chapter xii

., especially pp. 223-4.

54 In the summer of 1862 he took an active part in schemes for finding employment at Hawarden for Lancashire operatives thrown out of work by the cotton-famine. One of the winding-paths leading through some of the most beautiful spots of the park at Hawarden was made at this time by factory workers from Lancashire employed by Mr. Gladstone for purposes of relief.

55 Walpole’s _Life of Russell_, ii. p. 361.

M27 On The Tyne

56 In a jingle composed for the occasion, the refrain is—

“Honour give to sterling worth, Genius better is than birth, So here’s success to Gladstone.”

In thanking a Newcastle correspondent for his reception, Mr. Gladstone writes (Oct. 20, 1862): “To treat these occurrences as matter of personal obligation to those who have taken a part in them would be to mistake the ground on which they rest. But I must say with unfeigned sincerity that I can now perceive I have been appropriating no small share of honour that is really due to the labour of others: of Mr. Cobden as to the French treaty, and of the distinguished men who have in our day by their upright and enlightened public conduct made law and government names so dear to the people of England.” “Indeed,” says a contemporary journalist, “if Middlesborough did not do honour to Mr. Gladstone, we don’t know who should, for the French treaty has been a greater boon to the iron manufacturers of that young but rising seaport, than to any other class of commercial men in the north of England.”—_Newcastle Daily Chronicle_, Oct. 11, 1862.

_ 57 Letters on England_, pp. 146-78.

58 Adams wrote in his diary: “_Oct. 8._ If Gladstone be any exponent at all of the views of the cabinet, then is my term likely to be very short. The animus, as it respects Mr. Davis and the recognition of the rebel cause, is very apparent. Oct. 9:—We are now passing through the very crisis of our fate. I have had thoughts of seeking a conference with Lord Russell, to ask an explanation of Gladstone’s position; but, on reflection, I think I shall let a few days at least pass, and then perhaps sound matters incidentally.”—Rhodes, iv. p. 340. _Life of Adams_, pp. 286-7.

59 Oct. 18, 1862.

M28 Estimate Of His Error

60 Rhodes, iv. p. 340. Also _Life of C. F. Adams_, p. 287.

61 Lewis, throughout 1861, used language of characteristic coolness about the war: “It is the most singular action for the restitution of conjugal rights that the world ever heard of.” “You may conquer an insurgent province, but you cannot conquer a seceding state” (Jan. 21, ’61). “The Northern states have been drifted, or rather plunged into war without having any intelligible aim or policy. The South fight for independence; but what do the North fight for, except to gratify passion or pride?”—_Letters_, p. 395, etc. See also preface to his _Administration of Great Britain_ (p. xix), where he says, in 1856, he sees no solution but separation.

M29 A Balanced Speech

62 There is a story, not very accurate, I should suppose, about Mr. Disraeli’s concurrence in the Emperor’s view, told from Slidell’s despatches in an article by O. F. Aldus, in _North American Review_, October 1879.

63 June 30, 1863. _Hansard_, vol. 171, p. 1800. On four other occasions Mr. Gladstone gave public utterance to his opinion “on the subject of the war and the disruption”—at Leith, Jan. 11, 1862, at Manchester, April 24, 1862, at Newcastle, Oct. 7, 1862, and once in parliament when a member spoke of the bursting of the American bubble, he says, “I commented on the expressions with a reproof as sharp as I could venture to make it” (May 27, 1861).

64 See Appendix.

65 x. iii. 10.

_ 66 Memoirs of J. R. Hope-Scott_, ii. pp. 284-293.

_ 67 Richard III._ I. sc. ii. At Salisbury, Sept. 7, 1866.

68 His school friend, and later, governor-general of India.

M30 Aberdeen, Graham, And Herbert

_ 69 March 19._—Reading, conversation, and survey in the house filled the morning at Cliveden. At four we went to Windsor ... I had an audience of the Queen ... I had the gratification of hearing, through Lady A. Bruce, that it was agreeable to H. M.—(_Diary._)

_ 70 Gleanings_, i.

71 The Lancashire cotton famine.

72 See the three articles on the Life of the Prince Consort in _Gleanings_, i. PP. 23-130.

73 On the estimates for 1862-68.

74 2 _Henry IV._, v. sc. i.

_ 75 Death of Wallenstein_, Act v. Sc. 3. In Coleridge, v. 1.

76 Denn nur der grosse Gegenstand vermag Den tiefen Grund der Menschheit aufzuregen, Im engen Kreis verengert sich der Sinn. Es wächst der Mensch mit seinen grössern Zwecken. _Prologue to Wallenstein_, stanza 5.

77 See Walpole’s _Life of Russell_, ii. p. 402.

78 A memorandum of Mr. Gladstone’s of March 1863 on the Roman Question is republished in Minghetti’s posthumous volume, _La Convenzione di Settembre_, Bologna, 1899.

79 April 11, 1862. That of March 7, 1861, is also worth turning over.

M31 Reception Of Garibaldi

80 Speech at Stafford House. June 2, 1883.

81 Speech not discoverable by me.

M32 Garibaldi’s Departure

_ 82 Hansard_, April 19, 1864, pp. 1277, 1290. April 21, p. 1423.

83 This was in reply to a letter from Lord Clarendon to Mr. Gladstone, April 23, ’64, asking him: “Do not you think that he ought in a letter to some personal friends to state frankly the reasons which have induced him to go? He alone can put a stop to all these mischievous reports.... He ought to say that no government, English or foreign, has to do with his departure, and that he goes solely because the state of his health does not permit him to fulfil his engagements.”

84 The story has been told from the radical point of view by Sir James Stansfeld in _Review of Reviews_, June 1895, p. 512. Another account by Mr. Seely, M.P., was furnished to the _Times_ (April 21, 1864). Lord Shaftesbury, who was a staunch Garibaldian, presumably on high protestant grounds, also wrote to the _Times_ (April 24): “The solid, persevering and hearty attachment of Mr. Gladstone to the cause of Italy and General Garibaldi is as notorious as it is generous and true, and I declare in the most solemn manner and on the word of a gentleman, my firm belief that we were all of us animated by the same ardent desire (without reference to anything and anybody but the General himself) to urge that and that only, which was indispensable to his personal welfare. It was, I assert, the General’s own and unsuggested decision to give up the provincial journey altogether.”

85 Fagan’s _Panizzi_, ii. p. 252. The same view was reported to be taken at the English Court, and a story got abroad that the Queen had said that for the first time she felt half ashamed of being the head of a nation capable of such follies. Mérimée, _Lettres à Panizzi_, ii. p. 25. On the other hand, the diary has this entry: _Oct. 1, 1864._ Dined with H.M. She spoke good-humouredly of Garibaldi.

