Mr. Gladstone dissolved Parliament when it had thrown the Bill out; he appears really to have believed that the nation would give its sanction to Home Rule. At the General Election of 1886, he exerted himself 'in the sacred cause of Ireland,' with the energy he had shown in his Midlothian Campaign; he associated his new Irish policy with appeals to the multitude; the opposition to him was that 'of the classes against the masses;' in a word, the enthusiastic, and perhaps sincere, convert played, with little scruple, the part of a mere demagogue. But England pronounced against him, with no uncertain voice; 'men of education and property,' as he sadly acknowledged, resisted him with the steadfastness of the English nature; a great majority was sent into the House of Commons pledged against Home Rule; Lord Salisbury's Government came again into office. It deserves special notice that the rejection of the Bill did not, as was predicted would be the case, arouse anything like real discontent in Ireland, or cause her Catholic community to stir; this spectacle, which has been seen over and over again, proves how little the main body of the Irish people care for a political revolution of the kind; and how Home Rule, as Parnell and his band conceived it, was the work of a conspiracy of foreign origin, seeking, through it, to subvert British rule in Ireland. The real purpose of these men was very clearly shown at a Convention assembled at Chicago, in the summer of 1886; speeches of the most incendiary nature were made; and two of Parnell's envoys, despatched to collect funds 'for the cause,' announced that, after the failure of Mr. Gladstone's measure, their 'duty was to make the government of Ireland by England impossible.' Two or three years of trouble in Ireland followed; it is unnecessary to refer to these at any length. A season of agricultural distress and of a fall in prices made the payment of Irish rents difficult; the occasion was seized by the heads of the National League, which had gradually been acquiring formidable strength; the 'Plan of Campaign' was set afoot; and another attack was made on the Irish landed gentry, with the ultimate object of paralysing the Irish Government, as had been solemnly proclaimed at Chicago. The social disorder of this period was not so deeply marked with horrible deeds of blood, as the Saturnalia of the Land League were; but the movement was, perhaps, not less dangerous; the cruel practice of 'boycotting' was reduced to a system, and caused widespread misery and distress; an agrarian war was carried on in a few counties; judges, magistrates, and juries were terrorised in the administration of the law; and there were too numerous instances of atrocious crimes. But a firm hand was at the helm of the Irish Government; Mr. Balfour did not palter with sedition and treason; the conspiracy was before long put down; and it should be added that 'boycotting' and 'the Plan of Campaign' were unequivocally condemned at