacks on the Government. Lord 

 Salisbury asked for pledges from the Liberals 

 that Government business should have the pre- 

 cedence in the House, and that there should be 

 no opposition to an issue of Exchequer bonds 

 to cover the deficit. Mr. Gladstone declined 

 to commit his party to a promise, though will- 

 ing to express a belief that there would be no 

 disposition to embarrass the Government. Mr. 

 Gladstone and Lord Salisbury submitted their 

 views to the Queen, and kept up a correspond- 

 ence for two weeks. Those Conservatives 

 who were least hopeful of the results of the 

 general election desired to secure for their party 

 the distribution of honors and patronage inci- 

 dent to the assumption of office, and many be- 

 lieved in the tactical advantage of a lea'se of 

 power, however brief. Finally the Conserv- 

 ative leaders concluded to undertake the re- 

 sponsibility without pledges from the Liber- 

 als. They decided to promote Lord Randolph 

 Churchill to a prominent place in the party 

 councils, and to provide posts for the other 

 representatives of the "fourth party," because 

 they relied on Churchill's popular development 



of Toryism as the chief means of gaining the 

 support from the democracy of the towns and 

 the new county electorate. As Lord Randolph 

 Churchill was unwilling to co-operate with Sir 

 Stafford Northcote, the urbane leader of the 

 party in the lower house was transferred to 

 the House of Peers with the title of the Earl 

 of Iddesleigh, giving up his place to Sir Mi- 

 chael Hicks-Beach. The outgoing ministry, be- 

 sides promoting a number of existing peers, 

 created six new ones, among them Mr. Samuel 

 Morley and Sir Nathaniel de Rothschild. The 

 Conservatives created a number of peerages 

 upon taking office, all of them, except one, 

 connected with the construction of the Cabi- 

 net. Mr. Gladstone declined an earldom. 



The New Ministry. This was constituted on 

 June 24. It consisted of the large number of 

 sixteen members, as many as sat in the previ- 

 ous Cabinet. Lord Salisbury became Prime 

 Minister and Secretary of State for Foreign 

 Affairs. Sir Stafford Northcote became First 

 Lord of the Treasury, a post connected with 

 the premiership since the days of Walpole. Sir 

 Michael Hicks-Beach, as Chancellor of the Ex- 

 chequer, assumed the leadership of the House 

 of Commons. Lord Randolph Churchill was 

 made Secretary of State for India, an appoint- 

 ment that was construed abroad as indicating 

 an aggressive attitude toward Russia. Sir 

 Richard Cross became Secretary of State for 

 the Home Department; Mr. W. H. Smith, 

 Secretary of State for War ; Lord John Man- 

 ners, Postmaster-General; Col. Stanley, Secre- 

 tary of State for the Colonies ; Lord George 

 Hamilton, First Lord of the Admiralty; Mr. 

 Stanhope, Vice-President of the Council ; Sir 

 Hardinge Gifford, Lord Chancellor, with the 

 title of Lord Halsbury ; Lord Cran brook, Presi- 

 dent of the Council; Lord Harrowby, Lord 

 Privy Seal ; the Duke of Richmond, President 

 of the Board of Trade; Lord Carnarvon, 

 Lord Lieutenant of Ireland; and Mr. Gibson, 

 raised to the peerage with the title of Lord 

 Ashbourne, Chancellor of Ireland, with a seat 

 in the Cabinet. Outside the Cabinet Mr. Ar- 

 thur Balfour became President of the Local 

 Government Board ; Mr. Plunkett, First Com- 

 missioner of Works ; Mr. Chaplin, Chancellor 

 of the Duchy of Lancaster; and Sir William 

 Hart-Dyke, Chief Secretary for Ireland. Sir 

 Henry Drummond Wolff, the only member of 

 the " fourth party " not provided with an office, 

 was appointed a special commissioner to in- 

 quire into the Egyptian question, though his 

 selection was much criticised on account of his 

 connection with the Anglo-Egyptian Bank and 

 of his strictures oo the character and acts of 

 the Khedive. A brief sketch of each of the 

 members of the new ministry is given below 

 except the Premier, for whose history see SAL- 

 ISBURY, MARQUIS OF. 



Sir Henry Stafford Northcote, Earl of Iddes- 

 leigh, sat in the House of Commons from 1855 

 until he accepted a peerage upon the formation 

 of the Cabinet. He was member for North 



