nd parliament a wearisome iteration, and
he knew it. Those arguments, it is true, had laid the foundations of the
case in all their solidity and breadth. But until the emergency in
Ireland presented itself, and until prosperity had justified the
experiment, Peel was hardly wrong in reckoning on the possibility of a
protectionist reaction. Even the new prosperity and contentment of the
country were capable of being explained by the extraordinary employment
found in the creation of railways. As Mr. Gladstone said to a
correspondent in the autumn of 1846, 'The liberal proceedings of
conservative governments, and the conservative proceedings of the new
liberal administration, unite in pointing to the propriety of an
abstinence from high-pitched opinions.' This was a euphemism. What it
really meant was that outside of protection no high-pitched opinions on
any other subject were available. The tenets of party throughout this
embarrassed period from 1846 to 1852 were shifting, equivocal, and
fluid. Nor even in the period that followed did they very rapidly
consolidate.

Mr. Gladstone writes to his father (June 30, 1849):--

I will only add a few words about your desire that I should
withdraw my confidence from Peel. My feelings of admiration,
attachment, and gratitude to him I do not expect to lose; and I
agree with Graham that he has done more and _suffered_ more than
any other living statesman for the good of the people. But still I
must confess with sorrow that the present course of events tends to
separate and disorganise the small troop of the late government and
their adherents. On the West Indian question last year I, with
others, spoke and voted against Peel. On the Navigation law this
year I was saved from it only by the shipowners and their friends,
who would not adopt a plan upon the basis I proposed. Upon
Canada--a vital question--I again spoke and voted against him.[210]
And upon other colonial questions, yet most important to the
government, I fear even this year the same thing may happen again.
However painful, then, it may be to me to differ from him, it is
plain that my conduct is not placed in his hands to govern.

We find an illustration of the distractions of this long day of party
metamorphosis, as well as an example of what was regarded as Mr.
Gladstone's over-ingenuity, in one among other passing divergences
between him a