The real enemies of the Radicals are the Whigs, and they are essentially your enemies. It is a mistake to undervalue them. They have always managed to jockey the Radicals. They hang together; they have, through Grosvenor, the machine; they dominate in Clubs and in the formation of Cabinets. They may ally themselves with you _re_ Ireland, but this will be for their benefit, not yours. Nothing would give them greater pleasure than to betray you with a kiss, for you are their permanent bogey. Once you are out of the way, and the sheep of Panurge, _i.e._, the vast majority of the Liberal M.P.s, would be boxed up in their fold. At every election we should have shilly-shally talk, very vague and apparently meaning much, followed by half-hearted measures. All this is why I still hold that the Radical game is to go with Mr. Gladstone on Irish matters, and to use him in order to shunt them and, if possible, the Whigs--not that this course is not full of danger, but that it seems to me to present less danger than any other.--Yours truly, H. LABOUCHERE. _Mr. Chamberlain to Mr. Labouchere_ HIGHBURY, MOOR GREEN, BIRMINGHAM, Jan. 3, 1886. MY DEAR LABOUCHERE,--The more I look at the thing, the less I like it. Whatever we do we shall be smashed for a {306} certainty. The question is whether it is better to be smashed with Mr. Gladstone and the Parnellites or without them. I believe the anti-Irish feeling is very strong with our best friends--the respectable artisans and the non-Conformists. One thing I am clear about. If we are to give way it must be by getting rid of Ireland altogether, and by some such scheme as this. Call Ireland a protected state. England's responsibility to be confined exclusively to protecting the country against foreign aggression. England's authority to be confined exclusively to the measures necessary to secure that Ireland shall not be a _point d'appui_ for a foreign country. The financial question to be settled by a fixed annual payment to cover: 1. Ireland's share of the Debt. 2. A sinking fund to extinguish it in fifty years. 3. The cost of the military garrison. _Query_: Should we hold the customs till this Debt is extinguished, or find some other security for payment? In order to gild the pill for the English sympathisers with Protestant and landowning minorities: Ireland to be endowed with a Constitution--the elements to be: 1. A Governor with power to dissolve Parliament--no veto. 2. A Senate, probably elected but with some qualifications to secure a moderately Conservative Assembly. 3. A House of Commons. To meet the prejudices of English manufacturers and workmen, a Commercial treaty pledging Ireland not to impose duties on English manufactures. (Bounties might be left open.)