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XXVII Ireland and party politics, 1885–7 : an unpublished Conservative memoir (III)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2016
Extract
Gladstonian apologists have effectively distorted the intentions of the conservative government during the period 1885-7 in which Holmes was a member of it. Carnarvon’s unofficial meeting with Parnell, and Conservative ambiguity over the need for a new crimes act, provided two easy handles for criticism which could be used without any knowledge of the inner workings of the ministry of 1885-6. Holmes’s memoir is therefore of value in showing that there was a distinctly conservative policy on Ireland, a policy which in intention if not in performance stands up well to examination in conservative (or liberal) terms. It is certainly made clear that conservative policy, where liberal, did not reflect only the stereotyped opportunism of habitual weakness: and that, in cases where a reactionary policy prevailed, this cannot be taken as evidence of an ultimately reactionary disposition towards Ireland within the cabinet. Further, the very obvious hesitancy and equivocation of the cabinet on Irish matters turns out to hinge on opposition of personalities who were in underlying agreement, rather than on differences of principle or on any real attempt or desire to manoeuvre astutely.
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References
1 ‘Home rule’ before Gladstone’s bill must be taken to comprehend any assembly of Irishmen sitting in Dublin to transact whatever business might be entrusted to them. Parnell’s demands, outside finance, were notoriously hard to pin down.
2 At least six diaries survive relating to the liberal cabinet of 1885.
3 On deposit in the East Suffolk County Record Office, Ipswich.
4 B.M., Add. MS 50063 A, typescript.
5 These were Cranbrook, Iddesleigh, Richmond, Smith, Stanley, Manners, Ashbourne, Harrowby, Beach, Halsbury, and Gross. All these collections have been visited, except in the case of Stanley, where official reports appeared to indicate an absence of significant material. Some Stanhope papers for 1885–6 were used, but others were at the time of writing partly unavailable pending rearrangement; the relevant portion of Lord George Hamilton’s papers could not be traced.
6 Lord George Hamilton was the only minister in the 1885-6 cabinet to publish an orthodox autobiography. Balfour, who was not in the cabinet, retorted in Chapters of autobiography to Viscount Gladstone’s After thirty years. Balfour’s significance at this time may however be indicated by the fact that extant correspondence between Balfour and Salisbury in the Balfour MSS from June 1885 to March 1886 totals one letter, while there are only a handful of letters from Balfour in the Salisbury MSS during this period (only one of which dealt with Ireland).
7 We are grateful to the marquess of Salisbury, the earl of St Aldwyn, the earl of Harrowby, the earl of Halsbury, the earl of Cranbrook, Viscount Chilston, Lord Brabourne, Lord Ashbourne, Mr Randolph Churchill, and Messrs W. H. Smith for allowing access to papers in their possession.
8 Brabourne met Halsbury on 26 Jan. 1886 and was told of his agitation for ‘a bold and firm policy’ (Diary, 27 Jan., Knatchbull MSS U951F27/10). Cranbrook and Halsbury seemed to have shared a peculiarly alarmist predisposition. In 1887 they thought Scotland was on the verge of revolution (Cranbrook to Halsbury, 7 Oct. 1887, Halsbury MSS).
9 In this connection the opinion of Ashbourne, a member of the shadow cabinets of both Beaconsfield and Bonar Law, is interesting. He thought that Balfour ‘presided over the cabinet with more … authority than Lord Salisbury—i.e. he kept the members more clearly to what they were supposed to be about’ (Ashbourne MSS, Autobiographical notes). It is probable that in 1885–6 Salisbury was both deliberately incoherent in his handling of the cabinet as an administrative instrument, and also really did lack flair for dealing with it.
10 Ashbourne to Carnarvon, 16 Jan., Carnarvon MSS, P.R.O. 30/6/ 56/116; Cranbrook’s diary, 10 Jan.; Fitzgibbon to Churchill, 16 and 18 Jan., Churchill MSS XI/1354–5.
11 ‘I don’t know exactly what Carnarvon thought about home rule during our term of office. His language was always vague’ even though his instructions had been ‘exceedingly explicit’—Salisbury to Brabourne, 25 June 1886, Knatchbull MSS U95/C174/8.
