my cares and
occupations those which relate to the Oak Farm and Stephen's
affairs, I would do so; I have never felt that, have never asked
it; and if my language seems to look that way, it is the mere
impatience of weakness comforting itself by finding a vent. It has
evidently come to me by the ordinance of God; and I am rather
frightened to think how light my lot would be, were it removed, so
light that something else would surely come in its place. I do not
confound it with visitations and afflictions; it is merely a drain
on strength and a peculiar one, because it asks for a kind of
strength and skill and habits which I have not, but it falls
altogether short of the category of high trials. Least of all
suppose that the subject can ever associate itself painfully with
the idea of you. No persons who have been in contact with it can be
so absolutely blameless as you and Mary, nor can _our_ relation
together be rendered in the very smallest degree less or more a
blessing by the addition or the subtraction of worldly wealth. I
have abundant comfort _now_ in the thought that at any rate I am
the means of keeping a load off the minds of others; and I shall
have much more hereafter when Stephen is brought through, and once
more firmly planted in the place of his fathers, provided I can
conscientiously feel that the restoration of his affairs has at any
rate not been impeded by indolence, obstinacy, or blunders on my
part. Nor can anything be more generous than the confidence placed
in me by all concerned. Indeed, I can only regret that it is too
free and absolute.

LETTER TO HIS SON

I may as well now tell the story to the end, though in anticipation of
remote dates, for in truth it held a marked place in Mr. Gladstone's
whole life, and made a standing background amid the vast throng of
varying interests and transient commotions of his great career. Here is
his own narrative as told in a letter written to his eldest son for a
definite purpose in 1885:--

_To W. H. Gladstone._

_Hawarden, Oct. 3, 1885._--Down to the latter part of that year
(1847), your uncle Stephen was regarded by all as a wealthy country
gentleman with say L10,000 a year or more (subject, however, to his
mother's jointure) to spend, and great prospects from i