¹¹²² Richard Pigott (1828–1889), journalist.

¹¹²³ Henry Du Pré Labouchere (1831–1912), Advanced Lib. MP for Windsor (1865–1866) and for Northampton (1880–1906), proprietor of Truth.

¹¹²⁴ When Pigott failed to appear in Court on 26 February, Sir Charles Russell made the startling announcement that Pigott had, after his disastrous cross-examination, called on Labouchere on 23 February and dictated to him a full confession. See A.L. Thorold, The Life of Henry Labouchere (London, 1913), pp. 356–357.

¹¹²⁵ On 1 March, Pigott shot himself through the head in a Madrid hotel when police entered his room (Lyons, F.S.L., Charles Stewart Parnell (London, 1977), p. 422Google Scholar).

¹¹²⁶ The Memorandum of Agreement between Carnarvon, the University of Oxford, and the Clarendon Press for Lord Chesterfield's Letters to his Godson, with Notes and an Introduction by the Author was dated 11 August 1889 (Highclere Castle Archives, Box 1).

¹¹²⁷ Edward King (1829–1910), Bishop of Lincoln, had been accused by the Church of alleged ritualist practices. Edward Benson, the Archbishop of Canterbury, had disinterred an old spiritual tribunal, the Court of Audience, to try the case. Carnarvon, together with many others, deplored this illiberal move. See Hardinge, III, p. 304; Russell, G.W.E., Edward King, Sixtieth Bishop of Lincoln (London, 1912), pp. 162–163Google Scholar.

¹¹²⁸ The Naval Defence Act, introduced in March, signalled the entry of Britain into the naval armament race. The Act provided for the building of eight first-class battleships, two second-class battleships, nine large and twenty-nine smaller cruisers, four fast gunboats, and eighteen torpedo gunboats, at a cost of £21,500,000. See A.J. Marder, The Anatomy of British Sea Power: a history of British naval policy in the pre-dreadnought era, 1880–1905 (London, 1940), p. 143; Hamilton, Parliamentary Reminiscences and Reflections, 1886–1906, pp. 110–114.

¹¹²⁹ Lord John David Fitzgerald (1816–1889), Irish judge, Lib. MP for Ennis (1852), Solicitor-General for Ireland (1855–1856), Attorney-General for Ireland (1856–1858, 1859), Justice of Queens Bench, Ireland (1860–1882), Lord of Appeal and created Baron Fitzgerald (1882).

¹¹³⁰ House of Lords (Discontinuance of Writs) Bill, second reading: Hansard, CCCXXXIV, 21 March 1889, Carnarvon, cols 333–345, Fitzgerald, cols 345–350, Salisbury, cols 353–357. Cranbrook noted the following day, ‘At the House, we had Carnarvon's “black sheep” Bill, wh. was riddled with many compliments to the mover & eventually crushed by the previous question’ (Johnson, p. 729).

¹¹³¹ Royal Commission on Naval and Military Depots: Hansard, CCCXXXIV, 29 March 1889, Carnarvon, cols 1125–1131.

¹¹³² George Robert Harris (1851–1932), 4th Baron Harris (1872), Under-Secretary of State for India (1885–1886) and for War (1886–1889); ibid., cols 1133–1138.

¹¹³³ John Bright had died on 27 March and, on the following day, Churchill told the Birmingham Conservatives that he intended to stand for selection for the constituency. Chamberlain was in fact keen for Churchill not to be invited, but the latter left the decision to Hicks Beach and Hartington. Their advice was far from encouraging and Churchill turned down the invitation. See Marsh, P.T., Joseph Chamberlain: entrepreneur in politics (New Haven, CT and London, 1994), p. 315Google Scholar.

¹¹³⁴ Frances Anne Emily Churchill (1822–1899), widow of John Winston Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough.

¹¹³⁵ After a hard fight, the Conservative candidate, Captain H.F. Bowles, obtained 5,124 votes and his Gladstonian Liberal opponent, W.H. Fairburn, 3,612, a majority of 1,512 (The Times, 1 April 1889, p. 6).

¹¹³⁶ Gerald Fitzgibbon (1837–1909), Solicitor-General for Ireland (1877–1878), Lord Justice of Appeal (1878). He was a friend of Churchill.

¹¹³⁷ From early 1888, Fitzgibbon urged Churchill to embark on a new initiative for Ireland. See Foster, Lord Randolph Churchill, pp. 351–353.

¹¹³⁸ The Land Purchase Bill, introduced by Ashbourne in the House of Lords on 17 July 1885.

¹¹³⁹ Carnarvon considered the conversation on the state of Irish affairs so important that he postponed a planned visit to Germany in order to meet Churchill again (Carnarvon to Churchill, 7 April 1889: Randolph Churchill Papers, Add. MS 9248/23/3113).

¹¹⁴⁰ The meeting with Hartington did not take place, owing to Hartington being out of the country and Carnarvon being laid up with an attack of gout. Carnarvon noted, ‘I do not, however think that, as matters stand, there is any real loss by a short delay’ (Carnarvon to Churchill, 19 April 1889: Randolph Churchill Papers, Add. MS 9248/23/3124).