12 Iddesleigh however blamed Salisbury : ‘in home affairs he has disappointed me. He has not guided colleagues, but has thrown questions loosely before us, taken a decision, and proposed himself ready to adopt the decision of the cabinet whatever it might be. The course he has pursued with regard to Ireland has been peculiarly unsatisfactory’ (Iddesleigh’s diary, B.M., Add. MS 50063 A, f. 437, 6 Feb. 1886). Later exegesis found it convenient to ignore Salisbury’s probably largely deliberate role as a boneless wonder in this ministry, and concentrate on Carnarvon’s undeniable weaknesses.
18 Carnarvon drew up three memoranda in autumn 1885. Only that of 11 December could be found among the (partly destroyed) Carnarvon papers (P.R.O. 30/6/127/21) or the cabinet papers (P.R.O. CAB 37/16/ 64). The other two dated 6 October and 23 November, are in Hardinge, , Carnarvon (1925), 3, 192–5, 198–9.Google Scholar
14 Carnarvon to Harrowby, 25 Sept. and 5 Oct. 1885, Harrowby MSS, LII/144–7: Cranbrook to Carnarvon, 4 Aug. 1885, and Carnarvon’s reply, 5 Aug., Carnarvon MSS, P.R.O. 30/6/55/10–11.
15 Carnarvon to Ashbourne 6 Nov. 1885, Ashbourne MSS.
16 Balfour, A.J., Chapters of autobiography (1930), pp 112–6.Google Scholar
17 Iddesleigh’s diary, B.M., Add. MS 50063 A, typescript, f. 437, 6 Feb. 1886.
18 Iddesleigh to Carnarvon, 7 Sept.; Manners to Carnarvon 28 Aug.; Carnarvon MSS, P.R.O. 30/6/55/17 and 19.
19 Memorandum by Carnarvon, , 1886, in Hardinge, , Carnarvon, 3, 218.Google Scholar
20 A further recommendation by Carnarvon in favour of a grant of £6,000 to the Royal University was supported by Churchill alone (Harrowby to Carnarvon, 22 July 1885, Carnarvon MSS, P.R.O. 30/6/ 55/8).
21 E. D. Gray to Churchill, 23 Aug., Churchill MSS VII/825; Churchill to Carnarvon 21 Sept., Carnarvon MSS, P.R.O. 30/6/55/21.
22 Ashbourne, Autobiographical notes, in Ashbourne MSS.
23 Memorandum by Carnarvon, 1886 ( Hardinge, , Carnarvon, 3, 218).Google Scholar
24 Carnarvon to the queen (copy), 26 Aug., Carnarvon MSS, P.R.O. 30/6/53/7:
25 Hardinge, , Carnarvon, 3, 197, 201.Google Scholar
26 Fitzgibbon to Churchill 9 Sept., Churchill MSS, VII/883; 7 Dec, X/1149; Churchill to Fitzgihbon (copy), 14 Oct., VIII/978, In all, 17 letters were sent by Fitzgibbon to Churchill between August 1885 and February 1886. Carnarvon, who called to see Fitzgibbon on 7 December while Fitzgibbon was writing to Churchill, was surprised at the ‘extreme length & care’ of the correspondence. Fitzgibbon’s papers do not appear to have survived.
27 Churchill’s private memorandum to Salisbury, 3 Dec. 1885, Salisbury MSS, class E.
28 Memorandum in Carnarvon’s hand, Carnarvon MSS, P.R.O. 30/6/67/37.
29 Churchill to Smith, 3 Jan., Hambleden MSS, PS 9/100; Smith to Churchill, 3 Jan., Churchill MSS, XI/1242. A university bill was drawn up, and printed in great secrecy on 19 December, but no local government bill was prepared.
30 Holmes’s assertion that Churhill at one stage suggested the arrest of the Parnellite M.P.s for high treason may well be borne out by a letter of 16 January from Fitzgibbon to Churchill (Churchill MSS, XI/1354). In it Fitzgibbon strongly advised against a ‘coup d’état’ on suspicion of treason.
31 It is dated 14 January (Churchill MSS, XI 1232).
32 Fitzgibbon to Churchill, 16 and 18 Jan., loc. cit., XI/1354–5.
33 By mid-January Ashbourne had parted company with Carnarvon and become an orthodox coercionist of the Cranbrook type. In mid-December Fitzgibbon has described him as ‘contentedly careless’ (Churchill MSS, X/1161); within three weeks he was deeply pessimistic about Ireland. His vagaries did not raise his stock with his colleagues; it was partly because Ashbourne ‘does not offer much assistance and seems as if he wished to drift and would make no effort to stay the stream’, that Cranbrook first roused himself in early January to rally the cabinet to orthodox principles, ‘the first principle of our party’ being ‘respect for loyalty, order, and law’ (Cranbrook to Cross, 4 Jan. 1886, B.M., Add. MS 51267).
