Ireland according to Irish ideas," or what was understood by that taking
phrase. We were to disestablish and disendow the Irish Church, reform
the Irish system of land-tenure, and reconstruct the Irish Universities.
Robert Lowe, who was a conspicuous member of the new Cabinet, burst into
rather premature dithyrambics, crying, "The Liberal Ministry resolved to
knit the hearts of the Empire into one harmonious concord, and _knitted
they were accordingly_." And we, of the rank and file, believed this
claptrap; but to us it was not claptrap, for our whole hearts were in
the great enterprise of pacification in which we believed our leaders to
be engaged. But Ireland by no means exhausted our reforming zeal. We had
enough and to spare for many departments of the Constitution. We were
determined to give the workmen the protection of the Ballot, and to
compel them to educate their children. We meant to abolish Purchase in
the Army and Tests at the University; and some of us were beginning to
feel our way to more extensive changes still; to hanker after universal
suffrage, to dream of simultaneous disarmament, to anticipate the
downfall of monarchical institutions, and to listen with complacency to
attacks on the Civil List and Impeachments of the House of Brunswick. In
fine, Reformers were in a triumphant and sanguine mood. We were
constrained to admit that, as regards its personal composition, the new
House of Commons was a little Philistine--not so democratic, not so
redolent of Labour, as we had hoped. But we believed that we had the
promise of the future. We believed that by enfranchising the artisans we
had undertaken a long step towards the ideal perfection of the
Commonwealth. We believed that these new citizens, who had just proved
themselves worthy of their citizenship, would continue to support, with
increasing ardour and devotion, Liberal administrations and Liberal
measures. Above all, we believed that, as our recent achievements were
the direct developments of great principles asserted in the past, so
they would in turn develop into constitutional changes far more