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A.D. 1875.] VISITS EDINBURGH AND DUBLIN.

145

The Budget was introduced on 15th April, and in moving it Northcote paid a high compliment to the Financial Secretary, alluding to the energy and capacity for business he had shown in the examination of estimates submitted to the Treasury, and acknowledging the care and ability with which he had discharged his duties.

The best part of this session was taken up by lengthy and angry discussions on the Peace Preservation Bill, which the increasing disaffection and lawlessness of Ireland made it necessary to pass. Sir Stafford Northcote carried his Act for the regulation of Friendly Societies, the outcome of the Report of the Royal Commission; and the only other measure which calls for special notice as the work of Mr Disraeli's Cabinet is the Agricultural Holdings Act, for the purpose of giving the tenant better security for capital invested by him in the soil. It was but a permissive statute, but its acceptance by both Houses marked a new departure in land legislation, by reason that it indorsed a novel principle, the application of which has since been. made compulsory.

In December the Secretary to the Treasury paid an official visit to Edinburgh and another to Dublin. As was his invariable custom, he kept Mrs Smith informed of the most minute details of his proceedings.

EDINBURGH, Dec. 2, 1875.

I have had a sort of levée. I dined last night with Sir James Elphinstone, and this morning he breakfasted with me. Then came the Lord Advocate and the Lord Clerk Register. At 11 I was carried off to the Registry House and prosed to by Antiquarian Recordkeepers. After that the Lord Advocate carried me off to his offices, and then I went to the Queen's and Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer. I have seen the manager of two Banks doing Government business, and now I am collecting myself by writing to you. I give a dinner to-night to five heads of departments, at which Sandon will be present.

DUBLIN, Dec. 5.

I telegraphed to you last night that we had reached Kingstown in

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safety. We found wet snow in Dublin and frost in the Phoenix Park. At the station Beach1 met us. To-day we have been very busy, and now, 5.30, I fairly confess I am tired. We called on the Lord Lieutenant and have visited half-a-dozen public buildings, where we were received by the several officials. Talking and standing for six hours consecutively has fairly tired us all. To-morrow I dine with the Lord Lieutenant, and on Thursday Beach has a dinnerparty.

Dec. 8.

Another busy day, and wee-Sandon, Beach, Donnelly, and I—are now at this moment consulting and settling the terms of transfer of some of the large Institutions of Government. . . . S., after dining with the Irish "King,' ,"2 will go down to Kingstown to sleep on board the steamer and go across to-morrow morning early. I wish I could go with him, but I have yet a great deal of work to do, and as much as I shall get through during the next two days.

The session of 1876, Disraeli's last session in the House of Commons, was opened by the Queen in person. The question which had occupied the most anxious thoughts of the Cabinet had been the proposed purchase by Great Britain of the Khedive of Egypt's shares in the Suez Canal, and Smith, though not in the Cabinet, was asked to give his opinion from the Treasury point of view. This he did in the form of a minute, expressing strong distrust of the proposal that England should join the other Powers in guarantee of the projected loan.

This was also the view taken by his chief, Sir Stafford Northcote; but other counsels prevailed, the transaction was completed, and has proved to be a brilliantly successful investment for the nation.3 The bill necessary to obtain the money-£4,080,000—was brought in by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and hotly opposed by two ex-Chancellors -Gladstone and Lowe. Northcote must have defended

1 The Right Hon. Sir Michael Hicks Beach, at that time Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

2 Mr King Harman.

3 On June 16, 1893, a question was put in the House of Commons to the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Sir W. Harcourt) as to the present state of the account between this country and the vendors of the Suez Canal shares. The reply of the right hon. gentleman was an eloquent, though perhaps involuntary, tribute to the sagacity of

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A.D. 1876.]

THE IRISH NATIONALISTS.

147

the policy of the bill with some misgiving and a good deal of secret sympathy with the "Treasury minds" of its opponents; nevertheless, he did the work manfully, and when Gladstone declared that to spend the money of the nation in this way was "an unprecedented thing"-" So is the Canal," retorted Northcote.