_ 86 Le Comte de Cavour_: par Charles de Mazade (1877), p. 389.

M33 Nationality And Schleswig-Holstein

87 July 23, 1863.

88 Memorandum of 1897.

89 See Walpole’s _Russell_, ii. pp. 402-404.

90 For the revision of the Treaty of Vienna. See Ashley’s _Palmerston_, ii. p. 424.

91 See Ollivier’s _Empire Libéral_, vii. 71; De la Gorce, iv. 512.

M34 Cabinet And Non-Intervention

92 July 4, 1864.

93 Feb. 4, 1864.

94 Lord Robert Cecil, July 4, 1864.

M35 A Wonderful Combination

_ 95 Life of W. E. Forster_, i. p. 362.

96 Speech at Liverpool, April 6, 1866.

M36 Springs Of New Liberalism M37 A Decisive Utterance M38 Speeches In Lancashire M39 Speeches In Lancashire M40 The Protestant Dissenters

97 The dinner in honour of M. Berryer.

98 Above, p. 53.

M41 Death Of Cobden

99 Heathcote, 3236; Hardy, 1904; Gladstone, 1724.

M42 Valedictory Address

100 Egerton 9171; Turner, 8806; Thompson (L.), 7703; Heywood (L.), Gladstone, 8786; Legh (C.), 8476; 7653.

_ 101 Aen._ iv. 653. I have lived my life, my fated course have run.

102 Aristotle, _Rhet._ i. 5, 4.

_ 103 Life of Wilberforce_, in. pp. 161-164. The transcriber has omitted from Mr. Gladstone’s second letter a sentence about Archbishop Manning’s letter—“To me it seemed _meant_ in the kindest and most friendly sense; but that the man is gone out, φροῦδος and has left nothing but the priest. No shirt collar ever took such a quantity of starch.”

104 See _Saturday Review_, July 29; _Spectator_, June 24, etc.

M43 Death Of Lord Palmerston

105 Ei fu! siccome immobile, etc. First line of Manzoni’s ode on the death of Napoleon.

106 First lord, Earl Russell; foreign secretary, Lord Clarendon; secretary for war. Earl de Grey; first lord of the admiralty, Duke of Somerset.

M44 Leader In The Commons

107 Church’s _Letters_, p. 171.

108 Once at Hawarden I dropped the idle triviality that Mr. Pitt, Mr. Goschen, and a third person, were the three men who had been put into cabinet after the shortest spell of parliamentary life. (They were likewise out again after the shortest recorded spell of cabinet life.) “I don’t believe any such thing,” said Mr. Gladstone. “Well, who is your man?” “What do you say,” he answered, “to Sir George Murray? Wellington put him into his cabinet (1828); he had been with him in the Peninsula.” On returning to London, I found that Murray had been five years in parliament, and having written to tell Mr. Gladstone so, the next day I received a summary postcard—“Then try Lord Henry Petty.” Here, as far as I make out, he was right.

“It is very unusual, I think,” Mr. Gladstone wrote to the prime minister (Jan. 6, 1866) “to put men into the cabinet without a previous official training. Lord Derby could not help himself. Peel put Knatchbull, but that was on political grounds that seemed broad, but proved narrow enough. Argyll was put there in ’52-3, but there is not the same opportunity for previous training in the case of peers.”

_ 109 Life of Cobden_, ii. p. 232.

_ 110 Life of Sir Charles Murray_, p. 300.

M45 Temper Of His Churchmanship

111 To Sir W. Farquhar, April 4, 1864.

M46 Abolition Of Church Rates

_ 112 Life of Wilberforce_, ii. pp. 136-46; _Life of Shaftesbury_, ii. p. 404.

113 Pattison’s _Tendencies of Religious Thought in England, 1688-1750_. Reprinted in his _Essays_, vol. ii.

114 See the lines from _Euripides_ at the head of the chapter.

115 In a series of articles published in _Good Words_ in January, February, March 1868, and reprinted, in volume form the same year. Reprinted again in _Gleanings_, vol. iii.

_ 116 Gleanings_, iii. p. 41.

M47 “Ecce Homo”

_ 117 Purgatorio_, xxvii. 126-42.

M48 Bishop Colenso

118 A concise account of this transaction is in Lord Selborne’s _Memorials Family and Personal_, ii. pp. 481-7. See also Anson’s _Law and Custom of the Constitution_, ii. p. 407.

119 “The Courses of Religious Thought” in _Gleanings_, iii. p. 115.

_ 120 Life of Bishop Wilberforce_, ii. p. 286.

_ 121 Life of Bishop Wilberforce_, ii. p. 412.

_ 122 Ibid._, iii. pp. 92, 101.

M49 Judgement Of Friends

_ 123 Life of Lord Shaftesbury_, iii. pp. 171, 188.

_ 124 Ibid._, iii. pp. 201-2.

_ 125 Edinburgh, Review_, April 1857, p. 567.

M50 The Rising Star

126 Mr. M. Townsend in the _Spectator_.

_ 127 Spectator_, October 29, 1864.

M51 Francis Newman—Church—Bright

_ 128 Life of Dean Church_, pp. 179, 188.

_ 129 Life of Jowett_, i. 406.

130 Liverpool, July 18, 1865.

M52 “Always A Learner”

131 Norwich, May 16, 1890.

M53 Too Busy For Epistolary Gift

132 “Quid igitur? quando ages negotium publicum? quando amicorum? quando tuum? _quando denique nihil ages_? Tum illud addidi, mihi enim liber esse non videtur qui non aliquando nihil agit.”—CIC., _Orat._ ii. 42.

M54 The Duchess Of Sutherland

133 Martin’s _Prince Consort_, ii. p. 245 _n._

134 1: Lord Ronald Gower, _Reminiscences_, pp. 114-5.

135 See Morison’s _Life of St. Bernard_ (Ed. 1868), ii. ch. v.

136 A French actor who pleased the town in those days.

137 Edmund John Armstrong (1841-65). Republished in 1877. Sir Henry Taylor, _Edinburgh Review_, July 1878, says of this poet: “Of all the arts Poetic, that which was least understood between the Elizabethan age and the second quarter of this century was the art of writing blank verse.

“Armstrong’s blank verse [The Prisoner of Mount Saint Michael] not otherwise than good in its ordinary fabric, affords by its occasional excellence a strong presumption that, had he lived, he would have attained to a consummate mastery of it.”

138 Panizzi recovered and lived for eleven years. See _Life_, ii. p. 299.

_ 139 Grey Papers_, Oct. 22, 1865.