34 The relevant archives contain no communication between Hartington and Salisbury in the period preceding April 1886. On 5 April 1886, Salisbury wrote to Hartington proposing to call at 12 (Devonshire MSS, 340/1961); the last extant letter between them before that date was on 1 Dec. 1884, on the franchise crisis. However, Hartington called on Salisbury on 3 March 1886 to discuss cooperation, according to Lindsay, J.K., The liberal unionist party until December 1887, Ph.D. thesis, Edinburgh (1956), p. 82.Google Scholar
35 Guy Dawnay, surveyor-general of ordnance, to Akers Douglas, 18 Jan., Chilston MSS, U 564/C 164/1; and Fitzgibbon to Churchill, 16 Jan., Churchill MSS, XI/1354.
36 Smith to Balfour, 24 Dec. 1885, B.M., Add. MS 49696.
37 Cranbrook noted in his diary on 16 Jan. that according to Albert Grey, Brooks, like Grey himself, was ‘Conservatively disposed At both the Reform and National Liberal clubs, it was reported’ ‘the feeling has been very strong agst home rule’ (Arthur Elliot to Sellar, n.d., Jan. 1886, Elliot MSS); yet in the end, only 18 liberals mustered to keep Salisbury in office on 26 January.
38 Chamberlain to Labouchere, 26 Dec, in Thorold, A., Labouchere (1913), p. 272 Google Scholar; Chamberlain to Düke, 21 Dec, B.M., yîdd. MS 43940, f. 97. No letters between Chamberlain and any conservative leaders survive for this period.
39 Hartington to Gladstone, 15 Jan., B.M., Add. MS 44148, f. 201; Gladstone to Granville, 18 Jan., in Ramm, , The political correspondence of Gladstone and Granville 1876–86 (1962), p. 423 Google Scholar; E. Hamilton’s diary, 19 Jan., B.M., Add. MS 48642, f. 94.
40 Carnarvon to Salisbury, 7 Dec, Salisbury MSS, class E ; Balfour to Salisbury, 23 Dec, B.M., Add. MS 49688; also Salisbury to Cross, 11 Dec, B.M., Add. MS 51263.
41 Carnarvon to Salisbury, loc. cit.
42 Balfour to Salisbury, loc. cit.
43 James to Churchill, n.d. but early Dec. 1885, Churchill MSS, Χ/1127, X1147; Chaplin to Churchill, 8 Dec. 1885, Churchill MSS, X/1153. A later exchange of notes between Hartington and Churchill was of no consequence, Churchill apologising (Devonshire MSS, 340/1902) for an offensive election speech at Manchester, and Hartington acknowledging (14 Jan. 1886). The collapse of Churchill’s manoeuvre of early December was obliquely recorded by Hartington : ‘H. James told me that he saw R. Churchill at the Oppenheims in a very bad humour. He said that he was to understand that all that he had said to him before was completely at an end; and that now their only object would be to harm us’ (Hartington to duchess of Manchester, 15 Dec. 1885, Devonshire MSS). This conversation reflected Churchill’s defeat at the cabinets of 14 and 15 December 1885.
44 Churchill’s aims outlined in his memorandum of 3 December printed in Churchill, W.S., Lord Randolph Churchill, 2, 8–14,Google Scholar were rejected by Salisbury on 9 December (Churchill MSS, X/1157a).
45 Goschen’s letters to the queen (two on 22 Dec, and one on 3 Jan.) urging a united front to prevent disruption of the empire, in fact simply indicate the kind of approach that politicians with less tenuous party ties could not consider seriously.
46 Duke of Manchester to Henry Manners, Salisbury’s secretary, 31 Dec, Salisbury MSS, D/46/62.
47 Cranbrook typically informed Salisbury that party feeling was firmly against ‘eccentric’ moves (Cranbrook to Salisbury, 31 Dec, Salisbury MSS, class E).
