1889 DECEASED WIFE'S SISTER BILL 103 



The letter in question is as follows : — 



April 30, 1889. 



Dear Lord Hartington — I am assured by those who 

 know more about the political world than I do, that if 

 Lord Salisbury would liold his hand and let his party do 

 as they like about the D.W.S. Bill which is to come on 

 next week, it would pass. Considering the irritation 

 against the bishops and a certain portion of the lay peers 

 among a number of people who have the means of making 

 themselves heard and felt, which is kept up and aggra- 

 vated, as time goes on, by the action of the Upper House 

 in repeatedly snubbing the Lower, about this question, I 

 should have thought it (from a Conservative point of 

 view) good policy to heal the sore. 



The talk of Class v. Mass is generally mere clap-trap ; 

 but, in this case, there is really no doubt that a fraction 

 of the Classes stands in the way of the fulfilment of a 

 very reasonable demand on the part of the Masses. 



A clear-headed man like Lord Salisbury would surely 

 see this if it were properly pressed on his attention. 



I do not presume to say whether it is practicable or 

 convenient for the Leader of the Liberal Unionist party 

 to take any steps in this direction ; and I should hardly 

 have ventured to ask you to take this suggestion into 

 consideration if the interest I have always taken in the 

 D.W.S. Bill had not recently been quickened by the 

 marriage of one of my daughters as a Deceased Wife's 

 Sister.— I am, etc. 



Meantime the effect of Eastbourne, which Sir 

 John Donnelly had induced him to try, was indeed 

 wonderful. He found in it the place he had so long 

 been looking for. References to his health read very 

 differently from those of previous years. He walked 

 up Beachy Head regularly without suffering from 