M55 Position Of The Question

140 See vol. i. p. 625.

M56 The New Reform Bill M57 “Our Own Flesh And Blood”

_ 141 Hans._, Mar. 23, 1866, p. 873.

142 Lord Robert Cecil had on the death of his elder brother in 1865 become Lord Cranborne.

143 Above, i. p. 613.

_ 144 Aen._ iv. 373: “The exile on my shore I sheltered and, fool as I was, shared with him my realm.”

M58 A Cause And A Man M59 Defeat Of The Bill M60 Resignation Of Office

145 Prussia had declared war on Austria, June 18.

146 Mr. Gladstone had sat on the front opposition bench from 1847 to the defeat of the Russell government in Feb. 1852. See footnote vol. i. p. 631.

M61 Rise Of The Popular Tide

_ 147 Charles Francis Adams._ By his Son, p. 368.

148 Son of Oliver Wendell Holmes, afterwards chief justice of Massachusetts, and in 1902 appointed a judge of the United States Supreme Court.

M62 Journey To Rome

149 Purcell, ii. p. 398.

_ 150 Oct. 22._—Saw the pope. _Oct. 28._—We went at 3 (reluctantly) to the pope. Lady Augusta Stanley accompanied us. We had a conversation in French, rather miscellaneous. He was gracious as usual. N.B. his reference to the papal coinages.—(_Diary_)

M63 Monte Cassino

151 Mr. Gladstone was elected by 27 votes out of 29, two being cast for J. S. Mill. The minister of instruction wrote: “Veuillez croire, monsieur, qu’il n’est pas de décret que j’aie contresigné avec plus de bonheur que celui qui rattache à notre Institut de France un homme dont le savoir littéraire, l’habileté politique, et l’éloquence sont l’orgueil de l’Angleterre.”

M64 Member Of The Institute M65 Operations Of 1867

152 This proposal was in effect to abolish compounding in the limits of parliamentary boroughs. Carried May 27.

M66 Opinion Out Of Doors

153 The electorate was enlarged from 1,352,970 in 1867 to 2,243,259 in 1870.

154 Sir Charles Wood had been created Viscount Halifax on his resignation of the India Office in 1866.

155 Grant Duff, _Elgin Speeches_, p. 101.

M67 Chaotic Parties

_ 156 Spectator_, April 20.

_ 157 Memories, etc., of Miss Caroline Fox_, p. 339 (March 5, 1867).

_ 158 Life of Wilberforce_, iii. p. 227.

M68 First Proposals

159 March 18.

160 “Gladstone,” says Lord Selborne, “would have been ready to oppose Disraeli’s bill as a whole, if he could have overcome the reluctance of his followers. But when a meeting was called to take counsel on the situation, it became apparent that this could not be done” (_Memorials_, Part II. i. pp. 68-9).

M69 “Fresh Intrigue Every Twelve Hours”

_ 161 Halifax Papers._

162 See above, p. 126.

_ 163 Gleanings_, vii. p. 135.

M70 Fenian Plots

_ 164 Hansard_, May 31, 1869.

165 At Greenwich, Dec. 21, 1868.

M71 The Standard Raised

166 He had also in his own mind the question of the acquisition of the Irish railways by the state, and the whole question of the position of the royal family in regard to Ireland. On the first of these two heads he was able to man a good commission, with the Duke of Devonshire at its head, and Lord Derby as his coadjutor. “But this commission,” he says, “did not venture to face any considerable change, and as they would not move, I, who might be held in a manner to have appealed to them, could do nothing.”

167 Mr. Gladstone’s letter to Lord Russell is given in Walpole’s _Russell_, ii. 446.

168 Till like a clock worn out with eating time, The wheels of weary life at last stood still.—Dryden’s _Œdipus_.

M72 Disraeli Becomes Prime Minister

169 Lord R. Gower, _Reminiscences_, p. 202.

M73 Resolutions On Irish Church

_ 170 Gleanings_, vii.

M74 Elected At Greenwich

171 In Lancashire (Nov. 24) the numbers were—Cross, 7729; Turner, 7676; Gladstone, 7415; Grenfell, 6939. At Greenwich (Nov. 17)—Salomons, 6645; Gladstone, 6351; Parker, 4661; Mahon, 4342.

172 England and Wales, Liberal, 1,231,450, Conservative, 824,056, Liberal Majority, 407,393. Scotland, Liberal, 123,410, Conservative, 23,391, Liberal Majority 100,019. Ireland, Liberal, 53,379, Conservative, 38,083, Liberal Majority, 17,297.

_ 173 National Review_, June 1898.

M75 Formation Of Government M76 First Cabinet

174 The reader will find the list of its members, now and at later periods of its existence, in the Appendix.

M77 The General Situation M78 Views Of The Queen

175 No: Archbishop Trench and Lord Carnarvon. See Selborne, _Memorials_, i. pp. 114-6.

M79 Bill Introduced

176 See _Life of Tait_, ii. pp. 8-14.

177 The Irish Church bill is the greatest monument of genius that I have yet known from Gladstone; even his marvellous budgets are not so marvellous.—_Dr. Temple to Acland, March 12, 1869._

M80 Second Reading

178 368 against 250.

_ 179 Life of Tait_, ii. pp. 18-19. How little he was himself the dupe of these illusions was shown by the next sentence, “What is of importance now is the course to be pursued by the House of Lords.” Bishop Magee met Disraeli on Jan. 28, ’69. “Dizzy said very little,” he wrote to a friend, “and that merely as a politician, on the possibilities in the House of Lords. He regards it as a lost game in the Commons.”—_Life of Archbishop Magee_, i. p. 214.

180 See _Daily News_, April 26, 1869.

M81 The House Of Lords M82 Destructive Amendments M83 Difficulties Thicken

181 The memorandum is dated Aug. 14, 1869.

182 1. The Lords’ amendment as to curates to be adopted, £380,000. 2. The Ulster glebes, 465,000. 3. The glebe houses to be free, 150,000. Total £995,000.

Or the Bishop of Peterborough’s amendment as to the tax upon livings in lieu of No. 3, would carry a heavier charge by 124,000. Total £1,119,000.

183 The version in society was that “Gladstone wanted to throw up the bill after the debate of last Tuesday, when the words of the preamble were re-inserted, but he was outvoted in his cabinet; and it is said that Lord Granville told him that if he gave up the bill he must find somebody else to lead the Lords.”—(July 22, 1869), _Memoirs of an Ex-Minister_, ii. p. 409.

