Nevertheless, on the Division, the Government, which has a nominal
majority of a hundred, received only 257 votes against 230,—a majority of 27, and this, it has subsequently been said, was obtained mainly by a promise to surrender the tax on matches. Thirty-six Liberals, if we include Lord Elcho, voted against the Government, and only one Tory for it, Colonel Percy Wyndham.
On Tuesday night Mr. Disraeli was determined not to be again foiled by "superior agility," and before the Chancellor of the Exchequer could give notice of his intended withdrawal of the match-tax, he had given notice of his intention to move on Thursday that "the financial propositions of the Govern- ment are not satisfactory, and that it is expedient that Her Majesty's Government should reconsider them,"—which, if carried, was meant to give the Government an alternative be- tween complete humiliation and immediate resignation. Mr. Lowe's notice of his intention to withdraw the match-tax, to insist on the Legacy and Succession Duties, and to state on Thursday how he would fill up the gap caused by the loss of the match-tax, came somewhat grotesquely upon Mr. Disraeli's threat.
