Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/346

 even including the province of Dongola which had not as yet fallen into the power of the Mahdi.

In internal affairs during this period Hartington was the recognised leader of the whigs or moderate liberals, and came into frequent collision, both within and without the cabinet, with Mr. Chamberlain and Sir Charles Dilke [q. v. Suppl II], who led the radical section. He acquiesced reluctantly in the great extension of the franchise carried out in 1884-5, especially with regard to Ireland, and with difficulty was persuaded to remain in the cabinet, when it was proposed to pass the extension at once, and a redistribution bill, separately, at a later indefinite date. Chiefly to him and to his consultations with Sir Michael Hicks Beach (afterwards Lord St. Aldwyn), at the instance of Queen Victoria, was due the pacific settlement of the conflict upon this point between the government and the House of Lords in the autumn of 1884, when it was arranged to pass the redistribution bill at the same time as the franchise bill. The scheme of redistribution was settled at a conference between Gladstone, Lord Salisbury, Lord Hartington, Sir Charles Dilke, Sir Michael Hicks Beach, and other leading men of both parties. From the time when the 'home rule for Ireland' movement began, about 1872, he had always uncompromisingly opposed any plan of altering the 'legislative union' of Great Britain and Ireland, and had publicly predicted in the House of Commons on 30 June 1874 that if any liberal statesman were rash enough to embark upon this policy, he would break up the liberal party. He had also been a strong supporter of measures necessary for preserving order and resisting the wave of agrarian crime and supersession of law by the edicts of the Land League, which swept over Ireland after 1880. This rigime of violence culminated in the assassination of his brother, Lord Frederick Cavendish [q. v.], when chief secretary of Ireland, on 6 May 1882. In all these Irish questions the views of Hartington diverged widely from those of Gladstone, especially after the latter inaugurated negotiations with the Irish leader, Charles Stewart Parnell [q. v.], in April 1882.

Gladstone's administration fell in June 1885, and was succeeded by that of Lord Salisbury. The general election at the end of the year resulted in a return of conservatives and Irish nationalists about equal in number, when added together, to the liberals. Hartington stood and was elected for the new electoral division of Rossendale, in Lancashire, for which he sat henceforth, while he remained in the House of Commons. Gladstone's determination to embark upon a home rule policy was first made known in December 1885 after the election. Most of the members of the last liberal cabinet, despairing of further resistance to home rule, decided to follow Gladstone. A minority, however, led by Hartington, declined to accept office in the government, which Gladstone formed on the defeat of Lord Salisbury's government in the debate on the address in February 1886. Chamberlain and (Sir) George Trevelyan joined the new government provisionally, but on ascertaining the character of the measure proposed, left it, and made common cause with Hartington. On the introduction of the home rule bill (8 April), Hartington declared his opposition to it. He also addressed outside meetings, of which the most famous was that at the Opera House in the Haymarket (14 April), when he appeared upon the same platform with Lord Salisbury [q. v. Suppl. II], thus laying the foundation of the unionist alliance between the conservatives and dissentient liberals. The great difficulty urged by Lord Hartington his speeches was that there could be no guarantee that the supremacy of the imperial parliament over Ireland would be in practice maintained as Gladstone asserted. 'Mr. Gladstone and I,' he said, 'do not mean the same thing by the word "supremacy." ' Hartington on the second reading of the home rule bill, on 10 May 1886, moved the rejection of the measure in a very powerful speech, which made a great impression upon the House of Commons and the country, Over ninety liberal members of Parliament followed Hartington and Chamberlain, and on 8 June 1886 the bill was defeated on a second reading by a majority of 30. Gladstone at once obtained a dissolution of parliament, and, in consequence of the recent addition of two million voters to the electorate there was some doubt as to the result. Hartington fought in the country the most strenuous campaign of his life. The elections gave a sufficient majority to the combined conservatives and the liberal unionists, who now were a distinct organised party under the presidency and leadership of Hartington. The conservatives numbered 316, the liberal unionists 78, Gladstone's followers 191, and the Irish nationalists 85. Salisbury, with Queen Victoria's consent, asked Hartington to form a government, in which he would serve, or to take office in