ould for reflection
upon it, though he never intended to run it as close as it actually
came. 'I know,' he says, in a notable sentence, 'it seems strange to you
that I should find it necessary to hold my judgment in suspense on a
question which seemed to many so plain; _but suspense is of constant
occurrence in public life upon very many kinds of questions, and without
it errors and inconsistencies would be much more frequent than even they
are now_.' This did not satisfy his father. 'I shall certainly read your
speech to find some fair apology for your vote: good and satisfactory
reason I do not expect. I cannot doubt you thought you withheld your
opinions from me under the undecided state you were in, without any
intention whatever to annoy me. There is, however, a natural closeness
in your disposition, with a reserve towards those who may think they may
have some claim to your confidence, probably increased by official
habits, which it may perhaps in some cases be worth your inquiring
into.' The sentence above about suspense is a key to many
misunderstandings of Mr. Gladstone's character. His stouthearted friend
Thomas Acland had warned him, for the sake of his personal influence, to
be sure to deal with the Jew question on broad grounds, without
refining, and without dragging out some recondite view not seen by
common men, 'in short, to be _as little as possible like Maurice, and
more like the Duke of Wellington_.' 'My speech,' Mr. Gladstone answered,
'was most unsatisfactory in many ways, but I do not believe that it
mystified or puzzled anybody.'

JEWISH DISABILITIES

The following year he received the honour of a D.C.L. degree at Oxford.
Mrs. Gladstone was there, he tells his father, and 'was well satisfied
with my reception, though it is not to be denied that my vote upon the
Jew bill is upon the whole unpalatable there, and they had been provoked
by a paragraph in the _Globe_ newspaper stating that I was to have the
degree, and that this made it quite clear that the minority was not
unfavourable to the Jew bill.'

_July 5._--I went off after breakfast to Oxford. Joined the V.-C.
and doctors in the hall at Wadham, and went in procession to the
Divinity schools provided with a white neckcloth by Sir R. Inglis,
who seized me at the station in horror and alarm when he saw me
with a black one. In due time we were summoned to the theatre where
my degree had bee