Mr. Chamberlain to Lord Randolph Churchill.
Highbury, Moor Green, Birmingham: December 26, 1886.
My dear Churchill,—Yours of 24th with its very interesting enclosures only reached me to-day.
The breach was inevitable. There is much to be said pro and con about the estimates, but you were altogether in a false position. You had to fight—alone and single-handed—for every point, and were necessarily condemned to gain on each a partial victory, which left you with all the responsibility, but without a consistent and thoroughly defensible policy.
You will have a hard time to go through. Your case will be mine almost exactly, and I can tell you it is a bitter pilgrimage which is in prospect. The party tie is the strongest sentiment in this country—stronger than patriotism or even self-interest. But it will all come right in the end for both of us.
I assume that you will maintain an independent position, and in that case you will be a power that your party cannot ignore. The Standard has a right to be angry, and the Caucuses will denounce you; but in their hearts they know you are indispensable, and when they find they cannot bully you into submission they will come to your terms. Next time, however, that either you or I join a Cabinet we must be certain of our majority in it.
My speech has fluttered the dovecotes tremendously, and my correspondence shows that many of the Gladstonians are very uncomfortable and anxious to come to terms. But I do not believe that there will be any practical result. Mr. Gladstone does not give way on the main point—neither will I.
Whenever I come to London I will let you know, and we will have another talk. Meanwhile you have made the situation intensely interesting.
With all good wishes,
Yours sincerely,
J. Chamberlain.
Mr. Labouchere to Lord Randolph Churchill.