ons--a pledge which I admit that he completely redeemed.'[282]

All this was true enough, but what people saw was that the first fruits
of the victory were a coalition with the whigs, who by voting with
Villiers had from the first shown their predetermination against
ministers. As Northcote humorously said, Mary Stuart could never get
over the presumption which her marriage with Bothwell immediately raised
as to the nature of her previous connection with him. It is hard to deny
that, as the world goes, the Oxford tories clerical and lay might think
they had a case. Lord Derby was the tory minister, and Mr. Gladstone had
been a chief instrument in turning him out. That was the one salient
fact, and the political flock is often apt to see a thing with a more
single eye than their shepherds.

A candidate was found in Mr. Perceval, son of the tory prime minister
who had met a tragic death forty years before. The country clergy were
plied with instigations and solicitations, public and private. No
absurdity was too monstrous to set afloat. Mr. Gladstone had seceded to
the episcopal church of Scotland. He had long ceased to be a
communicant. He was on close and intimate terms with Cardinal Wiseman.
He had incited the pope to persecute protestants at Florence. In this
vein a flight of angry articles and circulars descended on every
parsonage where there was an Oxford master of arts with his name still
on the university books. At the beginning the enemy by a rush were in a
majority, but they were speedily beaten out of it. At the end of six
days, in spite of frenzied efforts, no more than 1330 votes out of a
constituency of 3600 had been recorded. Still the indomitable men
insisted on the legal right of keeping the poll open for fifteen days,
and learned persons even gloomily hinted that the time might be extended
to forty days. In the end (Jan. 20) Mr. Gladstone had 1022 votes against
Perceval's 898, or a narrow majority of 124. The tory press justly
consoled themselves by calculating that such a majority was only six per
cent. of the votes polled, but they were very angry with the failure of
the protestant electors in doing their patriotic duty against 'the
pro-romanist candidate.' The organ of the Peelites, on the other hand,
was delighted at the first verdict thus gained from the most influential
constituency in Great Britain, in favour of the new experiment of
conservative-liberalism and wise and rational progress. Graham