M84 Action Of Lord Cairns

184 They were somewhat but not very greatly improved. The Ulster glebes, however, were gone. He now demanded: 1. The acceptance of the amendment respecting curates = £380,000; 2. Five per cent, to be added to the seven per cent, on commutations = £300,000; 3. The glebe houses to be given to the church at ten years’ purchase of the sites, a slight modification of Lord Salisbury’s amendment = £140,000. From this it appeared that even in the mid hours of this final day Lord Cairns asked above £800,000.

_ 185 Life of Archbishop Tait_, ii. p. 45.

M85 Views Of Mr. Bright M86 A Digression

186 When the present writer once referred to the Principle of the Act of 1860 as being that the hiring of land is just as much founded on trade principles as the chartering of a ship or the hiring of a street cab, loud approbation came from the tory benches. So deep was parliamentary ignorance of Ireland even in 1887, after the Acts of 1870 and 1881.—_Hans._ 314, p. 295.

M87 Land Bill In Cabinet M88 New Principle M89 Critical Contest M90 Bill Carried

_ 187 Spectator._

188 Lecky, _Democracy and Liberty_, i. p. 165.

M91 Fenian Prisoners

189 Article on Mr. Forster, _Nineteenth Century_, September 1888.

M92 Advance Of Ideas

190 “In 1843 the government of Sir R. Peel, with a majority of 90, introduced an Education bill, rather large, and meant to provide for the factory districts. The nonconformists at large took up arms against it, and after full consideration in the cabinet (one of my first acts in cabinet), they withdrew it rather than stir up the religious flame.”—_Mr. Gladstone to Herbert Gladstone, May 7, 1896._

M93 Mr. Forster

191 In 1869 about 1,300,000 children were being educated in state-aided schools, 1,000,000 in schools that received no grant, were not inspected, and were altogether inefficient, and 2,000,000 ought to have been, but were not at school at all. The main burden of national education fell on the shoulders of 200,000 persons whose voluntary subscriptions supported the schools. “In other words, the efforts of a handful out of the whole nation had accomplished the fairly efficient education of about one-third of the children, and had provided schools for about one-half; but the rest either went to inefficient schools, or to no school at all, and for them there was no room even had the power to compel their attendance existed.”—See Sir Henry Craik’s _The State in its Relation to Education_, pp. 84, 85.

M94 A Crucial Decision M95 Anger Of Nonconformists

_ 192 Life of Dale_, p. 295.

_ 193 Life of Forster_, i. p. 497.

M96 Effects Of Party M97 Bright’s Return To Government

194 For the rest of the letter see Appendix.

M98 Endowed Schools

195 See Appendix.

196 In 1874 the conservative government brought in a bill restoring to the church of England numerous schools in cases where the founder had recognised the authority of a bishop, or had directed attendance in the service of that church, or had required that the masters should be in holy orders. Mr. Gladstone protested against the bill as “inequitable, unusual, and unwise,” and it was largely modified in committee.

M99 University Tests

197 See vol. i., book iv., chap. iv. By the act of 1854 a student could proceed to the bachelor’s degree without the test of subscribing to the Thirty-nine Articles. Cambridge was a shade more liberal. At both universities dissenters were shut out from college fellowships, unless willing to make a declaration of conformity.

198 Speech on Mr. Dodson’s bill, March 16, 1864.

M100 Opening Of Civil Service

199 Vol. i. p. 509.

M101 State Of Europe

200 July 28, 1870.

M102 Efforts For Disarmament

_ 201 Reminiscences of the King of Roumania._ Edited from the original by Sydney Whitman. 1899. P. 92.

M103 The Spanish Throne

202 King William wrote to Bismarck (Feb. 20, 1870) that the news of the Hohenzollern candidature had come upon him like a thunderbolt, and that they must confer about it. _Kaiser Wilhelm I. und Bismarck_, i. p. 207.

203 The story of a ministerial council at Berlin on March 15, at which the question was discussed between the king, his ministers, and the Hohenzollern princes, with the result that all decided for acceptance, is denied by Bismarck.—_Recollections_, ii. p. 89.

_ 204 Hansard_, July 11, 1870.

205 The despatch is dated July 6 in the blue-book (C. 167, p. 3), but it was not sent that day, as the date of Mr. Gladstone’s letter shows. No cabinet seems to have been held before July 9. The despatch was laid before the cabinet, and was sent to Berlin by special messenger that evening. The only other cabinet meeting during this critical period was on July 14.

_ 206 Gleanings_, iv. p. 222. Modern French historians do not differ from Mr. Gladstone.

207 The Rothschild telegram was: The Prince has given up his candidature. The French are satisfied.

208 No. 39. Correspondence respecting the negotiations preliminary to the war between France and Prussia, 1870.

M104 British Remonstrances M105 French Diplomacy

_ 209 The Diplomatic Reminiscences of Lord Augustus Loftus._ Second series, i. p. 283.

210 Busch, i. p. 312.

M106 Count Bismarck’s Telegram

_ 211 Bismarck: His Reflections and Reminiscences_, 1898, ii. pp. 95-101. As I have it before me, the reader will perhaps care to see the telegram as Bismarck received it, drawn up by Abeken at the King’s command, handed in at Ems, July 13, in the afternoon, and reaching Berlin at six in the evening: “His Majesty writes to me: ‘Count Benedetti spoke to me on the promenade, in order to demand from me, finally in a very importunate manner, that I should authorise him to telegraph at once that I bound myself for all future time never again to give my consent if the Hohenzollerns should renew their candidature. I refused at last somewhat sternly, as it is neither right nor possible to undertake engagements of this kind _à tout jamais_. Naturally I told him I had as yet received no news, and as he was earlier informed about Paris and Madrid he could clearly see that my government once more had no hand in the matter.’ His Majesty has since received a letter from the Prince. His Majesty having told Count Benedetti that he was awaiting news from the Prince, has decided, with reference to the above demand, upon the representation of Count Eulenburg and myself, not to receive Count Benedetti again, but only to let him be informed through an aide-de-camp: That his Majesty has now received from the Prince confirmation of the news which Benedetti had already received from Paris, and had nothing further to say to the ambassador. His Majesty leaves it to your excellency whether Benedetti’s fresh demand and its rejection should not be at once communicated both to our ambassadors and to the press.” (ii. p. 96.)

212 See Sorel, _Hist. diplomatique de la guerre franco-allemande_ (1875), i. pp. 169-71.

M107 France Declares War

213 In the Reichstag, on July 20, Bismarck reproached the French ministers for not yielding to the pressure of the members of the opposition like Thiers and Gambetta, and producing the document, which would have overthrown the base on which the declaration of war was founded. Yet he had prepared this document for the very purpose of tempting France into a declaration of war.

214 Grant Duff’s _Diaries_, ii. p. 153. The technical declaration of war by France was made at Berlin on July 19.

_ 215 Life_, ii. p. 78.