48 Cecil, Lady Gwendolen, Life of Robert, marquess of Salisbury (1931), 3, 294.Google Scholar There are no surviving letters from Hartington to Salisbury before 1892. The copy of a letter (mis)dated 31 December 1885 from Salisbury to Beach reporting negotiations with Hartington, which is in the St Aldwyn MSS (PCC/69), in fact must refer to the cabinet crisis of a year later (1886–7).
49 Manners to Salisbury, 28 Dec, Salisbury MSS, D/48/388.
50 Grosvenor to Gladstone, 8 Jan., BJVL, Add MS 44316, ff 170–1; Brett to Ripon, 21 Dec, Ripon Papers, B.M., Add. MS. 43544 f. 27E. Hamilton wrote to Rosebery in the same sense (3 Dec, Rosebery MSS, box 25). Apparently Churchill had given this false impression to Erskine May, who in turn unwittingly mislead E. Hamilton (Churchill to Salisbury, 29 Nov. 1885,• Salisbury MSS).
51 The Times and Standard, 4 Jan.; Esher, , Extracts from journals (1914), pp 141–3.Google Scholar
52 Cranbrook to Carnarvon, 17 Dec, Carnarvon MSS, P.R.O. 30/6/ 55/46.
53 Salisbury to Churchill, 11 Dec, Churchill MSS, X/1163.
54 Labouchere to Churchill, 25 Dec, and 6, 7 and 8 Jan., Churchill MSS, X/1206 and XI/1255 ff.
55 Gladstone to the queen, 23 May 1885, in Buckle, G.E. (ed.)., The letters of Queen Victoria, 1862–85 (London, 1928), 3, 652–5.Google Scholar
56 Gladstone to Ponsonby, 2 June 1885, Ponsonby MSS, B.M., Add. MS 45724, f. 181.
57 Carnarvon to Salisbury, Carnarvon MSS, 25 Nov., P.R.O. 30/6/ 55/36; Dilke’s diary, Düke MSS, B.M., Add. MS 43927, ff 5–7; Labouchere to Chamberlain, 25 Dec, in Thorold, A., Labouchere, pp 262–3.Google Scholar
58 Churchill to Salisbury, 22 Dec, Churchill MSS, X/1195a.
59 Brett to Ripon, mid-January, in Esher, , Extracts from journals, p. 140 Google Scholar; E. Hamilton’s diary, 12 Dec, B.M., Add. MS 48642, ff 45–8.
60 Hansard, 3, cccii, 115–6.
61 Northbrook to Selborne, 7 Feb., Selborne MSS, 1869, ff 157–8: also St Albans to Granville, 12 Feb., P.R.O. 30/29/22A.
62 Wolmer to Selborne, 29 Jan., Selborne MSS, 1869, ff 143–9.
63 Journal of earl of Morley, B.M., Add. MS 48292, f. 7 : Arthur Elliot to Selborne, 26 Jan., Selborne MSS, 1869, ff 135–6.
64 T. R. Buchanan to Arthur Elliot, 29 Jan., A. Elliott MSS, National Library of Scotland 4246.
65 E. Hamilton’s diary, 27 Jan., B.M., Add. MS 48642, f. 106.
66 Lord Chief Justice Morris to Churchill, 5 Dec, Churchill MSS, X/1137 : Fitzgibbon to Churchill, 7 Dec, X/1149 : Howard Vincent to Carnarvon, 7 Dec, Carnarvon MSS, P.R.O. 30/6/66/81; and memorandum of 11 Dec. by Carnarvon, P.R.O. CAB/37/16/64.
67 Hansard, 3, cccii, 110–2.
68 Labouchere to Rosebery, 2 Jan., Rosebery MSS; Labouchere to Churchill, 4 Jan., Churchill MSS, XI/1243, So did Canon MacColl in a letter of 19 Dec. 1885 to Salisbury (printed in Russell, G.W.E., Malcolm MacColl, p. 119).Google Scholar
69 Smith to Ashbourne, 2 Feb. 1886, Ashbourne MSS. Smith suspected that Gladstone’s interview with Salisbury on 2 February, in fact to discuss Greece, might be the harbinger of an open or tacit coalition.
70 Hamilton to Ponsonby, 1 Jan., Ponsonby MSS, B.M., Add. MS 45725, ff 135–6 ff; and Ponsonby, A., Henry Ponsonby: his life from his letters (1942), p. 202.Google Scholar
71 An Irish whig landlord, Powerscourt, was nearly conjured into the home rule ministry; Powerscourt to Granville, 9 Feb., P.R.O. 30/29/213.
