stone writes (March 29); 'it is my consolation under the pain with
which I view the character my office [the exchequer] is assuming under
the circumstances of war.' 'Gladstone has been surprising everybody
here,' writes a conspicuous high churchman from Oxford, 'by the ubiquity
of his correspondence. Three-fourths of the colleges have been in
communication with him, on various parts of the bill more or less
affecting themselves. He answers everybody by return of post, fully and
at length, quite entering into their case, and showing the greatest
acquaintance with it.'[323] 'As one of your burgesses,' he told them, 'I
stand upon the line that divides Oxford from the outer world, and as a
sentinel I cry out to tell what I see from that position.' What he saw
was that if this bill were thrown out, no other half so favourable would
ever again be brought in.

THE BILL FRAMED

The scheme accepted by the cabinet was in essentials Mr. Gladstone's
own. Jowett at the earliest stage sent him a comprehensive plan, and
soon after, saw Lord John (Jan. 6). 'I must own,' writes the latter to
Gladstone, 'I was much struck by the clearness and completeness of his
views.' The difference between Jowett's plan and Mr. Gladstone's was on
the highly important point of machinery. Jowett, who all his life had a
weakness for getting and keeping authority into his own hands, or the
hands of those whom he could influence, contended that after parliament
had settled principles, Oxford itself could be trusted to settle details
far better than a little body of great personages from outside,
unacquainted with special wants and special interests. Mr. Gladstone, on
the other hand, invented the idea of an executive commission with
statutory powers. The two plans were printed and circulated, and the
balance of opinion in the cabinet went decisively for Mr. Gladstone's
scheme. The discussion between him and Jowett, ranging over the whole
field of the bill, was maintained until its actual production, in many
interviews and much correspondence. In drawing the clauses Mr. Gladstone
received the help of Bethell, the solicitor-general, at whose suggestion
Phillimore and Thring were called in for further aid in what was
undoubtedly a task of exceptional difficulty. The process brought into
clearer light the truth discerned by Mr. Gladstone from the first, that
the enormous number of diverse institutions that had grown up in Oxford
made