19 March 1883

Earl Spencer is replaced as Lord President of the Council by Lord Carlingford

Carlingford had been brought back into the Government by Gladstone in 1881 because of his knowledge of Irish affairs. As Chichester Fortescue he had served as Gladstone’s Chief Secretary for Ireland in the 1860s and 70s. Although useful when it came to Irish policy, Gladstone never held Carlingford in high regard and it showed. Carlingford got his own back the following year by refusing to become Ambassador to Constantinople to allow Lord Rosebery to enter the cabinet. Rosebery would have to wait until the final months of the administration to get a place at the cabinet table.