His viceroyalty was somewhat similar to that of Lord Londonderry's, though he soon lost the aid of Mr. Balfour, who was replaced by Mr. W. L. Jackson, raised to the peerage as Lord Allerton in King Edward's Coronation year. He had not been long in office when the report of the Parnell Commission became the sensation of the season; indeed, it was all Parnell and no Zetland from the beginning to the end of his term. The Commission was followed by the divorce case that {304} extinguished the Irish leader; then came the sharp and bitter party schisms, the intervention of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, and last of all the death of the central figure of the sordid and miserable tragedy. It was quite impossible for either viceroy or Chief Secretary to do more than be there if he was wanted, and, perhaps fortunately no great crisis called for their intervention. A Tory Lord-Lieutenant can always have a comfortable and easy life in Dublin provided he is not ambitious to be up and doing. Lord Zetland was disinclined to create precedents or seek to alter established things. Every good cause received his approval and the benediction of Lady Zetland. They were not more political than they had to be, while the viceroy's fondness for the Turf was not without its effect, although the Irish sportsman is quite a different type to the Irish, and 'never the twain shall meet.' The viceroyalty jogged on gently to its predestined end, and the General Election giving Mr. Gladstone a majority the six-year-old Salisbury Administration came to an end. [Sidenote: Mr. Gladstone in power] The return of Mr. Gladstone to the premiership caused great perturbation in Unionist circles in Ireland. At last the polls had given him a mandate for Home Rule, and there was no prospect of rebellious Liberals rising again to destroy their chief. There remained the House of Lords, ever the bulwark of the liberties of the people--whether the people appreciated it or not; but there was a doubt whether the Upper Chamber would peril its existence by defying Gladstone again. Nevertheless, Unionist Ireland, with a {305} fanaticism and a determination not unworthy of the Irish Nationalist representatives, determined to fight the odds against them inspired by a 'No surrender' spirit. They resolved not to touch Gladstone or his noble representative with a forty-foot pole, and, numbering in their ranks the majority of the gentry and nobility, their decision to boycott the incoming viceroy meant much more than it appeared on the surface. It is true that any Tory viceroy can create the sort of court he pleases, and so can a Liberal in ordinary circumstances, but Lord Houghton was viceroy at a time when every snob, whether he took any interest in politics or not, became a Unionist in order to be known as a member of the gentlemanly party. It was simply 'bad form' to favour Home Rule, and that was sufficient to unite Unionists as they have never been united before or since.