Lord Lytton having resigned the Indian Viceroyalty, Lord Ripon was appointed in his place. No sooner had Parliament met, on the 29th of April, than it was apparent that one gentleman had read aright the lesson to be derived from Mr. Chamberlain’s successful career. To prove that one’s capacity for obstruction was not inferior to that of Mr. Parnell, to reform on a popular basis the organisation of one’s Party, and to flout openly on fitting occasions the authority of one’s leader, these, argued Lord Randolph Churchill, are the keys that unlock the doors of the Cabinet. He, together with Sir H. D. Wolff, Mr. A. J. Balfour, and Mr. Gorst, organised a small band of Tory obstructionists called the Fourth Party, who hoped, by their unscrupulous tactics in embarrassing Mr. Gladstone, that their gibes at Sir Stafford Northcote’s prudent leadership would be forgiven. Their first opportunity for wasting the time of the House arrived when Mr. Bradlaugh, the Member for Northampton, came forward to be sworn on the 3rd of May. Mr. Bradlaugh was notoriously an Atheist, and he claimed to make an affirmation. At first the Fourth Party did not move in the matter, but the Speaker doubted if he could affirm, and a Select Committee appointed to consider the question, reported that he could not. Lord Frederick Cavendish had, in nominating the Committee, included several members who being Ministers would have to stand for re-election, and Sir Drummond Wolff and his friends raised an acrimonious debate by objecting to the names of gentlemen who were not technically members of the House being appointed to the Committee. On the 21st of May Mr. Bradlaugh came forward and claimed to take the oath. This the Fourth Party opposed as revolting to their consciences, for had not Mr. Bradlaugh publicly declared that as he was an Atheist the religious sanction in the oath was to him meaningless? There was no precedent for refusing to swear a member. The law seemed to be that it was his duty to his constituents to get himself sworn. But the point was referred to another Committee, and they reported that Mr. Bradlaugh could not be sworn. The absurdity of this proceeding is easily illustrated. In the Parliament of 1886, Mr. Bradlaugh was allowed to take the oath without a word of protest from the conscience-seared pietists of the Fourth Party. But by that time most of them had become Ministers, and were not anxious to encourage the obstruction of public business. On the 21st of June Mr. Labouchere, the senior member for Northampton, moved that Mr. Bradlaugh be allowed to affirm. The motion was rejected on the 22nd of June by a vote of 275 to 230, and when Mr. Bradlaugh, after speaking in his defence, refused to leave the bar, Sir Stafford Northcote carried a motion that he be imprisoned in the Clock Tower. This step made the House the laughing-stock of the nation, and the Tories promptly released Mr. Bradlaugh from his luxurious retreat. On the 1st of July Mr.