That you are the _only_ peer, so far as I know,
associated with liberal ideas or the liberal party, who hesitates
to vote against Lord Salisbury.

In the later stage of this controversy, Tennyson shot the well-known lines
at him--

Steersman, be not precipitate in thine act
Of steering, for the river here, my friend,
Parts in two channels, moving to one end--
This goes straight forward to the cataract:
That streams about the bend.
But tho' the cataract seems the nearer way,
Whate'er the crowd on either bank may say,
Take thou "the bend," 'twill save thee many a day.

To a poet who made to his generation such exquisite gifts of beauty and
pleasure, the hardest of party-men may pardon unseasonable fears about
franchise and one-horse constituencies. As matter of fact and in plain
prose, this (M49) taking of the bend was exactly what the steersman had
been doing, so as to keep other people out of cataracts.

"Then why should not Lord Granville try his hand on ambassadors, pressing
them to save their order from a tempest that must strain and might wreck
it?" To Mr. Chamberlain, who was in his element, or in one of his
elements, Mr. Gladstone wrote (Oct. 8):--

I see that Salisbury by his declaration in the _Times_ of
Saturday, that the Lords are to contend for the simultaneous
passing of the two bills, has given you an excellent subject for
denunciation, and you may safely denounce him to your heart's
content. But I earnestly hope that you will leave us all elbow
room on other questions which _may_ arise. If you have seen my
letters (virtually) to the Queen, I do not think you will have
found reason for alarm in them. I am sorry that Hartington the
other day used the word compromise, a word which has never passed
my lips, though I believe he meant nothing wrong. If we could find
anything which, though surrendering nothing substantial, would
build a bridge for honourable and moderate men to retreat by, I am
sure you would not object to it. But I have a much stronger plea
for your reserve than any request of my own. It is this, that the
cabinet has postponed discussing the matter until Wednesday simply
in order that you may be present and take your share. They meet at
twelve. I shall venture to count on your doing nothing to narrow
the ground left open to us, which is indeed but a stinted one.

Th