=Source.=--Morley’s _Life of Gladstone_, vol. ii., pp. 273–276.
(Macmillan and Co.)
On July 16, the Bill, restored substantially to its first shape, was
again back on the table of the Lords, and shipwreck seemed for five
days to be inevitable. On July 20, at eleven o’clock, by a majority of
175 to 93, the Lords once more excluded from the preamble the words
that the Commons had placed and replaced there, in order to declare
the policy of Parliament on matters ecclesiastical in Ireland. This
involved a meaning which Mr. Gladstone declared that no power on earth
could induce the Commons to accept. The crisis was of unsurpassed
anxiety for the Prime Minister. He has left his own record of its
phases:
_Saturday, July 17._--By desire of the Cabinet I went to Windsor in
the afternoon and represented to H. M. what it was in our power to
do--namely, although we had done all we could do upon the merits, yet,
for the sake of peace and of the House of Lords, [we were willing]
(_a_) to make some one further pecuniary concession to the Church
of sensible though not very large amount; (_b_) to make a further
concession as to curates, slight in itself; (_c_) to amend the residue
clause so as to give to Parliament the future control, and to be
content with simply declaring the principle on which the property
should be distributed....
The further pecuniary concession we were prepared to recommend would be
some £170,000 or £180,000.
_Sunday, July 18._--In the afternoon Lord Granville called on me and
brought me a confidential memorandum, containing an overture which Mr.
Disraeli had placed in the hands of Lord Bessborough for communication
to us.... While the contention as to the residue was abandoned, and
pecuniary concessions alone were sought, the demand amounted, according
to our computation, to between £900,000 and £1,000,000. This it was
evident was utterly inadmissible. I saw no possibility of approach to
it, and considered that a further quarter of a million or thereabouts
was all that the House of Commons could be expected or asked further to
concede.
_Monday, July 19._--Those members of the Government who had acted as a
sort of Committee in the Irish Church question met in the afternoon.
We were all agreed in opinion that the Disraeli overture must be
rejected, though without closing the door, and a reply was prepared in
this sense, which Lord Granville undertook to send. [Draft in the above
sense that no sum approaching £1,000,000 could be entertained].
_Tuesday, July 20._--The Archbishop (Dr. Tait), who had communicated
with Lord Cairns in the interval, came to me early to-day and brought
a memorandum as a basis of agreement, which, to my surprise, demanded
higher terms than those of Mr. Disraeli. I told the Archbishop the
terms in which we had already expressed ourselves to Mr. Disraeli.
Meanwhile an answer had come from Mr. Disraeli stating that he could
not do more. Then followed the meeting of the opposition peers at the
Duke of Marlborough’s.
_Wednesday, July 21._--The Cabinet met at eleven, and I went to it
in the mind of last night. [Not to abandon the Bill absolutely, but
only to suspend the Government’s responsibility for it, leaving the
Opposition to work their own will, and with the intention, when this
had been done, of considering the matter further]. We discussed,
however, at great lengths all possible methods of proceeding that
occurred to us. The course adopted was to go through the endowment
amendments, and if they were carried adversely, then to drop their
responsibility.
_Thursday, July 22._--I was laid up to-day and the transactions were
carried on by Lord Granville, in communication with me from time to
time at my house.
The proceedings of this critical day are narrated by Lord Granville in
a memorandum to Mr. Gladstone dated August 4.
“After seeing you, I met Lord Cairns at the Colonial Office. He offered
me terms.... I asked him whether, in his opinion, he, the Archbishop,
and I could carry anything we agreed upon. He said, ‘Yes, certainly.’
After seeing you, I met Lord Cairns a second time in his room in the
House of Lords. I asked, as a preliminary to giving any opinion on his
amendments, how he proposed to deal with the preamble. He said, ‘To
leave it as amended by the Lords.’ I then proposed the words which were
afterwards adopted in the 68th clause. He was at first taken aback,
but admitted that he had personally no objection to them.... We agreed
upon the commutation clause if the 7 and the 5 per cent. were lumped
together. On the curates’ clause we could come to no agreement. He
proposed to see Lord Salisbury and the Archbishop, and to meet again
at four at the Colonial Office. He spoke with fairness as to the
difficulty of his position, and the risk he ran with his own party.
I again saw you, and asked the Irish Attorney-General to be present
at the last interview. I stated to him in Lord Cairns’ presence how
far we agreed, and expressed my regret that on the last point--the
curates--our difference was irreconcilable. Lord Cairns said he hoped
not, and proceeded to argue strongly in favour of his proposal. He at
last, however, at 4.30, compromised the matter by accepting five years
instead of one. I shook his hand, which was trembling with nervousness.
We discussed the form of announcing the arrangement to the House. We
at once agreed it was better to tell the whole truth, and soon settled
that it would be better for its success that he should announce the
details. I was afterwards apprehensive that this latter arrangement
might be disadvantageous to us, but nothing could be better or fairer
than his statement.”
“The news was brought to me on my sofa,” Mr. Gladstone says, “and
between five and six o’clock I was enabled to telegraph to the Queen.
My telegram was followed up by a letter at 7 p.m., which announced that
the arrangement had been accepted by the House of Lords, and that a
general satisfaction prevailed.”
To the Queen he wrote (July 22):
“Mr. Gladstone is at a loss to account for the great change in the tone
and views of the Opposition since Sunday and Monday and even Tuesday
last, but on this topic it is needless to enter. As to the principal
matters, the basis of the arrangement on the side of the Government
is much the same as was intended when Mr. Gladstone had the honour
of an audience at Windsor on Saturday; but various minor concessions
have been added. Mr. Gladstone does not doubt that, if the majority
of the House of Lords should accede to the advice of Lord Cairns, the
Government will be able to induce the House of Commons to agree on the
conditions proposed. Mr. Gladstone would in vain strive to express to
your Majesty the relief, thankfulness, and satisfaction with which he
contemplates not only the probable passing of what many believe to be a
beneficent and necessary measure, but the undoubted and signal blessing
of an escape from a formidable constitutional conflict.”