and he assailed Mr. Disraeli personally in a manner
which made older members think of the days when
Mr. Disraeli was denouncing Sir Robert Peel. No
eloquence and no invective however could stay the
movement begun by Mr. Gladstone. When the
division was called there were 331 votes for the
resolutions and only 270 against them. The doom
of the Irish Church was pronounced by a majority of
61. Mr. Disraeli made a wild effort by speech and
by letter to get up an alarm in the country on the
score of some imaginary alliance or conspiracy be-
tween ' High Church Ritualists' and 'Irish Romanists."
The attempt was a complete failure; there was only
a little flash; no explosion came.
no explosion came. The country did
not show the slightest alarm. An interval was

afforded for agitation on both sides. The House of
Commons had only decided against Lord Stanley's
amendment. Mr. Gladstone's resolutions had yet to
be discussed. Lord Russell presided at a great meet-
ing held in St. James's Hall for the purpose of
expressing public sympathy with the movement to
disestablish the Irish Church. Many meetings were
held by those on the other side of the question as
well; but it was obvious to every one that there was
no great force in the attempt at a defence of the Irish
Church. That institution had in truth a position
which only became less and less defensible the more
it was studied. Every example and argument drawn
from the history of the Church of England was but
another condemnation of the Church of Ireland.
During one of the subsequent debates in the House

1868.

THE TWO CHURCHES.

247

of Lords, Lord Derby introduced with remarkable effect an appropriate quotation from Scott's 'Guy Mannering.' He was warning his listeners that if they helped the enemies of the Irish Church to pullit down, they would be preparing the way for the destruction of the English Church as well. He turned to that striking passage in 'Guy Mannering,' where Meg Merrilies confronts the laird of Ellangowan after the eviction of the gipsies, and warns him that this day have ye quenched seven smoking hearths ;—see if the fire in your ain parlour burn the blyther for that; ye have riven the thack off seven cottar houses-look if your ain roof-tree stand the faster.' Nothing could be more apt as a political appeal or more effective in a rhetorical sense than this quotation. But it did not illustrate the relations between the English and the Irish Church. The real danger to the English Church would have been a protracted and obstinate maintenance of the Church of Ireland. It is not necessary here to enter upon any of the general arguments for or against the principle of a State Church. But it will be admitted by every one that the claim made on behalf of the Church of England is that it is the Church of the great majority of the English people, and that it has a spiritual work to do which the majority of the nation admit to be its appropriate task. To maintain the Church of England on that ground is only to condemn the Church of Ireland. The more strongly an Englishman was inclined to support his own Church, the more anxious he ought to have been to repudiate the claim of the Irish

1

Church to a similar position. The State Church in Ireland was like a mildewed ear blasting its wholesome brother. If the two institutions had to stand or fall together, there could be but one end to the difficulty; both must fall.

Mr. Gladstone's first resolution came to a division about a month after the defeat of Lord Stanley's amendment. It was carried by a majority somewhat larger than that which had rejected the amendment. 330 votes were given for the resolution; 265 against it. The majority for the resolution was therefore 65. Mr. Disraeli quietly observed that the Government must take some decisive step in consequence of that vote; and a few days afterwards it was announced that as soon as the necessary business could be got through, Parliament would be dissolved and an appeal made to the country. On the last day of July the dissolution took place, and the elections came on in November. Not for many years had there been so important a general election. The keenest anxiety prevailed as to its results. The new constituencies created by the Reform Bill were to give their votes for the first time. The question at issue was not merely the existence of the Irish State Church. It was a general struggle of advanced Liberalism against Toryism. No one could doubt that Mr. Gladstone, if he came into power, would enter on a policy of more decided Liberalism than had ever been put into action since the days of the Reform Bill of Lord Grey and Lord John Russell. The result of the elections was on the whole what

1868.

THE GENERAL ELECTION.

249

might have been expected. The Liberals had a great majority. But there were many curious and striking instances of the growing strength of Conservatism in certain parts of the country. Lancashire, once a very stronghold of Liberalism, returned only Tories for its county divisions, and even in most cases elected Tories to represent its boroughs. Eight Conservatives came in for the county of Lancaster, and among those whom their election displaced were no less eminent persons than Mr. Gladstone and Lord Hartington. Mr. Gladstone was defeated in Southwest Lancashire, but the result of the contest had been generally anticipated, and therefore some of his supporters put him up for Greenwich also and he was elected there. He had been passing step by step from less popular to more popular constituencies. From the University of Oxford he had passed to the Lancashire division, and now from the Lancashire constituency he went on to a place where the Liberal portion of the electors were inclined, for the most part, to be not merely Radical but democratic. The contest in North Lancashire was made more interesting than it would otherwise have been by the fact that it was not alone a struggle between opposing principles and parties, but also one between two great rival houses. Lord Hartington represented the great Cavendish family. Mr. Frederick Stanley was the younger son of Lord Derby. Lord Hartington was defeated by a large majority, and was left out of Parliament for a few months. He was afterwards elected for the Radnor Boroughs. Mr.

Mill was defeated at Westminster. His defeat was brought about by a combination of causes. He had been elected in a moment of sudden enthusiasm, and the enthusiasm had now had time to cool away. He had given some offence in various quarters by a too great independence of action and of expression. On many questions of deep interest he had shown that he was entirely out of harmony with the views of the vast majority of his constituents, whatever their religious denomination might be. He had done some things which people called eccentric, and an English popular constituency does not love eccentricity. His opponent, Mr. W. H. Smith, was very popular in Westminster, and had been quietly canvassing it for years. Perhaps it may be hinted too that Mr. Mill's manly resolve not to pay any part of his election expenses did not contribute to make him a favourite candidate with a certain proportion of the constituency. He was known to be a generous and a charitable man. He gave largely out of his modest fortune towards any purpose which he thought deserving of support. But he disapproved of the principle of calling on a candidate to pay for permission to perform very onerous public duties, and he would not consent to recognise the principle by contributing anything towards the cost of his own candidature. This was against him in the mind of many. In every great constituency there is a certain proportion of voters who like the idea of a man's being liberal of his money in a contest, even though they do not expect to have any share of it. Some