216 “II fallait donner à l’Europe le temps d’intervenir, ce qui n’empêchait pas que vos armements continuassent, et il ne fallait pas se hâter, de venir ici dans le moment où la susceptibilité française devait être la plus exigeante, des faits qui devaient causer une irritation dangereuse.... Ce n’est pas pour l’intérêt essentiel de la France, c’est par la faute du cabinet que nous avons la guerre.”—_Thiers_, in the Chamber, July 15, 1870. For this line of contention he was called an “unpatriotic trumpet of disaster,” and other names commonly bestowed on all men in all countries who venture to say that what chances for the hour to be a popular war is a blunder.

_ 217 Gleanings_, iv. p. 222.

M108 First Thoughts In England M109 Mind Of The British Government M110 The Storm Of War

_ 218 Gleanings_, iv. p. 197.

M111 Article In “Edinburgh Review”

219 To be found in _Gleanings_, iv. In republishing it, Mr. Gladstone says, “This article is the only one ever written by me, which was meant for the time to be in substance, as well as in form, anonymous.” That was in 1878. Three years later he contributed an anonymous article, “The Conservative Collapse,” to the _Fortnightly Review_ (May 1880).

220 House of Lords, Feb. 14, 1871.

221 The stipulations “were politically absurd, and therefore in the long run impossible.” “The most inept conclusions of the peace of Paris.”—Bismarck, _Reflections_, ii. p. 114.

_ 222 Hansard_, May 6, 1856. See also May 24, 1855, and Aug. 3, 1855.

223 Bismarck, in his _Reflections_, takes credit to himself for having come to an understanding with Russia on this question at the outbreak of the Franco-German war.

M112 The Russian Circular

224 “The whole pith of the despatch was yours.”—Granville to Mr. Gladstone, Nov. 18, 1870.

M113 Bismark’s Action

225 Bismarck’s private opinion was this: “Gortchakoff is not carrying on in this matter a real Russian policy (that is, one in the true interests of Russia), but rather a policy of violent aggression. People still believe that Russian diplomats are particularly crafty and clever, full of artifices and stratagems, but that is not the case. If the people at St. Petersburg were clever they would not make any declaration of the kind but would quietly build men-of-war in the Black Sea and wait until they were questioned on the subject. Then they might reply they knew nothing about it, but would make inquiries and so let the matter drag on. That might continue for a long time, and finally people would get accustomed to it.”—Busch, _Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History_, i. pp. 312-13.

226 Correspondence respecting the treaty of March 30, 1856, No. 76, pp. 44, 45, c. 245.

227 The tripartite treaty of England, France, Austria, of April 15, 1856.

M114 The London Conference

228 Russell to Lord Granville, c. 245, No. 78, p. 46.

229 Sorel’s _Guerre Franco-Allemande_, ii. chap. 4.

230 That this failure to take advantage of the conference was an error on the part of France is admitted by modern French historians. Hanotaux, _France Contemporaine_, i. p. 108; Sorel, ii. pp. 216-7. Lord Granville had himself pointed out how a discussion upon the terms of peace might have been raised.

M115 Changes In English Opinion

_ 231 Lord Stanley on the Luxemburg Guarantee, June 14, 1867._—The guarantee now given is collective only. That is an important distinction. It means this, that in the event of a violation of neutrality, all the powers who have signed the treaty may be called upon for their collective action. No one of those powers is liable to be called upon to act singly or separately. It is a case so to speak of “limited liability.” We are bound in honour—you cannot put a legal construction upon it—to see in concert with others that these arrangements are maintained. But if the other powers join with us, it is certain that there will be no violation of neutrality. If they, situated exactly as we are, decline to join, we are not bound single-handed to make up the deficiencies of the rest.

232 The number of men was reduced from 49,000 in 1868 to 20,941 in 1870; at the same time the military expenditure on the colonies was reduced from £3,388,023 to £1,905,538.

_ 233 Reign of Queen Victoria_, edited by T. H. Ward (1887), i. p. 211.

M116 Army Reform

_ 234 Hansard_, Feb. 21 and March 23, 1871.

M117 Purchase And Royal Warrant

235 At the end of the volume, the reader will find some interesting remarks by Mr. Gladstone on these points. See Appendix.

M118 Freeman’s Judgment

_ 236 Memorials, Personal and Political_, vol. i. pp. 193, 194.

237 E. A. Freeman, in _Pall Mall Gazette_, February 12, 1874.

_ 238 Representative Government_, chap. x.

M119 The Ballot

239 The reader may remember his stripling letters—vol. i. p. 99.

M120 The Ballot Passed

240 In the House of Lords only 48 peers voted for the bill against 97. Many of the whigs abstained.

241 The first parliamentary election by ballot in England was the return of Mr. Childers at Pontefract (Aug. 15, 1872) on his acceptance of the duchy.

_ 242 Life of Grote_, pp. 312, 313.

M121 Finance

243 See Appendix.

M122 Match Tax

244 Writing to Mr. Lowe on his budget proposals, Mr. Gladstone Says (April 11, 1871): “The lucifer matches I hope and think you would carry, but I have little information, and that old. I advise that on this Glyn be consulted as to the feeling in the House of Commons. I am sceptical as to the ultimate revenue of one million.”

245 See _The Match Tax: a Problem in Finance_. By W. Stanley Jevons (London: Stanford, 1871). A searching defence of the impost.

246 See a speech in the House of Commons by Mr. Childers, April 24, 1873.

247 The estimates of 1874-5 were practically the estimates of the Gladstone government, showing a revenue of £77,995,000, or a surplus of £5,492,000. See Lord Welby’s letter to Mr. Lowe in _Life of Lord Sherbrooke_, ii. pp. 383, 384.

_ 248 Economist_, Feb. 8, 1873.

M123 Lowe As Chancellor Of The Exchequer

_ 249 Life of Tennyson_, ii. p. 108.

M124 Speech At Blackheath

250 Mr. Bright had retired from the cabinet on account of ill health in December 1870.

M125 Case Of Sir Robert Collier

251 34 and 35 Vict. c. 91, sect. 1.

M126 Parliamentary Criticism

252 Selborne’s _Memorials_, i. p. 200.

_ 253 Brand Papers._

M127 Ewelme Rectory M128 Disraeli Takes The Field

254 House of Commons, June 15, 1880.

M129 Escape Of The _Alabama_

255 Walpole’s _Russell_, ii. p. 373 _n._

256 See _Rhodes_, iv. pp. 377-86.

M130 American Claims

257 Walpole’s _Russell_, ii. p. 370.

258 Sir William Harcourt called the Act “the best and most complete law for the enforcement of neutrality in any country.” See _Hansard_, Aug. 1, 3, 4, 1870.

