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VOLUME LXXXVIII.— JANUARY TO JUNE, 1885.

THE GLADSTONE CABINET.—1885.

First Lord of the Treasury.

Lord Chancellor .....

Chancellor of the Exchequer

Lord President of the Council

Lord Privy Seal .....

Home Office ......

Foreign Office .....

Colonial Office .....

War Secretary .....

Indian Secretary .....

Admiralty ......

Postmaster-General ....

Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
President of the Board of Trade
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
President of the Local Government Board

Eight Hon. W. E. Gladstone.

Lord Selborne.

Right Hon. Hugh C. E. Childers.
Lord Carlingford.

Lord Rosebery.

Sir William Vernon Harcourt.
Lord Granville, K.G.

Lord Derby.

Lord Hartington.

Lord Kimberley.

Lord Northbrook.

Right Hon. G. J. Shaw-Lefevre.
Lord Spencer, K.G.

Right Hon. J. Chamberlain.

Right Hon. G. 0. Trevelyan.

Right Hon. Sir C. W. Dilke, Bart.

POLITICAL

THE Beform question, the progress of which was described
in our last “Introduction,” had been practically
settled in the Autumn Session of 1884, the Franchise Bill
having been passed in the Lords, and the second reading of
the Bedistribution Bill taken in the Commons before the
adjournment on December 6th.

Parliament reassembled on the 19th February. The
consideration of the Bedistribution Bill, of which Sir
Charles Dilke had the conduct, was at once resumed,
the Government obtaining precedence for the various stages
of the Bill, which was pushed forward with energy. Many
amendments were moved from both sides of the House, but
the Government substantially adhered to the terms of the
compromise arranged in the previous Autumn.

The Bill was read a third time on May 11th, and sent
up to the Lords, where it passed quickly through its
various stages. The three Begistration Bills—English,
Scotch, and Irish—received the Boyal assent on the 21st
May, but owing to the Ministerial crisis, consequent on the
defeat of Mr. Gladstone’s Government on the Budget, the
Bedistribution Bill did not finally pass until after the advent
to power of the Conservatives.

Affairs in Ireland have remained in a perturbed condition.
Mr. Gladstone had announced that in the peculiar cir-
cumstances of this Session, he could only deal with non-
contentious legislation, but an exception was to be made

SUMMARY.

in favour of certain “valuable and equitable provisions”
of the Irish Crimes Act, which it was proposed to retain,
allowing the remainder of the Act to lapse. (Times
Register.) A section of the Liberal Party, however,
were altogether opposed to the renewal of exceptional or
coercive legislation for Ireland, and were prepared to join
with the Parnellites in opposing it. Certain even of the
Conservatives, Lord Randolph Churchill amongst them,
seemed inclined to the same view. It was rumoured that
there was division in the Liberal Cabinet on this vexed
question, it being stated that at least three Ministers,
Mr. Chamberlain, Sir Charles Dilke, and Mr. Shaw-
Lefevre, were resolved to resign rather than consent to
that renewal of a modified coercion which it was under-
stood Lord Spencer deemed needful for the preservation
of order in Ireland. Before this division came to open
rupture, however, Mr. Gladstone’s Government was
defeated, some suspected not unwillingly (see Cartoon,
“ The Budget Stakes,” p. 295), on a point in their Budget
proposals, and the Crimes Act was left for Lord Salisbury
to renew or not as he pleased.

There had been rumours of dissensions in the Cabinet on
the subject of the Budget as well as other matters. It
was not introduced by Mr. Childers until the 30th April.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer had no agreeable task,
having to deal with a deficit of upwards of a million, the