in releasing forty political prisoners. But within a year organised crime, chiefly in agrarian districts, developed anew. An increase of the military forces proved of little avail. Consequently early in 1870 Spencer obtained a Peace Preservation Act, with special clauses directed against sedition in the press. The Act received the royal assent on 4 April. The Land Act followed, and the consequent improvement in the country's tranquillity enabled Spencer at the end of the year to release the remaining Fenian prisoners subject to their banishment from the United Kingdom for life. A recrudescence of terrorism among the riband societies of Westmeath and
neighbouring counties in 1871 called in Spencer's judgment for another coercive measure — the 'Westmeath Act' (16 June). He believed his task was greatly facilitated by that Act. In August 1871, when he entertained the Prince of Wales in Dublin, a riot in Phoenix Park showed continued need of vigilance. On the overthrow of Gladstone's government in 1874 Spencer left Ireland with a reputation for combining a firm with a conciliatory temper.
During the next six years, while his party was in opposition, he for the most part occupied himself privately. He had become lord-lieutenant of Northamptonshire (11 Aug. 1872), and was always attentive to county business. When Gladstone formed his second administration in 1880 Spencer joined the liberal cabinet as lord president of the council. The office constituted its occupant the chief of the education department. Spencer discharged his varied duties with discretion until the spring of 1882. Then he was suddenly reappointed to his former position in Dublin (3 May 1882). A grave crisis had arisen in Ireland, where at the instigation of the Land League disorder had raged for more than two years and coercive measures failed in their purpose. Gladstone and his government were now seeking some accommodation with the revolutionary leaders. But the Irish viceroy, Lord Cowper [q. v. Suppl. II], and the Irish secretary, W. E. Forster [q. v.], deprecated any reversal of policy, and both resigned. Spencer became viceroy, retaining his seat in the cabinet, and Lord Frederick Cavendish [q. v.] joined him as chief secretary. Their appointment was designed as a step towards conciliation. 'Suspects' imprisoned without trial were to be released. A new land bill was to be prepared. At the same time the cabinet felt that some exceptional powers were still needed by the Irish executive, and a measure for conferring them was ready for drafting before Spencer and Cavendish left for Dublin on 5 May (Lady Frederick Cavendish in The Times, 18 Aug. 1910).
On the morning of 6 May Spencer was sworn in as lord-lieutenant at Dublin Castle and Cavendish as a member of the Irish privy council. At a council in the afternoon the provisions of the proposed 'coercion' measure were discussed. At the close of the meeting Spencer rode to the Viceregal Lodge in the Phoenix Park. Cavendish soon followed on foot, and was joined by the under-secretary, Thomas Henry Burke [q. v.]. A terrible outrage followed. Cavendish and Burke were murdered by a gang of ruffians known as the 'Invincibles' in the Phoenix Park in full view of Spencer's windows. The outrage completely changed for the time the character of Spencer's mission. Sir George Trevelyan succeeded Lord Frederick as chief secretary, and together they sought to bring the conspirators to justice. The crimes bill, which was already sanctioned in principle by the cabinet, received the royal assent (12 July) and was rigorously enforced. The miu-derers were discovered and punished, and disorder was gradually suppressed.
The resolution with which Spencer and Sir George Trevelyan faced the situation exposed them to ’daily even hourly danger of their lives' (ibid.) and to floods of obloquy and calumny from the mass of the Irish people. Spencer was credited with a 'cruel, narrow, and dogged nature,' and was popularly christened the 'Red Earl.' The colour of his long and bushy beard had long before suggested that sobriquet as a friendly nickname, but the words were now freely employed to imply his delight in blood. By the law-abiding population he was hailed as a saviour of society. Trinity College conferred on him the honorary degree of LL.D. in 1883 amid immense applause.
In the spring of 1885, when the Crimes Act was about to expire, acute differences arose in the cabinet both as to its renewal and as to the general Irish policy of the party. Spencer with the support of the whig element in the cabinet desired that certain provisions in the old Coercion Act should be renewed, and he suggested that a new land purchase bill should accompany the new Coercion Act. The radical leaders, Mr. Chamberlain and Sir Charles Dilke [q. v. Suppl. II], dissented, unless Spencer accepted in place of the land bill a large measure of local government. Before the dispute went further, the government were
