Argyll described Sir George Trevelyan as a jelly-fish,
he made a comparison which, from my personal experience, I should call
particularly apt.

Ireland had very little use for such a flabby politician, and it may be
added, he had very little use for Ireland.

He was in such a devil of a fright at being forced to succeed poor Lord
Frederick Cavendish that it was some time before the pressure put upon
him sufficed to make him accept office, nor would he be induced to go
over to Dublin Castle at all until he had been given Cabinet rank. As
for the Cabinet, they were so anxious to settle upon a living target for
the Home Rulers to practise upon, and so afraid that through his default
one of themselves might have to undertake the unpleasant office, that
they would have given the prospective victim almost anything he liked,
on the principle of letting the condemned criminal choose what he
prefers for his final meal before that brief interview with the hangman.

Directly after the formation of the following Radical Government, I met
an Englishman of considerable political importance in Pall Mall, and he
observed:--

'The new Cabinet is quarrelling among themselves.'

'Who are fighting?' I asked.

'Chamberlain and Trevelyan,' he replied.

'What about?'

'Chamberlain says that he brought the party back into office, and he
wants the Colonial Office; but Gladstone insists on his being content
with the Local Government Board. Trevelyan says that, as he has for
years had experience in naval affairs, he ought to be made First Lord.
But Gladstone, though he cannot prevail on him to be Chief Secretary,
has sent him to the India Office.'

'And may give him free lodgings in Kilmainham if he is refractory,' I
chimed in. 'And so these two are like pigs with their bristles hurt,
poor things. There's a pity.'

Some time later, when I heard Messrs. Chamberlain and Trevelyan were so
disgusted with the Home Rule Bill that they were leaving the Government,
says I to myself, 'I wonder if Mr. Gladstone in his own heart thinks if
he had gratified their wishes about office he could have retained them.'

But as a matter of fact both are patriots far above such demeaning
insinuations.

Mr. John Morley was a very well-meaning Chief Secretary, but a very
misguided man.

In a conversation with me, Mr. Morley observed that, owing to the
agitation, he saw no alternative but to make Parnell Chief Secretary.

I said that would be no use,