His viceroyalty was somewhat similar to that of Lord Londonderry's, though he soon lost the aid of Mr. Balfour, who was replaced by Mr. W. L. Jackson, raised to the peerage as Lord Allerton in King Edward's Coronation year. He had not been long in office when the report of the Parnell Commission became the sensation of the season; indeed, it was all Parnell and no Zetland from the beginning to the end of his term. The Commission was followed by the divorce case that extinguished the Irish leader; then came the sharp and bitter party schisms, the intervention of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, and last of all the death of the central figure of the sordid and miserable tragedy. It was quite impossible for either viceroy or Chief Secretary to do more than be there if he was wanted, and, perhaps fortunately no great crisis called for their intervention. A Tory Lord-Lieutenant can always have a comfortable and easy life in Dublin provided he is not ambitious to be up and doing. Lord Zetland was disinclined to create precedents or seek to alter established things. Every good cause received his approval and the benediction of Lady Zetland. They were not more political than they had to be, while the viceroy's fondness for the Turf was not without its effect, although the Irish sportsman is quite a different type to the Irish, and 'never the twain shall meet.' The viceroyalty jogged on gently to its predestined end, and the General Election giving Mr. Gladstone a majority the six-year-old Salisbury Administration came to an end.
Mr. Gladstone in power
The return of Mr. Gladstone to the premiership caused great perturbation in Unionist circles in Ireland. At last the polls had given him a mandate for Home Rule, and there was no prospect of rebellious Liberals rising again to destroy their chief. There remained the House of Lords, ever the bulwark of the liberties of the people—whether the people appreciated it or not; but there was a doubt whether the Upper Chamber would peril its existence by defying Gladstone again. Nevertheless, Unionist Ireland, with a fanaticism and a determination not unworthy of the Irish Nationalist representatives, determined to fight the odds against them inspired by a 'No surrender' spirit. They resolved not to touch Gladstone or his noble representative with a forty-foot pole, and, numbering in their ranks the majority of the gentry and nobility, their decision to boycott the incoming viceroy meant much more than it appeared on the surface. It is true that any Tory viceroy can create the sort of court he pleases, and so can a Liberal in ordinary circumstances, but Lord Houghton was viceroy at a time when every snob, whether he took any interest in politics or not, became a Unionist in order to be known as a member of the gentlemanly party. It was simply 'bad form' to favour Home Rule, and that was sufficient to unite Unionists as they have never been united before or since.
Mr. Gladstone was in the position of having very few candidates for the viceroyalty. Mr. John Morley was, of course, the Chief Secretary, and he could be depended upon to do all the political work. The premier offered the viceroyalty to the then Lord Houghton, and it was accepted in the hope that it would lead to better things.
Lord Houghton
Lord Houghton was born in 1858, on January 12, so that he was in his thirty-fifth year when he was sworn in as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. His official training had been meagre, comprising the not fatiguing post of Assistant Private Secretary to Lord Granville during part of that statesman's occupancy of the Foreign Office in Mr. Gladstone's second Administration, and a few months as Lord-in-Waiting to Queen Victoria in 1886. The son of Monckton Milnes was always an object of interest to students of history, literary and political, and Lord Houghton had shown that he was not inexpert by writing a number of stray verses that exhibited a talent for rhyming. His ability for statesmanship was, however, more doubtful, and, as events proved, he was not the man to conciliate the important body of opinion adverse to the Government he represented. The position, certainly, was most difficult, and abler men than Lord Houghton would have failed. He could not forget his own dignity, and therefore never attempted to conciliate the Opposition. The distrust of the Nationalists must have struck him as savouring of ingratitude, and as every Liberal viceroy has found it, Lord Houghton was an object of suspicion and distrust to all Irishmen.
Lord Crewe
Irish society boycotted the Liberal viceroy. He started badly by declining to receive a loyal address because it contained a reference to the Home Rule question. Lord Houghton, being temperamentally incapable of inspiring affection in inferiors, adopted an attitude of extreme hauteur, offending every class in turn. Mr. Gladstone was in the midst of the battle of his life, ably seconded by Mr. John Morley; but the Lord-Lieutenant of the Government sat in gloomy solitude in Dublin, cognisant no doubt of the fact that for the first time since 1172 Dublin Castle and Viceregal Lodge invitations were being declined or ignored by a society which in the ordinary course of events would sacrifice anything rather than the entrée to the miniature court of the viceroy. No help could come from Ireland, where the masses watched the efforts to plant a Parliament in College Green with a sullenness of demeanour that indicated their lack of enthusiasm. The educated classes were almost to a man and a woman Unionists, and the movement against the viceroy was inspired by party feelings, but Lord Houghton's personality did not tend towards the softening of the austerities. The members of his entourage suffered from the general disfavour, and the aides-de-camp, who are usually almost danced to death every season, ended their labours as fresh as they began them. The entertaining that had to be done was in the capable hands of the Hon. Mrs. Arthur Henniker, Lord Houghton's sister, a lady of many accomplishments. The viceroy was a widower then, and some years from a second wife, an earldom, an heir, and a marquisate.