adstone was never by any means unconscious of the
hum and buzz of paltriness and malice that often surrounds conspicuous
public men, nobody was ever more regally indifferent. Graham predicted
that though Gladstone would always be the first man in the House of
Commons, he would not again be what he was before the Ionian business.
They all thought that he would be attacked on his return. '_Ah_,' said
Aberdeen, '_but he is terrible in the rebound_.'

After much perplexity and running to and fro in London, it was arranged
between the secretary of state and Mr. Gladstone's friends, including
Phillimore principally, and then Northcote and M. Bernard, that a course
of proceeding should be followed, which Mr. Gladstone when he knew it
thought unfortunate. A new commission naming a successor was issued, and
Mr. Gladstone then became _ipso facto_ liberated. Sir Henry Storks was
the officer chosen, and as soon as his commission was formally received
by him, he was to execute a warrant under which he deputed all powers to
Mr. Gladstone until his arrival. Whether Mr. Gladstone was lord high
commissioner when he came to propose his reform is a moot point. So
intricate was the puzzle that the under-secretary addressed a letter to
Mr. Gladstone by his name and not by the style of his official dignity,
because he could not be at all sure what that official dignity really
was. What is certain is that Mr. Gladstone, though it was never his way
to quarrel with other people's action taken in good faith on his behalf,
did not perceive the necessity for proceeding so rapidly to the
appointment of his successor, and thought it decidedly injurious to such
chances as his reforms might have possessed.[381]

The assembly that had been convoked by Sir John Young for an
extraordinary session (January 25), at once showed that its labours
would bear no fruit. Mr. Gladstone as lord high commissioner opened the
session with a message that they had met to consider proposals for
reform which he desired to lay before them as soon as possible. The game
began with the passing of a resolution that it was the single and
unanimous _will_ ([Greek: thelesis]) of the Ionian people that the seven
islands should be united to Greece. Mr. Gladstone fought like a lion for
scholar's authority to treat the word as only meaning wish or
disposition, and he took for touchstone the question whether men could
speak of the [Greek: thelesis] of the Almighty; the word in the Lor