_ 259 Life of Childers_, i. p. 173.

M131 The British Commission

_ 260 A Historical Account of the Neutrality of Great Britain during the American Civil War._ 1870.

261 Franklin, in the negotiations on the recognition of the independence of the American colonies in 1782, had made the same suggestion of the cession of Canada by way of reparation and indemnification to the colonists for losses suffered by them in their rebellion, and Lord Shelburne was as deaf in 1782 as Lord de Grey in 1871. At an inaugural dinner of what was then called the Colonial Society (March 10, 1869), Mr. Johnson, then American minister, made some semi-facetious remarks about colonies finding themselves transferred from the union jack to the stars and stripes. Lord Granville said he was rather afraid that the minister of the great republic, who had spoken with such singular eloquence, would feel it was a little want of sense on his part, that made him unprepared at that moment to open negotiations for the cession of British Canada. Mr. Gladstone, who was present, referred to the days when he had been at the colonial office, when in every British colony there was a party, called “the British party,” which, he rejoiced to think, had since become totally extinct.

M132 Difficulties In Cabinet

262 Selborne, _Personal and Political Memorials_, i. p. 214.

M133 Treaty Signed

_ 263 International Law_, p. 240. On the doubtful value of the rules, see Lawrence’s _Principles of International Law_ (1895), pp. 553-4.

264 Boyd, third Eng. edition of _Wheaton_ (1889), p. 593.

M134 Indirect Claims

265 Lord de Grey had been created Marquis of Ripon after the signature of the treaty of Washington.

266 See Moore, _History and Digest of International Arbitration to which the United States have been a Party_. Washington, 1898, i. pp. 629-37.

267 Mr. Bruce writes home from the cabinet room: “June 5, 1872: You must read the House of Lords debate on the _Alabama_ treaty. It was a most mischievous move of Lord Russell, as the discussion must weaken our last chance—not a bad one—of settling differences. The debate was adjourned. But there is no doubt that a vote will be carried which, if it were in the House of Commons, would lead to resignation. We cannot of course treat the vote of the Lords, where we are always in a minority, as of the same quality. But it will be misunderstood in America. We are now in the cabinet discussing the next steps.” The motion was withdrawn.

M135 At Geneva

_ 268 Charles Francis Adams._ By his Son. Boston, 1900, pp. 394-7.

M136 The Award M137 Criticism By Colleagues

269 Sir James Stansfeld, _Review of Reviews_, xi. p. 519.

_ 270 Pall Mall Gazette_, Dec. 14, 1883.

271 M. C. M. Simpson’s _Many Memories_, pp. 232-3.

272 Quoted in Sir E.W. Hamilton’s _Monograph_, p. 324.

M138 Lord Clarendon—Lowe—Bright M139 Ministerial Discipline

273 May 6, 10, 1873. _Life of Wilberforce_, iii. p. 413.

_ 274 Gleanings_, i. pp. 232-3.

275 July 25, 1889.

M140 The Queen

276 See the remarkable article in the _Quarterly Review_, April, 1901, p. 320.

_ 277 Pall Mall Gazette_, Sept. 29, 1871.

278 See Appendix.

_ 279 Quarterly Review_ for April, 1901, p. 305.

280 This circumstance is accurately told, among other places, in Mr. Sidney Lee’s _Queen Victoria_.

M141 Patronage

281 During the twelve years in which he held the office of prime minister, he was answerable for sixty-seven new peerages (twenty-two of these now extinct), and on his recommendation fourteen Scotch and Irish peers were called to the House of Lords. In addition, he was responsible for seven promotions of peers to higher rank. During the same period ninety-seven baronetcies were created.—See Sir Edward Hamilton, _Mr. Gladstone, a Monograph_, p. 97.

_ 282 Life of Grote_, pp. 306-10.

M142 Ecclesiastical Appointments M143 At Work On The Bill

283 The promotion of Dr. Temple to the bench.

M144 Well Received On Introduction

284 Stephen’s _Life of Fawcett_, p. 282.

M145 Hostility Of Irish Bishops

285 The adverse majority was made up of 209 English, 68 Irish, and 10 Scotch members. The minority contained 222 English, 47 Scotch, and 15 Irish members. The absentees numbered 75, of whom 53 were English, 3 Scotch, and 19 Irish. There voted with the opposition 43 liberals—eight English and Scotch, including Mr. Bouverie, Mr. Fawcett, Mr. Horsman, Sir Robert Peel, and 35 Irish, of whom 25 were catholics and 10 protestants.

M146 Ministers Defeated

_ 286 Life of W. E. Forster_, i. p. 550.

_ 287 March 13._—Cabinet again at twelve. Decided to resign ... Gladstone made quite a touching little speech. He began playfully. This was the last of some 150 cabinets or so, and he wished to say to his colleagues with what “profound gratitude”—and here he completely broke down, and he could say nothing, except that he could not enter on the details. ... Tears came to my eyes, and we were all touched.—_Life of W. E. Forster_, i. pp. 550, 551.

M147 Attitude Of Mr. Disraeli M148 Further Discussions

_ 288 Carm._ iii. 5, 27. In Mr. Gladstone’s own translation, _The Odes of Horace_ (p. 84):—

... Can wool repair The colours that it lost when soaked with dye? Ah, no. True merit once resigned, No trick nor feint will serve as well.

A rendering less apt for this occasion finds favour with some scholars, that true virtue can never be restored to those who have once fallen away from it.

289 He said he had once made a computation of what property the church would acquire if disestablished on the Irish terms, and he made out that “between life incomes, private endowments, and the value of fabrics and advowsons, something like ninety millions would have to be given in the process of disestablishment to the ministers, members, and patrons of the church of England. That is a very staggering kind of arrangement to make in supplying the young lady with a fortune and turning her out to begin the world.”—_Hans._, May 16, 1873.

M149 Death Of Bishop Wilberforce

290 The house of Mr. Frederick Leveson Gower where for many years Mr. Gladstone constantly enjoyed a hospitality in which he delighted.

_ 291 Life of Hope-Scott_, ii. p. 284.

M150 Ministerial Embarrassments

292 Rising as soon as Mr. Ayrton sat down he said that his colleague had not accurately stated the law of ministerial responsibility. He then himself laid down its true conditions under the circumstances, with the precision usual to him in such affairs. This was one of the latest performances of the great parliament of 1868.—July 30, _Hans_, 217, p. 1265.