More serious in its ultimate results was the organisation and activity of the Home Rule party under Mr Butt, with Messrs Parnell, Biggar, O'Donnell, and Callan as lieutenants. Both the great parties united in resisting the motion for Home Rule, and there was no difficulty in throwing it out by a majority of more than four to one; but for the first time the Irish Nationalists showed a cohesion and power of debate, destined to make them the formidable factor in Imperial politics which they have since become. One of their number, Mr P. J. Smyth, enjoyed a gift of eloquence which national fire and classical elegance combined to distinguish beyond his colleagues; and he used it to some purpose, for the Government were placed in a minority of 57 on his motion for closing Irish public-houses on Sunday.

Left in London to finish up the work of the session when his family went to Greenlands, Smith kept up the usual constant correspondence with his wife:

HOUSE OF COMMONS, August 7.

One line, because it is pleasant to write to you, and to think a little of home in the hurry and bustle of work. I am sitting at the Table of the House listening to Northcote defending the Suez Canal Bill.

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Lord Beaconsfield. It was made to the following effect :

Price paid in 1875

Present value

Amount of purchase-money now paid off

£4,000,000.

17,750,000. 3,805,000.

Date at which we shall begin to draw dividend, July 1894.
Dividends payable during last three years, 17, 21, and 18 per cent.
Proportion of British tonnage to whole tonnage using Canal, 75 per

cent.

August 10.

Everything went on well yesterday at the Whitebait Dinner; both Disraeli and the Lord Chancellor appeared and spoke. The evening was most lovely, and the lights very pretty on the river; no doubt you are better off at Greenlands, but happily we can enjoy things as they pass.

Smith spent part of September and October visiting ships and dockyards with Mr Ward Hunt, First Lord of the Admiralty; and the repose at Greenlands which he so earnestly longed for was further curtailed by work at the Treasury during the autumn sittings of the Cabinet.

TREASURY, November 24.

I was very sorry to be obliged to run away from you, . . . but I think it was my duty to come here, and the moment I arrived Northcote sent for me and kept me discussing business for an hour. The Cabinet then met, and they have adjourned without fixing any future meeting, so that if I had not been here I should have been wanting in some parts of my work.

November 28.

Another busy day, but each day's work now leaves less to be done, and there is great satisfaction in getting through work. Northcote goes away on Saturday, so I shall have much less to do afterwards, as all talking with him will come to an end.

December 6.

I have had a busy day again, and have had several long interviews, which have left me short time to write. Such a mixture of Post Office, Revenue, Exchequer Bills, Foreign Affairs, Kew Gardens, S. Kensington, Royal Society! My mind is very like the cross readings on a wall or a screen covered with scraps.

December 18.

I have been holding a levée to-day, or, as ladies would say, I have "received," until at last I am tired of talking. I hope things look peaceful, and at all events that we shall not be engaged in war. The Cabinet are cheerful.

December 19.

I have been prowling about looking for presents, but I have not satisfied myself yet. It really is difficult work. I am fearing I may not be able to get down to-morrow night. . . . I have had such a stream of people here one after another, and so many difficulties to smooth over, that I have not got on with my work as I hoped, and I do not want to have a quantity sent down to me.

A.D. 1876.] DISRAELI'S LAST SPEECH IN COMMONS.

149

I have been engaged incessantly up to this moment (6.40) by a succession of men and work, all wanting a last word or touch before Christmas. I think I have bought everything excepting the cane, but I shall come down laden with parcels like a Father to

morrow.

CHAPTER XI.

1876-1878.

As the session of 1876 moved to a close, affairs began to wear an unprosperous aspect for the Administration. The Porte had been in difficulties with its subjects in Servia, Montenegro, and Bulgaria, and in the repression of insurrection in the last-named country Turkish officials had shown a ferocity which quickly awakened sympathy in this country for the sufferers. Party politicians are ever on the outlook for any occurrence, however remote, which may be turned to the disadvantage of their opponents, and in the Bulgarian atrocities Liberals were not slow to discern their opportunity. Conservative policy had ever favoured the strengthening of Turkey as a bulwark against the southward advance of Russia, therefore the Conservative Government must be called to account for the proceedings in Bulgaria. Mr Evelyn Ashley took the opportunity afforded, according to immemorial usage, by the Third Reading of the Appropriation Bill-always the closing act of the session to call attention to this matter, and it was in reply to him that Mr Disraeli made his last speech in the House of Commons. Next morning it was announced that he had been summoned to the House of Lords with the title of Earl of Beaconsfield.1 It had been known that his health had been

1 The secret had been well kept, for Disraeli loved coups de théâtre. Mr Evelyn Ashley happened to meet one of Disraeli's private sec

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