Lord and Lady Cadogan quickly earned that popularity which never left them. Charming to everybody, the soul of courtesy to all ranks and classes, ideal host and hostess, and spending their great wealth freely, it would have been surprising, indeed, if the viceroy and his wife had not achieved success. Nationalists, professional and amateur, learnt the advantage of having a wealthy Lord-Lieutenant, even if he had been nominated by the hated and detested Tories, and the unostentatious munificence of the viceregal pair was not the least factor that contributed towards their success. As a member of the Cabinet, Lord Cadogan's political sympathies were obvious, yet in an extraordinary way he managed to conceal the politician in the administrator. He was even accused of favouring the Nationalists and Roman Catholics, and aggrieved place-hunters ruefully declared that the only qualification for office and promotion was Nationalist leanings or adherence to the Church of Rome. Nevertheless, Lord and Lady Cadogan lost nothing of their influence over all classes. Every Dublin season was brilliant and successful, simply because Lord and Lady Cadogan had the power to do things, and knew how to do them. The visit of the then Duke and Duchess of York in 1897--a brilliant success--was a triumph for Lord Cadogan's political perspicacity. The Local Government Bill of 1898--a measure frankly Liberal in tone--would have wrecked any other Lord-Lieutenant; it left Lord Cadogan as strong {312} as ever. It is the irony of fate that the Conservative-Unionist party should have done, and still be doing, more for Ireland than Gladstone or his colleagues ever did. The Local Government Bill meant that the control of local affairs should pass from the hands of the minority to the majority. Protestant and Unionist councillors, Chairmen of County Councils, aldermen, magistrates, and other minor dignitaries were swept out of existence, and that nebulous host, the people, reigned in their stead. Had Gladstone proposed such a measure, and carried it, there would have been a revolt of the Unionists in Ireland, but as a Salisbury Government fathered the Act it was accepted without demur, and the revolution on the Nationalist side was a peaceful one. In a single phrase, the Act meant that in future the Catholic majority should be the masters of the Protestant minority. There is no quarter given or asked in Irish politics, and from that day to this the Protestants have had no share in the administration of local government in the country. {313} CHAPTER XXI