¹¹⁴¹ After the meeting, a ten-point memorandum was drawn up by Carnarvon as a basis for future action in Ireland. It included the extension of the Local Government Act of 1888 to Ireland ‘by bodies not less than County Councils’, possibly to be extended to provincial councils; provisions for the purchase of freehold by the occupier; improvements in education; and the gradual relaxing of control of the police and resident magistrates by the imperial parliament and future transference to provincial councils (Carnarvon, ‘Heads of changes in Irish policy drawn up in May/89 after conversation with R. Churchill’: CP, BL 60828, fo. 26).

¹¹⁴² Hartington was much occupied at this time as chairman of the Royal Commission on the Civil and Professional Administration of the Naval and Military Departments, to which he had been appointed in June 1888. A preliminary report, recommending important changes in the organization of the Admiralty and the War Office, and the need for greater co-ordination, appeared in July 1889. See P. Jackson, The Last of the Whigs: a political biography of Lord Hartington, 8th Duke of Devonshire (Rutherford, NJ and London, 1994), pp. 282–283.

¹¹⁴³ Among the matters discussed with Hartington was whether Carnarvon should raise a debate in the House of Lords in an attempt to obtain a declaration of policy on Ireland from Salisbury (Hartington to Carnarvon, 31 May 1889: CP, BL 60828, fo. 21). Hartington advised Carnarvon ‘not at this moment to stir up the question’ (Carnarvon to Churchill, 5 June 1889: Randolph Churchill Papers, Add. MS 9248/24/3170).

¹¹⁴⁴ The New Code of 1889, issued by the Committee of the Privy Council on Education, was an attempt to liberalize the system of ‘payment by results’ for elementary schools and allow more freedom for teachers on the subjects taught: building requirements were completely changed and class sizes were to be reduced. The voluntarists saw this as an attack on Church schools. After a bitter campaign, the Code was withdrawn. See G. Sutherland, Policy-making in Elementary Education, 1870–1895 (London, 1973), pp. 266–277.

¹¹⁴⁵ Edward White Benson (1829–1896), Archbishop of Canterbury (1882–1896).

¹¹⁴⁶ Land Transfer Bill (No. 8), third reading: Hansard, CCCXXXVII, 25 June 1889, Salisbury, cols 687–688, Carnarvon, col. 690.

¹¹⁴⁷ The identity of this person is not known.

¹¹⁴⁸ Sir Henry Brougham Loch (1827–1900), Governor of Victoria (1884–1889), Governor of the Cape and High Commissioner in South Africa (1889–1895), Baron Loch (1895).

¹¹⁴⁹ Georges Ernest Boulanger (1837–1891), French soldier and statesman. Served in Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), Minister of War (1886–1887). Committed suicide in Brussels.

¹¹⁵⁰ For Churchill's own account of his meeting with the Czar, see W.S. Churchill, Lord Randolph Churchill, 2 vols (London, 1906), II, pp. 359–366.

¹¹⁵¹ His speech on domestic legislation at Walsall on 28 July roused the anger of publicans over the temperance issue. This overshadowed the Birmingham address on Irish policy two days later (ibid., pp. 397–398).

¹¹⁵² Egypt. Military Operations against the Dervishes. Future Policy: Hansard, CCCXXXIX, 12 August 1889, Carnarvon, cols 993–1001.

¹¹⁵³ Ibid., Salisbury, cols 1002–1004. Salisbury had written to Carnarvon a week earlier, at the last moment, when Carnarvon intended to introduce a debate on the Egyptian situation. ‘So I sent him a few lines, good-natured but with a sting, saying I was much obliged for the letter but should have been still more grateful if he had given me an earlier intimation’ (Diary, 5 August 1889; Carnarvon to Salisbury, 5 August 1889: Hatfield House Papers, 3M/E).

¹¹⁵⁴ Two years later, when Lytton gave up the Paris post, Balfour, after being approached by Churchill, urged Salisbury to fill the vacancy with Churchill: ‘It would take him out of a sphere where, in these days of reckless electioneering promises, he is really dangerous, & put him in one where he would be relatively powerless for mischief.’ Salisbury, however, would not contemplate the idea. See R.R. James, Lord Randolph Churchill (London, 1959), p. 356.

¹¹⁵⁵ In fact, the volume was published as a narrative in The Prime Ministers of Queen Victoria series, in octavo format, with a modest amount of quotations from Disraeli's correspondence: Froude, J.A., The Earl of Beaconsfield (London, 1896Google Scholar).

¹¹⁵⁶ Mrs Sarah Brydges Willyams (1769–1863), Sephardic Jew, wealthy widow, and owner of an estate near Torquay. She was over eighty when she first contacted Disraeli and there was a copious correspondence between them for many years. He inherited much of her estate after her death and she was buried, as she desired, at Hughenden. See Blake, Disraeli, pp. 414ff.

¹¹⁵⁷ Carnarvon commented on the project, ‘I have been wary in giving advice though I have talked more or less freely of past events’ (Diary, 24 December 1889).