293 The following changes were made in the cabinet: Lord Ripon (president of the council), and Mr. Childers (chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster) retired. Mr. Bright succeeded Mr. Childers, Mr. Bruce (home secretary, created Lord Aberdare) Lord Ripon. Mr. Lowe became home secretary, and Mr. Gladstone chancellor of the exchequer in union with the office of first lord. The minor changes were numerous. Mr. Monsell was succeeded at the post office by Dr. Lyon Playfair; Mr. Ayrton was made judge advocate-general, and Mr. Adam took his place as commissioner of public works; Mr. Baxter retired from the treasury, Mr. Dodson becoming financial, and Mr. A. Peel parliamentary secretaries to the treasury; Lord F. Cavendish and Mr. A. Greville were appointed lords of the treasury. On Sir John Coleridge being appointed lord chief justice, and Sir George Jessel master of the rolls, they were succeeded by Mr. Henry James as attorney-general and Mr. Vernon Harcourt as solicitor-general. “We have effectually extracted the brains from below the gangway,” Lord Aberdare wrote, Nov. 19, 1873, “Playfair, Harcourt, James, and Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice, who is Lowe’s private secretary, being gone, will leave Fawcett all alone, for Trevelyan does not share his ill-will towards the government.”

294 30 and 31 Vict., cap. 102, sec. 52, and schedule H.

295 Sir Spencer Walpole thinks that Perceval’s case (_Life of Perceval_, ii. P. 55) covered Mr. Gladstone. In its constitutional aspect this is true, but the Act of 1867 introduced technical difficulties that made a new element.

M151 The Greenwich Seat

296 Yet Lord Selborne says that Coleridge ’must have been misunderstood’!—_Memorials_, i. pp. 328-9.

297 21 and 22 Vict., c. 110 (1858).

298 Mr. Childers (_Life_, i. p. 220) writing after the election in 1874, says, “It is clear to me that he would not have dissolved but for the question about the double office.” In the sentence before he says, “Some day perhaps Gladstone will recognise his mistake in August.” This mistake, it appears, was going to the exchequer himself, instead of placing Mr. Childers there (p. 219). I am sure that this able and excellent man thought what he said about “the question of the double office,” but his surmise was not quite impartial. Nor was he at the time a member of the cabinet.

_ 299 Memoir of Hope-Scott_ ii. p. 284.

M152 The Bath Election

300 To Lord Grey de Wilton, Oct. 3, 1873.

301 In 1871-73 the tories gained twenty-three seats against only one gained by the liberals; in the first three years of the government nine seats had been lost and nine gained.

“Individuals may recover from even serious sickness; it does not appear to be the way with governments.”—Mr. Gladstone, _Nineteenth Century_, Sept. 1887.

M153 Actual Occasion For Dissolution

302 Dec. 2, 1873.

303 The conservatives had gained a seat at Stroud on Jan. 6, and greatly reduced the liberal majority at Newcastle-on-Tyne.

304 “The continual loss of elections,” Lord Aberdare wrote to his wife, “and the expediency of avoiding being further weakened in detail, have determined us to take at once the opinion of the country, and to stand or fall by it. I am rejoiced at this resolution.”—_Aberdare Papers_, Jan. 23, 1874.

M154 Electoral Manifesto

305 It was an extraordinary feat for a Statesman of sixty-five who had quite recently been confined to his bed with bronchitis. The day was damp and drizzly; numbers, which are variously estimated from six to seven thousand, had to be as far as possible brought within the range of his voice, and his only platform was a cart with some sort of covering, in the front of which he had to stand bareheaded.—_Spectator_, Jan. 31, 1874.

M155 The General Election

306 Mr. Gladstone on Electoral Pacts, _Nineteenth Century_, November 1878.

M156 To Meet Parliament Or Resign

307 February 17, 1874.—“I was with the Queen to-day at Windsor for three-quarters of an hour, and nothing could be more frank, natural, and kind, than her manner throughout. In conversation at the audience, I of course followed the line on which we agreed last night. She assented freely to all the honours I had proposed. There was therefore no impediment whatever to the immediate and plenary execution of my commission from the cabinet; and I at once tendered our resignations, which I understand to have been graciously accepted. She left me, I have no doubt, to set about making other arrangements.”

M157 Explanations Of Defeat

308 March 19, 1874.

_ 309 Aberdare Papers._

M158 Reasons For Withdrawal

310 See vol. i. p. 337.

M159 Ecclesiastical Debate M160 Bright And Other Colleagues

_ 311 Blachford’s Letters_, p. 362.

_ 312 Herod._ vii. 157.

_ 313 Congregationalist_, Feb. 1875, p. 66.

314 See Cecconi’s _Storia del Conc. Vat._ i. p. 3. For Mr. Gladstone’s earlier views on the temporal power, see above, vol. i. p. 403.

M161 The Two Schools

315 See Purcell, ii. chap. 16.

316 “Outside the Roman state, I am amazed at the Italian government giving over into the hands of the pope not only the nomination to the bishoprics as spiritual offices, but a nomination which is to carry with it the temporalities of the sees. They ought to know their own business best; but to me it seems that this is liberality carried into folly; and I know that some Italians think so.”—_To Lord Granville, Dec. 21, 1870._

M162 Issue Of The Council M163 Visit To Munich

_ 317 Conversations of Döllinger_, by Louise von Köbell, p. 100.

318 Mr. Gladstone in _Speaker_, Jan, 18, 1890.

_ 319 Gleanings_, vi. pp. 107-191. There the reader will also find (p. 141) the six resolutions deemed by him to furnish a safer and wiser basis of legislation than the Public Worship Regulation Act.

M164 Publication Of The Pamphlet

_ 320 The Vatican Decrees in their bearing on Civil Allegiance: a Political Expostulation._

M165 The Pamphlet

321 Republishing his article on ritualism in 1878 (_Gleanings_, vi. p. 127) Mr. Gladstone appends in a footnote on the passage that stated the anti-vatican campaign, an expression of belief and hope that “some at least who have joined the Latin church since the great change effected by the Vatican council, would upon occasion given, _whether with logical warrant or not_, adhere under all circumstances to their civil loyalty and duty.”

322 He died in 1821, when Mr. Gladstone was a boy at Eton.

M166 Labours Of The Controversy

323 Dr. Michael’s _Ignaz von Döllinger_, p. 296.

M167 Change Of Abode

324 For a detailed description of this collection, see _Times_, June 21, 26, 1875. His London house for the next five years was 73 Harley Street.

_ 325 Guardian_, May 22, 1872.

326 In the preface to his fourth edition Strauss said, “My countrymen might learn from the foreigner how the earnest conscientious statesman recognises a similar quality in an author whose influence he nevertheless considers to be dangerous. They might learn how the true gentleman speaks of one whom he cannot but admit to have devoted a long life to the search of truth, and allow to have sacrificed every personal prospect to the promulgation of that which appeared to him as such.”

