make terms with their Mahdi. If the Tories were buying the Parnellite vote to-day, the Liberals would soon be found bidding higher for it to-morrow, and Irishmen, whose interests and timidity alone served to keep them loyal to Dublin Castle so long as they felt absolutely certain of the support of both political parties in England, began in 1885 to stream over to Mr. Parnell’s camp. The stream was obviously swollen when a coalition of the Parnellites and Tories expelled Mr. Gladstone’s Government from office, and when it was known that the Parnellite vote had been obtained on the faith of a promise from the Tory leaders that they would not only abandon the Crimes Act if they came into office, but join Mr. Parnell in opposing Mr. Gladstone’s Government if it sought to renew it. The year also witnessed the end of the Egyptian tragedy, the conquest of Burmah, the semi-Socialistic propaganda of Mr. Chamberlain, the General Election which made Mr. Parnell master of Ireland, and shattered the English Party system that had been built up after 1846, and the rumoured adoption of Home Rule as a part of Mr. Gladstone’s programme. During the first weeks of 1885--the winter recess, as it might be called--Mr. Chamberlain spread terror through the land by making a strong Socialistic appeal to the new Electors. He was evidently bent on breaking up the old Liberal Party--perhaps he saw his way to the formation of a new democratic faction into which many of the “Tory democracy,” created by Lord Randolph Churchill, might drift. Signs were not wanting that a coalition between these successful politicians was in certain circumstances quite a possible contingency. In the meantime, Mr. Chamberlain and his followers preached what he called the “doctrine of ransom.” This meant that when a man became rich he was to purchase the privilege of keeping his wealth by paying taxes now borne by the poor, and if need be by providing new taxes in order to give the poor a larger share of the comforts and enjoyments of life than fell to their lot. Mr. Chamberlain in fact offered to “ransom” the thrifty classes from confiscation provided they taxed themselves to give the poor free libraries, pleasure-gardens, education, improved dwellings at “fair rents,” allotments of land, and work and employment in time of distress. It was part of his scheme to abolish indirect taxation. His lieutenant, Mr. Jesse Collings, formulated the portion of it which dealt with the land by popularising the idea that it was the duty of the ratepayers to set up agricultural labourers in the business of farming with “three acres and a cow” to start with. Government, in fact, was, according to Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Collings, to act as a kind of glorified Cooperative Store, or “Universal Provider” for the proletariat.