division was taken. Mr. Gladstone intimated that the ministry would resign if the amendment were carried. The debate resulted in a vote of 264 Conservatives and Parnellites against 252 Ministerialists. The ministry were at once suspected of inviting their own defeat, since at the last moment the debate might have been adjourned and a ministerial majority secured, in order to escape from a dead-lock on the Irish question. The Crimes Act was about to expire, and the Radical members of the Cabinet were opposed to its renewal. Mr. Gladstone desired to discontinue coercion, but the Whigs in the ministry insisted on preserving exceptional powers, though agrarian crime had practically ceased, and Lord Spencer was unwilling to continue in office if the law were allowed to lapse. A compromise was reached by which the coercive clauses were to be dropped, but the procedure clauses, relating to change of venue and special juries, and the penalties against boycotting, retained. On the question as to whether the boycotting clauses should be left subject to executive discretion, there was an irreconcilable difference of opinion. Mr. Gladstone announced the resignation of the Cabinet on June 9, the day after the adverse vote. The Marquis of Salisbury was reluctant to undertake the task of carrying on the Government with a minority in the House of Commons, and without the opportunity of appealing to the country, for a dissolution was out of the question before the registration of voters under the new franchise and redistribution bills should be completed. It was urged upon the Government that they were not justified in exposing the country to a minority administration under these circumstances, but Mr. Gladstone declared that there was no other way but to resign, and argued that the Conservatives could not refuse office after their unsparing attacks on the Government. Lord Salisbury asked for pledges from the Liberals that Government business should have the precedence in the House, and that there should be no opposition to an issue of Exchequer bonds to cover the deficit. Mr. Gladstone declined to commit his party to a promise, though willing to express a belief that there would be no disposition to embarrass the Government. Mr. Gladstone and Lord Salisbury submitted their views to the Queen, and kept up a correspondence for two weeks. Those Conservatives who were least hopeful of the results of the general election desired to secure for their party the distribution of honors and patronage incident to the assumption of office, and many believed in the tactical advantage of a lease of power, however brief. Finally the Conservative leaders concluded to undertake the responsibility without pledges from the Liberals. They decided to promote Lord Randolph Churchill to a prominent place in the party councils, and to provide posts for the other representatives of the "fourth party." because they relied on Churchill's popular development

of Toryism as the chief means of gaining the support from the democracy of the towns and the new county electorate. As Lord Randolph Churchill was unwilling to co-operate with Sir Stafford Northcote, the urbane leader of the party in the lower house was transferred to the House of Peers with the title of the Earl of Iddesleigh, giving up his place to Sir Michael Hicks-Beach. The outgoing ministry, besides promoting a number of existing peers, created six new ones, among them Mr. Samuel Morley and Sir Nathaniel de Rothschild. The Conservatives created a number of peerages upon taking office, all of them, except one, connected with the construction of the Cabinet. Mr. Gladstone declined an earldom.

Sir

The New Ministry. This was constituted on June 24. It consisted of the large number of sixteen members, as many as sat in the previ ous Cabinet. Lord Salisbury became Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Sir Stafford Northcote became First Lord of the Treasury, a post connected with the premiership since the days of Walpole. Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, assumed the leadership of the House of Commons. Lord Randolph Churchill was made Secretary of State for India, an appointment that was construed abroad as indicating an aggressive attitude toward Russia. Richard Cross became Secretary of State for the Home Department; Mr. W. H. Smith, Secretary of State for War; Lord John Manners, Postmaster-General; Col. Stanley, Secretary of State for the Colonies; Lord George Hamilton, First Lord of the Admiralty; Mr. Stanhope, Vice-President of the Council; Sir Hardinge Gifford, Lord Chancellor, with the title of Lord Halsbury; Lord Cranbrook, President of the Council; Lord Harrowby, Lord Privy Seal; the Duke of Richmond, President of the Board of Trade; Lord Carnarvon, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland; and Mr. Gibson, raised to the peerage with the title of Lord Ashbourne, Chancellor of Ireland, with a seat in the Cabinet. Outside the Cabinet Mr. Arthur Balfour became President of the Local Government Board; Mr. Plunkett, First Commissioner of Works; Mr. Chaplin, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster; and Sir William Hart-Dyke, Chief Secretary for Ireland. Sir Henry Drummond Wolff, the only member of the "fourth party " not provided with an office, was appointed a special commissioner to inquire into the Egyptian question, though his selection was much criticised on account of his connection with the Anglo-Egyptian Bank and of his strictures on the character and acts of the Khedive. A brief sketch of each of the members of the new ministry is given belowexcept the Premier, for whose history see SAL ISBURY, MARQUIS OF.

Sir Henry Stafford Northcote, Earl of Iddesleigh, sat in the House of Commons from 1855 until he accepted a peerage upon the formation of the Cabinet. He was member for North