In Ireland the National League, which had been founded in 1882 as a continuation of the old Land League, was extending its organisation. Mr. Healy’s electoral victory in Monaghan suggested that an attack should be made on the last stronghold of the Unionist Party in Ireland. League meetings were therefore held in Ulster; but the Orangemen, terrified by this invasion of Home Rulers into their loyal territory, attempted to repel it by force. They organised rival meetings, and planned armed attacks on the Leaguers. Occasionally Mr. Trevelyan had to suppress the demonstrations of both “Orange” and “Green” by proclamation. In England the Recess was one of stormy political agitation. The Liberal Party felt that it was necessary to submit some measure to Parliament in 1884, on which, if need be, they might risk an appeal to the constituencies. Hence, at Leeds, their provincial leaders and delegates resolved to press a measure of Parliamentary Reform on the country. A small minority, who urged that the reform of the Municipality of London and of County and Local Government should have the first place, were overruled by those who raised the famous cry of “Franchise first.” The Tory leaders, when they spoke on the subject, merely suggested that the problem of Parliamentary Reform was encumbered with difficulties. For some time the Liberal leaders rarely spoke save to contradict each other either as to the order of legislation in the coming Session, or as to whether, if Household Suffrage were extended to the counties, the Redistribution of Seats would be dealt with by a separate Bill. During the Recess, Sir Stafford Northcote roused the Conservatism of North Wales and Ulster. Lord Salisbury attempted to thrill his party with terror by an article in the _Quarterly Review_, bewailing the “disintegration” of English society under Mr. Gladstone’s malefic influence; and in another periodical--the _National Review_--he appealed strongly for popular support by a strong semi-Socialistic paper advocating the better housing of the poor. In fact, the end of 1883 and the beginning of 1884 will be long remembered for an outbreak of _dilletante_ Socialism among the upper classes. The powerful pen of a gifted novelist had revealed, as by flashes of lightning, the unexplored regions of the East End of London. In fact, Mr. Walter Besant’s vivid pictures of its dull grey life of toil, varied only by hunger, and ending only in death, had seared the conscience, if they had not touched the heart, of a brilliant society of pleasure. Beneath the bright wit and mocking humour of the satirist, [Illustration: THE PARISH CHURCH, CRATHIE. BRAEMAR CASTLE. ]