xxvi POLITICAL REMINISCENCES 19 



with all her daughter islands about her, stay us in this 

 felicity " : and grant I will add, that we may hand down 

 to our children, whole and unimpaired, the glorious 

 inheritance bequeathed to us by our fathers. 



In April of this year they had moved from 

 Piccadilly into 2 St. James's Square, which, as 

 Sir John notes, they liked very much, finding the 

 comparative quiet a great relief. 



On May 16 his son Eric was born. 



On June 16 he seconded Mr. Cremer's motion 

 for Arbitration, as he had the previous one moved 

 by Mr. Candlish. Gladstone made a charming 

 speech, very sympathetic, but suggesting a slight 

 change of words, which they accepted, and the 

 resolution was carried unanimously. The value 

 of such expressions of opinion has been sufficiently 

 attested by the steady increase in armaments, 

 and by the slight progress of arbitration in the 

 subsequent years. 



On July 17 he opened the new laboratories at 

 Guy's Hospital, and afterwards was presented, on 

 behalf of the London Chamber of Commerce, with 

 an address, recording a vote of thanks for his 

 services, in a silver case. 



Since the end of the preceding month, when he 

 had struck his knee against the corner of a table, 

 he had been continuously in pain, and was able to 

 do his work only with great difficulty and suffer- 

 ing. It was a tempestuous time in the House. 

 On July 27 he notes : " Went down to vote on 

 the closured clauses and there was a very tumultu- 

 ous scene, T. P. O'Connor calling Chamberlain 

 ' Judas ' — a real free fight, the Home Rulers and 

 some few Gladstonians behaving disgracefully." 