327 Olymp. i. 53.

M168 Correspondence M169 Variety Of Correspondence

328 George Meredith.

M170 Polygot And Encyclopædic M171 Spirit Of Tolerance

329 Barrow’s _Works_, iv. p. 107 (ed. 1830).

M172 Darwin—Hooker—Huxley M173 Men Of Letters

330 See Southey’s _Life_, vi. p. 327.

331 εὐδαίμων μὲν ὅς ὲκ θαλάσσας ἔφυγε χεῖμα, λιμέυα δ᾽ἔκιχεν; εὐδαίμων δ᾽ὅς ὕπερθε μόχθων ἐγένεθ.

Happy the man who from out the floods has fled the storm and found the haven; happy too is he who has surmounted toil and trouble.—_Bacchae_, 902-5.

332 Pyth. iv. 485; _Life of Tennyson_, ii. pp. 332, 308. Mr. Gladstone’s share in the pensions to Wordsworth and Tennyson is described in Mr. Parker’s _Peel_, iii. pp. 437-442.

M174 Matthew Arnold—Watts

333 The glorious lines of the Lycian chief in _Iliad_, xii. 322-8, valiantly repeated, by the way, by Carteret, as he lay dying, and the very essence and spirit of the minister to whom Mr. Watts was writing.

M175 Death Of Mill

334 Mr. Gladstone to Mr. W. L. Courtney, Sept. 5, 1888.

335 See above, vol. i. p. 143.

336 Referred to by Mr. Gladstone in the House of Commons, Nov. 19, 1867.

_ 337 The Prelude_, vii.

338 Vol. i. pp. 476 and 521.

M176 Rejection Of Berlin Memorandum

339 Mr. Stead, then at the _Northern Echo_ in Darlington, began his redoubtable journalistic career in pressing this question into life.

M177 Bulgarian Pamphlet

_ 340 The Bulgarian Horrors, and the Question of the East._

M178 Lord Stratford De Redcliffe M179 Feeling In The Country

341 The story of the heroic death of Colonel Kiréeff, her brother, was vividly told by Kinglake in the introduction to the cabinet edition of his _Invasion of the Crimea_. This episode is supposed by some to have helped to intensify Mr. Gladstone’s feeling on the issues of the eastern war.

M180 Conference At St. James’s Hall

_ 342 Lessons in Massacre._

343 Church, _Life_, p. 252.

M181 J. R. Green’s Description

_ 344 Letters of J. R. Green_, pp. 446-7.

M182 Episode Of The Resolutions M183 Episode Of The Resolutions

_ 345 Spectator._

346 Mr. Balfour, House of Commons, May 20, 1898.

M184 Tacks In Public Opinion

347 At this interview Mr. Chamberlain was present. He had asked Mr. Gladstone what he would like to do or see in Birmingham. Mr. Gladstone said he thought he should like to call upon Dr. Newman. The wonderful pair were nervous and constrained, and each seemed a little relieved when, after twenty minutes of commonplace conversation, they rose to part.

_ 348 Speeches of the Fifteenth Earl of Derby_, i. p. 297.

_ 349 Pall Mall Gazette_, Feb. 26, 1898.

M185 Treaty Of San Stefano

350 Lord Carnarvon resigned in January, 1878, when the fleet was ordered to the Dardanelles, and Lord Derby in March on the calling out of the reserves.

351 Russia demanded from Turkey the Dobrudscha in order to cede it to Roumania in exchange for the Roumanian province of Bessarabia.

M186 Congress Of Berlin

352 As it happened, the severance of northern from southern Bulgaria only lasted seven years.

M187 The British Plenipotentiaries

353 Mr. Gladstone made an important speech on the treaty-making power on June 13, 1878.

M188 Kernel Of The Case

354 At Knightsbridge, July 27, 1878.

M189 Miscellaneous Activities

355 See _Gleanings_, ii. p. 213.

_ 356 Ibid._ ii. pp. 146-7.

M190 Candidature Decided

_ 357 Spectator_, February 8, 1879.

M191 Journey To Edinburgh

_ 358 Saturday Review_, November 29, 1879.

M192 Oratory M193 Character Of The Campaign

_ 359 Much Ado_, Act I. Sc. i.

360 Faguet.

M194 End Of The Year At Hawarden M195 To Mr. Bright On Leadership

361 Lord Selborne (_Memorials_, i. 471) says that Lord Granville reported to him (Dec. 21), that Lord Hartington at this meeting wished to insist upon Mr. Gladstone resuming the lead, but that the rest were, for the present at all events, against any such step. Lord Granville’s own view was that the question, like many other questions, would have to be solved _ambulando_.

M196 Dissolution

362 Speech at West Calder, April 1, 1880.

M197 Elected For Midlothian And Leeds

363 The other candidates stood:—Barran (L.), 23,674; Jackson (C), 13,331; Wheelhouse (C), 11,965. As the constituency was three-cornered, Gladstone, Barran, and Jackson were elected.

364 Letter to electors of Leeds, April 7, 1880.

365 The iron railing of this balcony is now a sacred relic in the hands of a faithful follower.

M198 Results

366 Published anonymously in the _Fortnightly Review_, May 1880.

M199 Question Of Leadership

367 See, for instance, _Pall Mall Gazette_, April 2 and 22, then conducted by Mr. Greenwood, the most vigorous and relentless of Mr. Gladstone’s critics.

368 November 25, 1879.

369 The Plimsoll matter was a movement to give Mr. Gladstone a public reception on his arrival in London. Mr. Gladstone declined the reception as inconsistent with his intention, expressed at Edinburgh, to avoid all demonstration, and also because it would be regarded as an attempt made for the first time to establish a practice of public rejoicing in the metropolis over the catastrophe of an administration and a political party, and would wound feelings which ought to be respected as well as spared.

370 See an interesting letter from Viscount Esher, _Times_, Feb. 22, 1892.

371 “Without their full acquiescence—and indeed their earnest pressure—he could not even now take a step which would seem to slight claims which he has amply and generously acknowledged.... If either now or a few days later he accepts the task of forming and the duty of presiding over a liberal administration, it will be because Lord Granville and Lord Hartington, with characteristic patriotism, have themselves been among the first to feel and the most eager to urge Mr. Gladstone’s return to the post to which he has been summoned.”—_Daily News_, April 22.

372 Up to this point the memorandum is on Windsor notepaper, and must have been written between the end of the audience and the time for the train—a very characteristic instance of his alacrity.

M200 Construction Of Cabinet

373 The reader will find the list of the members of the cabinet, now and at later periods of its existence, in the Appendix.