nner I
remained in connection with politics.... I have given her (led by her
questions) these passages for canons of our living:--

'Le fronde, onde s'infronda tutto l'orto
Dell' Ortolano eterno, am' io cotanto,
Quanto da lui a lor di bene e porto.'[139]

And Dante again--

'In la sua volontade e nostra pace:
Ella e quel mare, al qual tutto si muove.'[140]

In few human unions have the good hopes and fond wishes of a bridal day
been better fulfilled or brought deeper and more lasting content. Sixty
long years after, Mr. Gladstone said, 'It would not be possible to
unfold in words the value of the gifts which the bounty of Providence
has conferred upon me through her.' And the blessing remained radiant
and unclouded to the distant end.

At the close of August, after posting across Scotland from Greenock by a
route better known now than then to every tourist, the young couple made
their way to Fasque, where the new bride found an auspicious approach
and the kindest of welcomes. Her 'entrance into her adoptive family was
much more formidable than it would be to those who had been less loved,
or less influential, or less needed and leant upon, in the home where
she was so long a queen.' At Fasque all went as usual. Soon after his
arrival, his father communicated that he meant actually to transfer to
his sons his Demerara properties--Robertson to have the management.
'This increased wealth, so much beyond my needs, with its attendant
responsibility is very burdensome, however on his part the act be
beautiful.'

III

The parliamentary session of 1840 was unimportant and dreary. The
government was tottering, the conservative leaders were in no hurry to
pluck the pear before it was ripe, and the only men with any animating
principle of active public policy in them were Cobden and the League
against the Corn Law. The attention of the House of Commons was mainly
centred in the case of Stockdale and the publication of debates. But Mr.
Gladstone's most earnest thoughts were still far away from what he found
to be the dry sawdust of the daily politics, as the following lines may
show:--

_March 16th, 1849._--Manning dined with us. He kindly undertook
to revise my manuscript on 'Church Principles.'

_March 18th._--Yesterday I had a long conversation with James
Hope. He came to tell me, with great generosity, that he would
always respond to any call,