72 Carnarvon to Salisbury, 3 Jan. 1886 (Salisbury MSS, class E).
73 Carnarvon to Salisbury, 11 Jan. 1886: ‘I have taken the chancellor & the attorney geni, into counsel on the subject and the paragraph as it now runs is mainly due to the latter’ (Salisbury MSS, class E).
74 Churchill to Salisbury, 14 Jan., Churchill MSS, XI/1291.
75 Iddesleigh’s diary, as above, 6 Feb. 1886.
76 Carnarvon MSS, P.R.O. 30/6/55/76, in Salisbury’s hand.
77 Inserted in pencil.
78 Enclosed in Carnarvon to Salisbury, 11 Jan. 1886 (Carnarvon MSS, P.R.O. 30/6/55/75; in Carnarvon’s hand).
79 In Iddesleigh MSS, B.M., Add. MS 50020, f 143.
80 Originally amended by Iddesleigh ‘If as my present information leads me to apprehend these evils cannot be met under the existing law.’ Iddesleigh, backed by the majority of the cabinet, proposed to amend this to the much stronger version : ‘I am of opinion that the supremacy of the law cannot be satisfactorily vindicated unless steps are speedily taken for the restraint of associations which practically supersede or evade its operation ; and I commend this matter to your immediate consideration’ (Iddesleigh’s diary, as above, 6 Feb. 1886). This was opposed by Churchill, Beach, Hamilton, and Carnarvon, hence the substitution of the colourless and unimpressive compromise in the speech as finally presented to parliament.
81 Hansard, 3, cccii, 34–5.
82 Edward Hamilton’s diary, 23 Jan., B.M., Add. MS 44862, f. 102; The Times, 22 Jan.; Salisbury to the queen, 23 Jan., P.R.O. GAB 41/20/2; Mary Gladstone’s diary, 24 Jan. in Masterman, Lucy, Mary Gladstone (1930), p. 378 Google Scholar; Brabourne’s diary, 27 Jan. in Knatchbull MSS U951F27/10; Cranbrook’s diary, 21 and 26 Jan. 1886.
83 ‘Till after the general elections, or the meeting of the new parliament’—Carnarvon to Salisbury, 16 June 1885, printed in Hardinge, , Carnarvon, 3, 158.Google Scholar
84 Salisbury to the queen, 14 Dec., P.R.O. CAB 41 /19/50, Carnarvon to Harrowby, 18 Dec, saying the cabinet’s decision was ‘the best practicable’ (Harrowby MSS LII/157–8). According to Cranbrook’s diary, 16 Dec, Carnarvon was to stay until ‘decisive action’ was agreed on.
85 Iddesleigh’s diary, as above, 6 Feb. 1886.
86 Carnarvon quite accidentally turned up his letter of 16 June 1885 in December when it struck him as an ‘exact anticipation of present circumstances’, Carnarvon to Harrowby, 10 Dec, Harrowby MSS, LII/152–4.
87 Hardinge, , Carnarvon, 3, 196 Google Scholar; Carnarvon to Harrowby, Harrowby MSS, LII/150.
88 Harrowby to Salisbury (copy), 5 Dec. 1885, Harrowby MSS, LV/95; Cranbrook’s diary, 13 Dec. Ashbourne also mentioned in retrospect both that Carnarvon ‘was a delicate man and not equal to much travelling or hardship’, and that ‘for his great wealth, I think he was unduly close, and I always thought his principal reason for resigning in Jan. ’86 … was to escape all or any of the expense of the Dublin season, then about to commence’ (Ashbourne MSS). Carnarvon himself wrote to Spencer ‘I have endeavoured to keep down unnecessary expenditure and have more or less succeeded : but at best it is a frightfully extravagant place … I had the misfortune to lose a considerable portion of my outfit money in the Munster Bank’ (8 Jan. 1886, Spencer MSS).
89 Salisbury to Churchill, 11 Dec, Churchill MSS; Cranbrook’s diary, 13 Dec. 1885.
90 ‘1 cannot stay on here. I have really been set an impossible task & from first to last I have really had none of the help or support by which I could do what I … hoped to do when I came here’ (Carnarvon to Cranbrook, ι Jan. i8865 Cranbrook MSS, T501/262).
