spirits. The gentlemen had no
sport, but the ladies a great deal, and I saw more foxes than I had
ever seen before....

Our time here is slipping away fearfully fast--there are so many
impossibilities to be done. I am hungry to see every brother and
sister comfortably and alone, and hungry to be out all day seeing
every old spot and old face in the place and village, and hungry to
be always with Papa and Mama, and hungry to read all the books in
the library--and none of these hungers can be satisfied. We are all
much pleased with Mr. Chichester Fortescue. He is agreeable and
gentlemanlike and good, and Lotty and Harriet got on very well with
him, which is more than I am doing with my letter, for they are
singing me out of all my little sense--"Wha's at the window" was
distracting enough, but "Saw ye the robber" ten times worse.

In September the Papal Bull dividing England into Roman Catholic sees threw
the country into a state of needless excitement. The year had been a very
critical one for the Church of England. The result of the Gorham case,
which marked the failure of the High Church clergy to get their own way
within the Church, hastened the secession to Rome of Manning, James Hope,
and other well-known men. Lord John's letter to the Bishop of Durham, in
which he expressed his own strong Protestant and Erastian principles,
increased his popularity; but it was unfortunate in its effect. It
encouraged the bigoted alarmist outcries which had been started by the
Papal Bull, although his own letter differed in tone from such protests.
The Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, which the Government brought forward in
response to popular feeling, seems to have been one of the idlest measures
that ever wasted the time of Parliament. It remained a dead-letter from the
day it passed, yet at the time no Minister had a chance of leading the
country who was not prepared to support it.

The Budget made the Ministry unpopular at the beginning of the session; and
in February Mr. Locke King succeeded in passing, with the help of the
Radicals, a measure for the extension of the franchise, in spite of
opposition from the Government. Lord John had a measure of his own of a
similar nature in view, as we have seen; but, in spite of his assurance
that he would introduce it during the following year, the Radicals voted
against him on Mr. King's motion, and on February 20th he resigned.

The sta