labor
representatives in Parliament. Miners' delegates and an agricultural
laborer had been elected before, but they had identified themselves in
all instances with the radical wing of the Liberals. There were now
returned, however, four members, including John Burns and Keir Hardie,
who chose to hold aloof and, as they expressed it, "to sit in
opposition until they should cross the house to form a labor
government." The Home Rule bill which Gladstone introduced February
13, 1893, differed from its predecessor of 1886 principally in not
excluding the Irish from representation at Westminster. It was passed
in the House of Commons, although by an ultimate majority of but
thirty-four, but in the Lords it was rejected by a vote of 419 to 41.
In the face of an obstacle so formidable as that imposed by the
adverse majority in the upper chamber it appeared useless to press the
issue. The Lords, whose power in legislation became at this point
greater than at any time since 1832, systematically balked the
Government at every turn, and March 3, 1894, Gladstone, aged and (p. 153)
weary of parliamentary strife, retired from office. His last speech in
the Commons comprised a sharp arraignment of the House of Lords, with
a forecast of the clash which eventually would lead (and, in point of
fact, has led) to the reconstitution of that chamber.

[Footnote 216: This was the "Newcastle Programme,"
drawn up at a convention of the National Liberal
Federation at Newcastle in October, 1891. Items in
the programme, in addition to Home Rule, included
the disestablishment of the Church in Wales and
Scotland, a local veto on the sale of intoxicating
liquors, the abolition of the plural franchise, and
articles defining employers' liability and limiting
the hours of labor.]

[Footnote 217: C. A. Whitmore, Six Years of
Unionist Government, 1886-1892 (London, 1892).]

*161. Third and Fourth Salisbury Ministries.*--For the time the Earl of
Rosebery, who had been foreign secretary, assumed the premiership and
there was no break in the Government's policy. In June, 1895, however,
the ministry suffered a defeat on the floor of the Commons, and the
Marquis of Salisbury was a third time invited to form a government.
The retirement of Gladstone