91 Salisbury to Carnarvon, 3 Jan., Carnarvon MSS, P.R.O. 30/6/55/ 61; Cranbrook to Carnarvon, 2 Jan., Carnarvon MSS, P.R.O. 30/6/55/55; Cranbrook’s diary, 3 Jan. 1886.
92 Churchill to Fitzgibbon (?) (copy), 6 Jan., Churchill MSS, XI/ 1254a.
93 Salisbury to Carnarvon, 25 Dec. 1885, Carnarvon MSS, P.R.O. 3°/6/55/50.
94 Churchill to Carnarvon, 2 Jan., Carnarvon MSS, P.R.O. 30/6/55/ 57; Salisbury to Carnarvon, 3 Jan.; Churchill to Salisbury, 16 Jan., Salisbury MSS, class E; Manners to Salisbury, 28 Dec, Salisbury MSS, D/48/388.
95 Carnarvon to Churchill, 3 Jan., Churchill MSS XI/1240; Carnarvon to Salisbury, 6 Jan., Salisbury MSS, class E.
96 Carnarvon to the queen (copy), 14 Jan., Carnarvon MSS, P.R.O. 30/6/53/48.
97 Churchill to Salisbury, 13 Jan., Salisbury MSS, class E.
98 Cranbrook, supported by Churchill and Hamilton, spoke in favour of immediate executive suppression of the league. Salisbury’s offer and Cranbrook’s refusal are printed in Gathorne Hardy: a memoir, ii, 233–4. Cranbrook declined because ‘a drifting policy had weakened the springs of government’ (Cranbrook’s diary, 16 Jan. 1886).
99 Salisbury to Smith, 17 Jan., Hambleden MSS, PS9/104; Salisbury to Carnarvon, 3 Jan, Carnarvon MSS, P.R.O. 30/6/55/50. But Smith thought such an arrangement might not be defensible after a conversation with Holmes (Smith to Salisbury, 21 Jan., Salisbury MSS, class E). The most recent precedent was thought to have been in 1690 (R. Hamilton to Spencer, 2 Feb. 1886, Spencer MSS).
100 The Times, 21 Jan. Salisbury seems to have made no statement in parliament on Carnarvon’s position. Ashbourne (Hansard, 3, cccii, 78) referred to a change of personnel, but only mentioned Smith’s appointment specifically. Granville (ibid., cols 57–8) took Carnarvon’s resignation as a fait accompli.
101 Carnarvon to Ponsonby (copy), 20 Jan., Carnarvon MSS, P.R.O. 30/6/53/50.
102 ‘No appointment in my opinion could be a better one’, Carnarvon to Smith (copy), 22 Jan., Carnarvon MSS, P.R.O. 30/6/54/17. Cranbrook’s diary, 16 Jan., even hints at the possibility of Carnarvon accepting coercion.
103 Lord George Hamilton, a close ally of Churchill in the January cabinets, thought Carnarvon would have to be replaced before ‘a vigorous and sincere attempt to rehabilitate the executive in Ireland’ could be made (Parliamentary reminiscences and reflections, 1886–1906 (1922), pp 9–10).
104 Salisbury himself had a contact with the Standard, where the news first leaked, in the form of Alfred Austin, its chief writer on foreign affairs ( Austin, Alfred, Autobiography, 2, 215).Google Scholar
105 Salisbury to Churchill, 16 Jan. (Churchill MSS, XI/1302B) : ‘The question of the personnel of the [Irish] government must be considered’ if it is decided to introduce a coercion bill.
At this time the queen was told, and approved, the idea of Wolseley (Cranbrook’s diary, 19 Jan.). Beach’s reason for opposing Salisbury’s policy was, nominally at least, that it was impracticable without Carnarvon’s resignation (Beach to Churchill, 17 Jan., Churchill MSS, XI/1305).
106 P.R.O. 30/6/67/26.
107 Sidgwick, dining in Oxford with Jowett and Mahaffy on 9 Dec. 1885, found the latter in much the same frame of mind as Holmes in the passage above. Mahaffy ‘said that if Lord Salisbury was inclined to come to terms with Parnell, the Irish tories would be no obstacle : they felt the gravity of the situation so much that they would be glad of almost any settlement’ (Sidgwick’s diary, 10 Dec. 1885, Trinity College Library, Cambridge).