y to his honour, that it
cannot be wholly passed over. Fortunately a few sentences will suffice.
His friend's wife had been for some time travelling abroad, and rumours
by and by reached England of movements that might be no more than
indiscreet, but might be worse. In consequence of these rumours, and
after anxious consultations between the husband and three or four
important members of his circle, it was thought best that some one
should seek access to the lady, and try to induce her to place herself
in a position of security. The further conclusion reached was that Mr.
Gladstone and Manning were the two persons best qualified by character
and friendship for this critical mission. Manning was unable to go, but
Mr. Gladstone at the earnest solicitation of his friend, and also of his
own wife who had long been much attached to the person missing, set off
alone for a purpose, as he conscientiously believed, alike friendly to
both parties and in the interests of both. I have called the proceeding
characteristic, for it was in fact exactly like him to be ready at the
call of friendship, and in the hope of preventing a terrible disaster,
cheerfully to undertake a duty detestable to anybody and especially
detestable to him; and again, it was like him to regard the affair with
an optimistic simplicity that made him hopeful of success, where to
ninety-nine men of a hundred the thought of success would have seemed
absurd. To no one was it a greater shock than to him when, after a
journey across half Europe, he suddenly found himself the discoverer of
what it was inevitable that he should report to his friend at home. In
the course of the subsequent proceedings on the bill for a divorce
brought into the House of Lords, he was called as a witness to show that
in this case the person claiming the bill had omitted no means that duty
or affection could suggest for averting the calamity with which his
hearth was threatened. It was quite untrue, as he had occasion to tell
the House of Commons in 1857, that he had anything whatever to do with
the collection of evidence, or that the evidence given by him was the
evidence, or any part of it, on which the divorce was founded. The only
thing to be added is the judgment of Sir Robert Peel upon a transaction,
with all the details of which he was particularly well acquainted:--

_Aug. 26, 1849._

MY DEAR GLADSTONE,--I am deeply concerne