A Lull Before the Storm--Dissent in the Dumps--Disastrous Bye-Elections--The Queen’s Speech--The Irish University Bill--Defeat of the Government--Resignation of the Ministry--Mr. Disraeli’s Failure to Form a Cabinet--The Queen and the Crisis--Lord Derby as a Possible Premier--Mr. Gladstone Returns to Office--Power Passes to the House of Lords--Grave Administration Scandals--The Zanzibar Mail Contract--Misappropriation of the Post Office Savings Banks’ Balances--Mr. Gladstone Reconstructs his Ministry--The Financial Achievements of his Administration--The Queen and the Prince of Wales--Debts of the Heir Apparent--The Queen’s Scheme for Meeting the Prince’s Expenditure on her Behalf--The Queen and Foreign Decorations--Death of Napoleon III.--The Queen at the East End--The Blue-Coat Boys at Buckingham Palace--The Coming of the Shah--Astounding Rumours of his Progress through Europe--The Queen’s Reception of the Persian Monarch--How the Shah was Entertained--His Departure from England--Marriage of the Duke of Edinburgh--Public Entry of the Duchess into London. When the Session of 1873 opened, it is a curious fact that in London the universal complaint was that politics had become depressingly dull. But the lull really presaged a storm, in which the Government was wrecked. It was known that Mr. Gladstone intended to make the question of Irish University education the chief business of the Session, and it was admitted that next to this question the one of most consequence to the Government was that which was raised by the Dissenters, who demanded the extension of School Boards, and the establishment of compulsory education all over England, together with the repeal of the 25th clause of Mr. Forster’s Education Act. The bye-elections, which had been disastrous to the Ministry, showed that the Dissenters were in revolt, and that they “sulked in their tents,” instead of supporting Ministerial candidates. The Irish University Bill could not possibly be carried without Nonconformist support, and that could obviously not be hoped for if anything like “concurrent endowment” for the Roman Catholics defaced it. On the other hand, if the revenues of Trinity College were shared with Catholic scholars, Liberals like Mr. Fawcett and Mr. Vernon Harcourt would support Mr. Disraeli in opposing the measure. The Cabinet resolved to neutralise the expected secession of the small Fawcett-Harcourt group, by rendering their Bill acceptable to their powerful Nonconformist contingent, and Liberal tacticians were full of joyful anticipations when it leaked out that this plan was contemplated. As will be seen, one important contingency was never taken into consideration--the possible desertion of Mr. Gladstone’s Roman Catholic followers; and yet it was their desertion which wrecked the Bill and destroyed the Government. [Illustration: QUEEN’S COLLEGE, CORK. (_From a Photograph by W. Lawrence, Dublin._)]