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Commons justified all Lord Cranborne's fears. One by one all the " checks and safeguards " disappeared, until, in its final form, he described the measure as " the result of the adoption of the principles of Bright at the dictation of Gladstone," and denounced it as "a political betrayal which has no parallel in our annals, which strikes at the root of all that mutual confidence which is the very soul of our party government, and on which only the strength and freedom of our representative institutions can be sustained." In his famous article, entitled, " The Conservative Surrender," which appeared in the Quarterly Review in October, he enlarged on this theme, combining a merciless exposure of the tactics of his leaders with a lofty appeal for adherence to principle in public life.
He was, in fact, almost in despair at this time, feeling, as he said, that " the monarchical principle was dead, the aristocratical principle was doomed, and the democratical principle triumphant." But worse than his fears for the future were his wrath and scorn for his leaders who had betrayed the party and the nation, by passing, when in office, a measure practically identical with the one they had succeeded in throwing out the year before. " My opinions belong to the past," he wrote to Lord Coleridge in 1868, * " and it is better that new principles in politics should be worked by those who sympathise with them heartily."
This depression, however, soon passed away,
1 Life of Lord Coleridge, II. 156. C. S
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