Excerpt from The Policy of the Government Since the General Election: A Speech Delivered to His Constituents in the Town Hall, Birmingham, on June 7th, 1881

But I hope, gentlemen, that I may be fortunate enough to take hack with me the assurance of your continued sympathy and support - (loud cheers) - without which, I can assure you, public life would be only a barren and thankless task.

Now, there was one result of the general election which I neither foresaw nor predicted, and that was that I should be called upon to take part in the Government which was rendered possible by the victory which you helped to achieve. (Applause.) I accepted the office which Mr. Gladstone graciously offered me - (cheers) - not without some hesitation, both because I naturally distrusted my own qualifications after so short an experience of Parliamentary life, and also because I could not surrender without regret that full independence which I had enjoyed as a private member. If I had been alone concerned in the matter, it would have been a small question, but I felt that when a member of Parliament takes office, his constituents also are called upon to share the sacrifice which he makes in this respect. A Liberal Government which pretends to represent the Liberal party must of necessity consist of men of different shades of opinion. They are all animated by the same principles, they are all going in the same direction, but the order of progress and the rate of progress, and even the instruments and means by which progress is to be accomplished, are capable of infinite variety, and no man has any right to expect, under such circumstances, that he will always be able to have his own way. Everyone must be prepared to make some concessions, and all must be ready - so much I have learnt in my experience in Birmingham - to accept and to endeavour to carry out the will of the majority when it is expressed after fair discussion.

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