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 1879 prohibiting preliminary debate upon going into committee of supply, nor the proviso of 28 Feb. 1880, by which a member could be summarily suspended after being named from the chair, materially checked the practice. His last measure as leader of the House of Commons was the Irish Relief of Distress Bill, which, after a very rapid progress, became law on 18 March 1880.

On the reassembling of parliament on 20 May the conservatives only numbered 243 as against 349 liberals and 60 home-rulers. Northcote led the opposition, first as Beaconsfield's lieutenant, and, after his death in April 1881, as joint leader with Lord Salisbury. He soon found a section of his followers (comprising Lord R. Churchill, Mr. A. J. Balfour, Sir H. D. Wolff, and Mr. Gorst, and known as the `fourth party ') somewhat impatient of his conciliatory and judicious attitude towards the government. But he inflicted damaging defeats on the ministry in connection with Mr. Bradlaugh's claim to affirm instead of taking the oath, notably on 4 May 1883, when the Affirmation Bill was rejected by a majority of three. He also resisted Mr. Gladstone's closure resolution of 20 Feb. 1882, and the twelve resolutions for the curtailment of debate were postponed until the autumn session (24 Oct. to 2 Dec.) Upon Irish affairs his most notable speeches were those of 19 May on the Land Bill of 1881, in which he uttered a somewhat mild condemnation of that measure, though at Brecon on 27 Nov. 1880 he had declared that the `three Fs ' stood for fraud, force, and folly; and on the 'Kilmainham Treaty' (16 May 1882), in which he discovered `a good deal that required explanation.' He cordially supported the Prevention of Crime Bill introduced by Sir William Harcourt after the murder of Mr. Burke and Lord [q. v.], against the determined opposition of the home-rulers (see especially speeches of 11 May and 24 May 1882). On 18 June 1883 he moved that Mr. Bright had committed a breach of privilege in a speech at Birmingham, in which the conservatives were described as `allies of the Irish rebel party,' but was defeated by 151 votes to 117. Northcote discouraged the fair trade movement, remarking at Newcastle on 12 Oct. 1881 that protection must be regarded as a `pious opinion,' not an article of faith (see also, Life and Times of the Right Hon. W. H. Smith, ii. 54). He did not take a very prominent part in the debates on the Franchise Bill of 1884, but he spoke frequently during the campaign which followed the measure's rejection by the House of Lords, offering at Edinburgh (19 Sept.) that if the government would lay before parliament the whole plan, of reform and redistribution, it should receive the opposition's candid consideration. When parliament reassembled (24 Oct.) he, in conjunction with Lord Norton (Sir C. Adderley), helped to arrange the compromise with the government, by which the opposition undertook that the Franchise Bill should pass forthwith, on condition that ministers would promptly produce the Redistribution Bill, and that the details of the latter scheme should be communicated to the opposition leaders. After a series of conferences between Lord Salisbury and himself on the one hand, and the committee of the cabinet (Lord Hartington, Mr. Shaw Lefevre, and Sir C. Dilke) on the other, the crisis terminated by Mr. Gladstone's production of the Redistribution Bill on 1 Dec. Northcote's most important speeches on foreign affairs were those on the Transvaal (25 June 1881), on Egypt (27 June 1882), and on the Soudan (12 Feb. 1884), when he moved a vote of censure on the government, which was negatived by 311 votes to 262. The terms of another vote of censure moved by Northcote on 23 Feb. 1885 were considered to be too mild by the majority of the conservatives, though the government escaped defeat by fourteen only (302 votes to 288). In other respects the opposition had become dissatisfied with his leadership (ib. ii. 143-148).

On the fall of Mr. Gladstone's government (8 June 1885) Northcote, with great self-sacrifice, accepted the almost sinecure office of first lord of the treasury, apart from the premiership, and on 6 July he took his seat in the House of Lords as Earl of Iddesleigh and Viscount St. Cyres. On 29 Aug. 1885 he was gazetted president of the commission to inquire into the depression of trade, the last report of which was dated 21 Dec. 1886 (Parl. Papers, 1886, vols. xxi.-xxiii.); at the end of January 1886 the government was replaced by Mr. Gladstone's third administration. On 8 March 1886 Northcote was entertained at Willis's Rooms by his political friends, both liberal and conservative, and presented with a handsome testimonial. On the formation of Lord Salisbury's second ministry, Iddesleigh became foreign secretary (27 July), and had to deal with the complications in the Balkan States, produced by the kidnapping of Prince Alexander of Bulgaria on 21 Aug. He was accused of adopting a policy of rash irritation, but his despatches by no means bear out the view (ib. 1887, xci. 1-317), though his remarks on 29 Sept. to the Russian ambassador, M. de