Lord Cranborne, would anybody think of a man on the other side of the hedge, if he expressed an opinion that there must be “considerable modifications” in the money in the traveller’s purse? Mr. Hardy completed the confusion of his Party by practically answering Lord Stanley, and declaring that he, at least, would never lay a sacrilegious hand on Church temporalities. The “Cave,” too, broke up under pressure from the constituencies. Even Mr. Lowe assailed the Irish Church, averring that “the curse of barrenness” was upon it. “Cut it down!” he exclaimed; “why cumbereth it the ground?” It is easy to see why Mr. Disraeli’s strategy was at fault. He should either have nailed up the standard of “No surrender,” or have boldly said the Irish Church must be disestablished, and appealed to the country to trust the work to Conservative hands that would deal tenderly and reverently with such an ancient institution. As it was, he made Lord Stanley hint that Ministers were ready next Session to produce a plan which Liberals could accept, and he made Mr. Gathorne-Hardy soothe his followers with assurances that no harsh hands would ever be laid on the Irish Church. Mr. Gladstone carried his motion to go into Committee on his Resolutions, and on the 5th of April Lord Malmesbury writes in his Diary, “Government has been beaten on Lord Stanley’s amendment. We shall not resign, but dissolve and meet a new Parliament.” There is some reason to think that it was the intention of the Government not to dissolve Parliament till January, 1869, when the new electors came to power. And it is certain that the Radicals were by no means anxious to turn Mr. Disraeli out till they had convinced the now yielding Whigs that the era of inaction had passed away, and that the next Liberal Executive must be as Liberal as the new Parliament which it was going to lead. Mr. Disraeli’s course of action at this time was therefore unintelligible. Though he knew that Mr. Gladstone’s proposal had pleased the new Democracy, he made no attempt to “educate” his party up to a compromise[280] with the Opposition, who, after the first flush of victory, became a little nervous as they saw the great practical difficulties of Disestablishment looming larger every day. He missed his golden opportunity and raised a “No Popery” cry, declaring that the attack on the Irish Church was a conspiracy between the High Churchmen and the Roman Catholics to destroy the institutions of a Protestant Monarchy. This naturally alienated the votes of the High Churchmen, who were mostly Tories.[281] Nor did the Low Churchmen respond to the “No Popery” cry. They noted that it came from a Government which was prepared to endow a second Maynooth on a more sumptuous scale than the first, and from a Statesman who jeered at “the shallow fanaticism” of the Liberation Society. Perhaps this was fortunate. To have effected a compromise might have removed some of the practical evils of the Irish Church.