This was the statesman who was given the opportunity of putting into practice his theories of Irish administration. There was some curiosity as to the new viceroy, and when Lord Salisbury chose the Marquis of Londonderry the nervous felt more relieved. The premier had selected a safe rather than a brilliant Lord-Lieutenant, and one who was capable of perpetrating as few blunders as any of his Tory contemporaries. Sir Michael Hicks-Beach emphasized the new importance of the Irish Secretaryship by accepting it, and, as he had been Chancellor of the Exchequer in the previous Salisbury Cabinet, his action was regarded as a generous one. It was a remarkable innovation to send a tried statesman to Dublin, for it had been the custom for many years to utilize the position as a sort of preparatory school for the Cabinet. It was Sir Michael's second attempt, but this was only a half-hearted one. Two Royal Commissions were appointed--one {299} to report on the land question, the other to examine into the material resources of the country. Lord Cowper, an ex-viceroy, presided over the first. Lord Salisbury was, indeed, making a worthy attempt to effect the political salvation of the Hottentots by Act of Parliament. The viceroy, Charles Stewart Vane-Tempest-Stewart, sixth Marquis of Londonderry, was thirty-four years of age, and had before his succession to the peerage in 1884 represented County Down in Parliament for six years. As a descendant of the second marquis, who earned undying notoriety by his destruction of the so-called Irish Parliament, he was naturally of interest to all whose affairs brought them into close touch with Ireland. He was an Irish landlord, the husband of a clever, ambitious woman, a daughter of the premier earl of England. They had married in 1875, and she was a leading Tory hostess when they transferred their headquarters from Londonderry House, Park Lane, to Dublin Castle and the Viceregal Lodge for a period of three years. [Sidenote: Mr. Balfour as Chief Secretary]