hilanthropy. The prospects of the
first are darker than I have ever known them. Those of the second
are black also, but with more hope of some early dawn. I do not
enter on interior matters. It is so easy to write, but to write
honestly nearly impossible. Lady Grosvenor gave me to-day a
delightful present of a small crucifix. I am rather too
independent of symbol.

This is the last entry in the diaries of seventy years.

At the end of January 1897, the Gladstones betook themselves once more to
Lord Rendel's _palazzetto_, as they called it, at Cannes.

I had hoped during this excursion, he journalises, to make much
way with my autobiographica. But this was in a large degree
frustrated, first by invalidism, next by the eastern question, on
which I was finally obliged to write something.(312) Lastly, and
not least, by a growing sense of decline in my daily amount of
brain force available for serious work. My power to read (but to
read very slowly indeed since the cataract came) for a
considerable number of hours daily, thank God, continues. This is
a great mercy. While on my outing, I may have read, of one kind
and another, twenty volumes. Novels enter into this list rather
considerably. I have begun seriously to ask myself whether I shall
ever be able to face "The Olympian Religion."

The Queen happened to be resident at Cimiez at this time, and Mr.
Gladstone wrote about their last meeting:--

A message came down to us inviting us to go into the hotel and
take tea with the Princess Louise. We repaired to the hotel, and
had our tea with Miss Paget, who was in attendance. The Princess
soon came in, and after a short delay we were summoned into the
Queen's presence. No other English people were on the ground. We
were shown into a room tolerably, but not brilliantly lighted,
much of which was populated by a copious supply of Hanoverian
royalties. The Queen was in the inner part of the room, and behind
her stood the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge.
Notwithstanding my enfeebled sight, my vision is not much impaired
for practical purposes in cases such as this, where I am
thoroughly familiar with the countenance and whole contour of any
person to be seen. My wife preceded, and Mary followed me. The
Queen's manner did not show the old and usual vitality. It was
still, but at t