'My successor was Arthur Balfour, and I initiated him into the business of the Local Government Board at his request, after a first interview at Sloane Street. As late as June 21st Harcourt had made up his mind that the Tories would be unable to form a Government, and that it was his painful duty to come back; and he wrote to me that he had informed Mr. Gladstone that "I would stand by him if he agreed to come back whatever might happen." Chamberlain wrote on this that it was impossible if Spencer remained. "It will be bad for us and for the settlement of the Irish question."
'Chamberlain and I were now intending to visit Ireland, but Manning declined to give us letters, and wrote on June 25th: "What am I to do? I am afraid of your Midlothian in Ireland. How can I be godfather to Hengist and Horsa?" I replied:
'"Dear Cardinal Manning,
'"I fear I have made myself far from clear. You speak of a Midlothian. I should not for a moment have dreamt of asking you for letters had not that been most carefully guarded against. We are not going to make a single speech or to attend any dinner, meeting, or reception, in any part of Ireland. Our journey is private, and our wish is to visit the Catholic Archbishops and Bishops and to find out what they want. It has sprung from your own suggestion, and from my conversation, held also at your suggestion, with Dr. Walsh. It would not conduce to any possibility of settlement and of future peace if, after proposing, at your suggestion, to go to men like the Archbishops Croke and Walsh, we should have to state that we renounce our visit because they refuse to receive us. You know what passed as to Dr. Walsh, and you know that if Mr. Gladstone had reformed his Government we had made that matter one of our conditions. Surely that was pretty clear evidence of our desire to act with you in a matter which is certainly above all party. But it is 'now or never.'"
'On the same day Chamberlain wrote proposing that we should meet Trevelyan and Lefevre at fixed and short intervals to produce concerted action, and consulting me as to whether we should include Morley. The first consultation took place at my Royal Commission office at noon on July 4th, and Morley was present as well as Trevelyan, and I think Lefevre.'
'On June 27th I had a last fight with Mr. Gladstone. The outgoing Government had given a baronetcy to Errington, personally my friend, but a baronetcy given under circumstances which I thought politically discreditable, and I protested strongly. I told Mr. Gladstone that it had long been my opinion that there is insufficient consultation of the opinion of the party, as well as of Cabinets and ex-Cabinets, on questions of the deepest moment. "For example, since I have been a member of the 'Inner Circle,' many decisions of the gravest moment as to Irish affairs have been taken without reference to the general opinion of the leaders or of the party. When Mr. Forster first induced Lord Granville to give letters to Mr. Errington, I stated my own view in favour of the appointment of an official representative of this country to the Roman Church, if there was work which must be done between the Government and that Church. I always protested against the secret arrangement, and the last straw has been the resistance to Walsh." Such was my private note.'
'Chamberlain wrote: "Mr. G. has yielded to Lord G., and has done an act unfair to us and without notice. I have seen O'Shea. I think the 'visit' may yet be all right." I wrote to Mr. Gladstone:
'"I feel bound to express my dismay at seeing this day that honours have been conferred on that excellent fellow Errington at a moment when it will be felt by the great majority of people who do not see round corners that he is rewarded for the fight made by him on behalf of the defeated policy of resistance to the selection as Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin of the accomplished gentleman on whom the whole Irish Roman Catholic clergy and people had set their hearts. I have already described to Lord Granville in your presence what I thought the fatal results of this policy of interference against a unanimous Irish sentiment in the choice of the great Roman Catholic dignitaries in Ireland—a policy which has, in the belief of the thoughtful men of all parties, among whom I may name privately the new Lord Chancellor of Ireland, [Footnote: Mr. Gibson, afterwards created Lord Ashbourne.] undone the effects of your Land Acts of 1871 and 1881, and made the resistance to the Union stronger and more unanimous than it ever was before. Surely such an intention as that to specially honour Mr. Errington at such a moment might have been named to me when I so strongly expressed before you and Lord Granville my opinion of the policy. Mr. Forster, the initiator of the Errington policy, has returned to the Liberal front bench, and sat next to me there. I fear I must take the opportunity of leaving it, as I do not see how I can fail to express the opinion I hold of the conferring of special honour at such a moment on Mr. Errington." [Footnote: A letter from Mr. Gladstone to Mr, Errington, dated June 30th, 1885, is given in the Life of Granville, vol. ii., p. 292.]
'Mr. Gladstone replied:
'"1, Richmond Terrace,