f ancient
learning, have linked you to Oxford by no ordinary bond, and we
cannot but hope that you will receive with satisfaction this
expression of deep-seated kindliness and sympathy from us.

We pray that the Almighty may support you and those near and dear
to you in this trial, and may lighten the load of suffering which
you bear with such heroic resignation.

To this he listened more attentively and over it he brooded long, then he
dictated to his youngest daughter sentence by sentence at intervals his
reply:--

There is no expression of Christian sympathy that I value more
than that of the ancient university of Oxford, the God-fearing and
God-sustaining university of Oxford. I served her, perhaps
mistakenly, but to the best of my ability. My most earnest prayers
are hers to the uttermost and to the last.

When May opened, it was evident that the end was drawing near. On the 13th
he was allowed to receive visits of farewell from Lord Rosebery and from
myself, the last persons beyond his household to see him. He was hardly
conscious. On the early morning of the 19th, his family all kneeling
around the bed on which he lay in the stupor of coming death, without a
struggle he ceased to breathe. Nature outside--wood and wide lawn and
cloudless far-off sky--shone at her fairest.

III

On the day after his death, in each of the two Houses the leader made the
motion, identical in language in both cases save the few final words about
financial provision in the resolution of the Commons:--

That an humble Address be presented to her Majesty praying that
her Majesty will be graciously pleased to give directions that the
remains of the Right Hon. William Ewart Gladstone be interred at
the public charge, and that a monument be erected in the
Collegiate Church of St. Peter, Westminster, with an inscription
expressive of the public admiration and attachment and of the high
sense entertained of his rare and splendid gifts, and of his
devoted labours to parliament and in great offices of state, and
to assure her Majesty that this House will make good the expenses
attending the same.

The language of the movers was worthy of the British parliament at its
best, worthy of the station of those who (M188) used it, and worthy of the
figure commemorated. Lord Salisbury was thought by most to go nearest to
the core of the solemnity