The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke, Volume 2Gwynn, Stephen Lucius
History
The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke, Volume 2
Gwynn, Stephen Lucius
Dilke, Charles Wentworth, Sir, 1843-1911; Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 19th century
On June 8th Mr. Childers moved the second reading of his Budget Bill,
which was met by an amendment moved by Sir Michael Hicks Beach,
condemning the proposed increase upon beer and spirits without any
corresponding increase on wine, and declining to increase the duty on
real property until promised changes were made in regard to local
taxation.
'I made a good debating Budget speech, of which Sir John Lambert
wrote "In Tea, Domine, spero," and I replied: "Since the time of Sir
Thomas More all these profane 'good things' have come from devout
Catholics."'
Other leading men followed, and Mr. Gladstone summed up by saying that
you must tax either alcohol or tea and sugar. But the division went
against him: 6 Liberals voted with the Tories, and 76 were absent. The
majority against the Government was 12. The end had at length come.
CHAPTER XLI
FALL OF ADMINISTRATION
JUNE TO JULY, 1885
On June 8th, as has been seen, the Government were defeated by a
majority of 12.
'On June 9th there was a further Cabinet. We had been beaten on the
Budget, but in the meantime Spencer had yielded, and Mr. Gladstone
was very anxious to be able to say that we were all agreed.
Therefore we discussed a Coercion Bill in the first place, but the
four of us at once refused to agree to Spencer's concession as
sufficient.' [Footnote: Namely, that the Coercion Bill should only
have effect after a special proclamation had been issued. Sir
Charles Dilke notes, September 20th, 1891, the receipt of a letter
from Mr. Chamberlain, thanking him for extracts from his Memoir of
1884-85 on Irish affairs, and saying that where it dealt with the
same points it tallied exactly with his recollections.] 'It passes
my understanding, therefore, how Mr. Gladstone is able to pronounce,
as he has done, "unfounded" the statement that the Cabinet was at
odds upon the Irish question at the moment of its defeat. Three of
us had resigned on it, and our letters were in his pocket. The next
matter discussed was resignation, which did not take a minute; and
then the question of what Customs dues should be levied....
'After the Cabinet there was a levee, at which I had some
conversation with Lord Salisbury as to the Redistribution Bill in
the Lords, and his reply showed that he meant to form a Government.'
'On June 10th my discussions with Lord Salisbury as to the
Redistribution Bill were continued, and it was decided that the Bill
was to go forward in spite of the Ministerial crisis, although this
was resisted by the Fourth Party in the House of Commons.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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