but yet leave _a_ party--democratic, because all the moderates will
go over to the Tories: poor, because all the subscribers will go
over to the Tories; more Radical than the party has ever been; and
yet, as things now stand, with you outside of it.'

Chamberlain wrote on May 3rd from Highbury:

'My Dear Dilke,

'Your letter has greatly troubled me. My pleasure in politics has
gone, and I hold very loosely to public life just now.

'The friends with whom I have worked so long are many of them
separated from me. The party is going blindly to its ruin, and
everywhere there seems a want of courage and decision and principle
which almost causes one to despair. I have hesitated to write to you
again, but perhaps it is better that I should say what is in my
mind. During all our years of intimacy I have never had a suspicion,
until the last few weeks, that we differed on the Irish Question.
You voted for Butt, and I assumed that, like myself, you were in
favour of the principle of federation, although probably, like
myself also, you did not think the time had come to give practical
effect to it. The retention of the Irish representatives is clearly
the touchstone. If they go, separation must follow. If they remain,
federation is possible whenever local assemblies are established in
England and Scotland. Without the positive and absolute promise of
the Government that the Irish representation will be maintained, I
shall vote against the second reading. You must do what your
conscience tells you to be right, and, having decided, I should
declare the situation publicly at once.