and Scotland have their turn. Nor was anything done towards the creation
of new local institutions in Ireland, or the reform of the Castle
bureaucracy. We were profoundly disheartened. We saw golden
opportunities slipping away, and doubted more than ever whether
Westminster was the place in which to legislate for Irish grievances.

Another momentous fact was the steady increase in the number of
Nationalist members. Every seat that fell vacant in Ireland was filled
by them. The moderate Irish party, most of whom had by this time crossed
the floor of the House, and were sitting among us, had evidently no
future. They were estimable, and, in some cases, able men, from whom we
had hoped much, as a link between the Liberal party and the Irish
people. But they seemed to have lost their hold on the people, nor were
they able to give us much practical counsel as to Irish problems. It was
clear that they would vanish at the next General Election, and
Parliament be left to settle accounts with the extreme men, whose
spirits rose as those of our friends steadily sank.

Lastly: it was in this session that the alliance of the Nationalists and
the Tory Opposition became a potent factor in politics. Its first
conspicuous manifestation was in the defeat of the Government by the
allied forces on the Affirmation Bill, when the least respectable
privates in both armies vied with one another in boisterous rejoicings
over the announcement of numbers in the division. I do not refer to this
as ground for complaint. It was in the course of our usual political
warfare that two groups, each hating and fearing the Ministry, should
unite to displace it. But we now saw what power the Irish section must
exert when it came to hold the balance of numbers in the House. Till
this division, the Government had commanded a majority of the whole
House. This would probably not outlast a dissolution. What then? Could