[286] The Cabinet was composed as follows:—Mr. Gladstone, Prime Minister; Sir C. Page Wood, Lord Chancellor, with the title of Lord Hatherley; Mr. Lowe, Chancellor of the Exchequer; Mr. Austen Bruce, Home Secretary; Lord Clarendon, Secretary for Foreign Affairs (with Mr. Otway as his Under-Secretary); Lord Granville, Colonial Secretary; the Duke of Argyll, Secretary for India (with Mr. Grant Duff as Under-Secretary); Mr. Cardwell, Secretary for War; Mr. Chichester Fortescue, Irish Secretary; Mr. Childers, First Lord of the Admiralty; Mr. Goschen, President of the Poor-Law Board; Mr. Bright, President of the Board of Trade; Lord Hartington, Postmaster-General; Lord Kimberley, Privy Seal; Earl de Grey, President of the Council.
[287] Life of Bishop Wilberforce, Vol. III., p. 267.
[288] For Canterbury.
[289] It was said that Dr. Ellicott, Bishop of Gloucester, was referred to here.
[290] It is a curious fact that his appointment of Dr. Magee, Dean of Cork, to this see brought the Government almost as much credit as the appointment of Dr. Tait to Canterbury. Dr. Magee was erroneously supposed to be Mr. Disraeli’s favourite candidate. But in this case also he seems to have got credit for the Queen’s skill in selection.
[291] Life of Bishop Wilberforce, Vol. III., pp. 265-269.
[292] Letters and Journals of W. J. Stanley Jevons. Edited by his Wife, p. 246.
[293] Yet at the time the Queen was personally opposed to Mr. Gladstone’s Irish Church policy, so that his statement was somewhat misleading. Perhaps he made it to minimise the evil effects that might be produced by rumours of her Majesty’s hostility to the verdict of the elections. These rumours were then current.
[294] It described the reductions for the first time in the records of Queen’s Speeches as having been already made, not as reductions that were only in contemplation.
[295] Alice Grand Duchess of Hesse, Princess of Great Britain and Ireland. Biographical Sketch and Letters, p. 214.