It was a bad time for Gladstone, defeated in an election held just a few months after the previous poll which he’d won.

It was a bad time for Charles Stewart Parnell and his Irish Parliamentary Party who’d felt Home Rule for Ireland was within their grasp only to see themselves cheated of the prize.

But it wasn’t an easy time for Salisbury either who had to approach building his second government with a lot of care, watching out who he offended and who he couldn’t afford to offend.

But Salisbury’s biggest problem was the most outspoken and best-known parliamentarian his Conservative Party had in the House of Commons, Lord Randolph Churchill, father of the Winston who would ultimately become far better known than he ever was. Randolph Churchill was a problem for Salisbury until the latter showed his skill by turning the tables on the former.

And making it a bad time for Churchill too.

Illustration: Photo of the original performance of Shaw’s Arms and the Man, 1894.

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License.