nally
adverse. Lord Aberdeen (October 8) admitted that Mr. Gladstone's name,
acquirements, and conciliatory character might operate powerfully on the
Ionians; still many of them were false and artful, and the best of them
little better than children. 'It is clear,' he said, 'that Bulwer has
sought to allure you with vague declarations and the attractions of
Homeric propensities.... I doubt if Homer will be a _cheval de bataille_
sufficiently strong to carry you safely through the intricacies of this
enterprise.' The sagacious Graham also warned him that little credit
would be gained by success, while failure would be attended by serious
inconveniences: in any case to quell 'a storm in a teapot' was no
occupation worthy of his powers and position. Sidney Herbert was strong
that governments were getting more and more into the bad habit of
delegating their own business to other people; he doubted success, and
expressed his hearty wish that we could be quit of the protectorate
altogether, and could hand the islands bodily over to Greece, to which
by blood, language, religion, and geography they belonged.

I have said that these adverse views were almost unqualified, and such
qualification as existed was rather remarkable. 'The only part of the
affair I should regard with real pleasure,' wrote Lord Aberdeen, 'would
be the means it might afford you of drawing closer to the government,
and of naturally establishing yourself in a more suitable position; for
in spite of Homer and Ulysses, your Ionian work will by no means be
_tanti_ in itself.' Graham took the same point: 'An approximation to the
government may be fairly sought or admitted by you. But this should take
place on higher grounds.' Thus, though he was now in fact unconsciously
on the eve of his formal entry into a liberal cabinet, expectations
still survived that he might re-join his old party.

As might have been expected, the wanderings of Ulysses and the geography
of Homer prevailed in Mr. Gladstone's mind over the counsels of
parliamentary Nestors. Besides the ancient heroes, there was the
fascination of the orthodox church, so peculiar and so irresistible for
the anglican school to which Mr. Gladstone belonged. Nor must we leave
out of account the passion for public business so often allied with the
student's temperament; the desire of the politician out of work for
something definite to do; Mr. Gladstone's keen relish at all times for
any foreign travel that c