DEAR LABOUCHERE,--I should be delighted to dine with you on the 12th or 15th, if that would be convenient and agreeable to you. I think Joe is quite right to walk warily. After all, if the G.O.M. goes a mucker it may be a good thing for everybody. He has always disturbed the equilibrium of parties and done no good to any one except himself. However, you will probably think me prejudiced.--Yours ever, RANDOLPH S. CHURCHILL. _Mr. Labouchere to Mr. Chamberlain_ 10 QUEEN ANNE'S GATE, Jan. 7, 1886. MY DEAR CHAMBERLAIN,--Churchill will come on the 15th if that suits you. Is there any other Conservative or Liberal you would like? I suspect that Mr. Gladstone will not give the necessary pledges to the Irish. They have an idea that he might get in by their votes, and then try to make terms with the Conservatives, and bring in a milk and water measure. He talks of faith in him. Singularly enough they have not that amount which they ought to have. There is also the possibility that they will take a bird in the hand from the Conservatives--in the form of some local county measure, which would strengthen them in Ireland, and which would give them leverage. If this be so, how about a resolution in their favour--somewhat {309} vague--which would win them over to us in case of an election, and which would not be carried?--Yours truly, H. LABOUCHERE. _Mr. T. M. Healy to Mr. Labouchere_ DUBLIN, Jan. 7, 1886. MY DEAR L.,--I am afraid I badly repay all your letters. I greatly fear that Chamberlain's tone shows that even if he accepts the proposals in principle, he will help the Whigs to make Mr. Gladstone minimise them, and thus they may prove inacceptable to Ireland. Then it will be the Land Act misery over again, or rather your party would not be let in by us to pass a maimed measure, and so the Tories would reap the profit of our dissensions. _Beati possidentes!_ However, I think when your men get blooded by a few skirmishes with the Tories, they will be willing enough to patch things up to turn them out. With regard to Morley's point about the Veto, I recognise that the bigger powers we get the more natural would be your desire for some guarantee against their abuse--the better the Parliament, the more effective the Veto. As the scientist would say, you want it increased according to the square of the power. A Governor-General, I think, would meet this, and, for my part, I think it would capture or render quiescent a lot of the loyalists if he were a prince. A few Royal levees and some judicious jobs would probably bring most of these gentry round in a short time. Your letters have been admirable, and I am sure have done good, though none of us could write to the _Times_ or acknowledge it in any way. Moreover, except through extracts in the _Express_, none of us see it here. A single copy of any newspaper from across the Channel does not enter the office of _United Ireland_! However, as we are not your rulers this is no crime.