council until Monday, December 7th. Mr. Gladstone, we were informed
(that is Morley, Lefevre, and myself), had presented a Home Rule
scheme to the Queen, who had shown it to Lord Salisbury, and
Randolph Churchill had told Lady Dorothy Nevill, who had told
Chamberlain, but no statement had been made by Mr. Gladstone to his
former colleagues.'




CHAPTER XLV

BEGINNING OF THE HOME RULE SPLIT

DECEMBER, 1885, TO FEBRUARY, 1886


After the meeting of Radicals, December 5th to 7th, at Highbury, Sir
Charles went back to London.

'On Wednesday, December 9th, I spoke at the Central Poor Law
Conference.... I carried the assembly, which was one of Poor Law
Guardians, and therefore Conservative, along with me in the opinion
that it was desirable to elect directly the whole of the new bodies
in local government, instead of having either a special
representation of Magistrates or any system of indirect election or
choice of Aldermen.'

He argued in the belief that the next session might still see a Tory
Government in power. 'If the Conservatives propose a Local Government