within a few hours of giving his instructions in Dublin Castle to face the fire of hostile 'questions' in the House of Commons. His health suffered under the strain. Moreover he had to follow and take part in the intricate debates on Mr. Gladstone's Land Bill of 1881, and especially to watch the interests of the labourers. When parliament rose there was no rest for him, for the headquarters of the agitation were transferred from Westminster to the rural districts of Ireland, and incendiary speeches followed by outrages came in constant succession. On 13 Oct. 1881, at the Guildhall, Mr. Gladstone announced the arrest of Mr. Parnell, and this was followed by the suppression of the Land League as an illegal and treasonable association. Meantime plots began to be formed against Forster's life, and during the winter of 1881-2 several attempts were made upon him, his escape under the circumstances, subsequently made public, appearing little less than miraculous. In March 1882 he took the bold step of personally visiting some of the worst districts, and at Tullamore he addressed a crowd from a window of the hotel, impressing even the hostile peasantry who heard him with admiration for his pluck and character. Two months later he and Lord Cowper had resigned, the occasion being his refusal to countenance the celebrated Kilmainham 'treaty' by which Mr. Parnell and his colleagues were to be released from prison after they had privately and, as Forster thought, far too vaguely promised to support the government. On Thursday, 4 May, Forster made a memorable speech in the House of Commons, explaining the reasons of his resignation. Stated shortly they were to the effect that one of the following three conditions was, in his view, indispensable to the release of the prisoners: 'A public promise on their part, Ireland quiet, or the acquisition of fresh powers by the government.' As none of these three conditions was, in his opinion, satisfied, Forster resigned with Lord Cowper, and their places were taken by Lord Spencer as lord-lieutenant, and Lord Frederick Cavendish as chief secretary. On the following Saturday (6 May 1882) Lord Frederick Cavendish and Mr. Burke were murdered in Phœnix Park. Forster at once offered to take up his old post, and 'temporarily to fill the vacancy which had been caused by the loss of Mr. Burke, the man who, next to himself, was the most intimately acquainted with the existing condition of things in Ireland.' The offer was not accepted, and he did not again return to Ireland. It was not till the following winter, when the informer, James Carey [q.v.] gave evidence at the trial of the Phœnix Park assassins, that the country learned how imminent had been the personal danger to which for many months Forster had been exposed. But he himself knew it well, though he never allowed himself to be influenced by it.
Forster took comparatively little part in Irish debates during the remaining years of his life, but one notable exception to this was during the debate on the address at the beginning of 1883, when he charged Mr. Parnell and other members of parliament connected with the league with conniving at crime. Meantime he devoted his public efforts to the furthering of other causes, especially to the interests of the colonies and to the settlement of Egyptian difficulties. He was the chairman of the newly formed Imperial Federation League, which hoped to carry out his old idea of bringing the colonies into closer and more formal connection with the mother-country. He followed with profound interest the course of events in South Africa, and strongly supported such measures as the appointment of Mr. Mackenzie as resident in Bechuanaland and the despatch of Sir Charles Warren's expedition. He was a severe and unsparing critic of the blunders of the government in relation to Egypt up to the time of the fall of Khartoum, declaring that the battle of Tel-el-Kebir ought not to have been fought unless we were prepared to accept its logical consequences. Only once, however, did he actually vote against the government, on 27 Feb. 1885 in the debate on Sir Stafford Northcote's motion censuring the government for the death of General Gordon, when the ministry was only saved by fourteen votes. He cordially supported the County Franchise Bill, and was present at the great open-air meeting at Leeds on 6 Oct. 1884, called to condemn the action of the House of Lords in rejecting the bill. During the last half of the session of 1885 a very arduous piece of work was imposed upon him when he was asked to be chairman of the small committee that had to decide the fate of the Manchester Ship Canal Bill. This was the determining cause of his last illness. The session over, feeling weary and ill, he went to Baden-Baden, but even there he could not rest, and some imprudent over-exertion brought on the illness from which, on 5 April 1886, at 80 Eccleston Square, London, he died. His death was greatly mourned, and even at a time of bitter political antagonism, when old ties were being broken in all directions, and when many of those who had once worked with him regarded him as their most formidable political opponent, it was admitted on all sides that a man of lofty character had passed away.
