h to find a liberal administration plenty of work, especially
with procedure, for several years? If so, did they not supply a ground
broad enough to start a government, that would hold over, until the proper
time should come, all the questions on which its members might not be
agreed, just as the government of Lord Grey held over, from 1830 to 1834,
the question whether Irish church property might or might not be applied
to secular uses?

As for himself, in the event of such a government being formed (of which I
suppose Lord Granville was to be the head), "My desire would be," he says,
"to place myself in your hands for all purposes, except that of taking
office; to be present or absent from the House, and to be absent for a
time or for good, as you might on consultation and reflection think best."
In other words Mr. Gladstone would take office to try to settle the Irish
question, but for nothing else. Lord Granville held to the view that this
was fatal to the chances of a liberal government. No liberal cabinet could
be constructed unless Mr. Gladstone were at its head. The indispensable
chief, however, remained obdurate.

An advance was made at this moment in the development of a peculiar
situation by important conversations with Mr. Chamberlain. Two days later
the redoubtable leader of the left wing came to Hawarden for a couple of
days, and Mr. Gladstone wrote an extremely interesting account of what
passed to Lord Granville:(137)--

_To Lord Granville._

_Hawarden, Oct. 8, 1885._--Chamberlain came here yesterday and I
have had a great deal of conversation with him. He is a good man
to talk to, not only from his force and clearness, but because he
speaks with reflection, does not misapprehend or (I think)
suspect, or make unnecessary difficulties, or endeavour to
maintain pedantically the uniformity and consistency of his
argument throughout.

As to the three points of which he was understood to say that they
were indispensable to the starting of a liberal government, I
gather that they stand as follows:--

1. As to the authority of local authorities for compulsory
expropriation.(138) To this he adheres; though I have said I could
not see the justification for withholding countenance from the
formation of a government with considerable and intelligible plans
in view, because it would not at the first moment bind all its
members to this doctr