r VII. The Fourth Administration. (1892-1894)
Chapter VIII. Retirement From Public Life. (1894)
Chapter IX. The Close. (1894-1898)
Chapter X. Final.
Appendix
Irish Local Government, 1883. (Page 103)
General Gordon's Instructions. (Page 153)
The Military Position In The Soudan, April 1885. (Page 179)
Home Rule Bill, 1886. (Page 308)
On The Place Of Italy. (Page 415)
The Naval Estimates Of 1894.
Mr. Gladstone's Cabinet Colleagues. (Page 525)
Chronology
Footnotes

BOOK VIII. 1880-1885

Chapter I. Opening Days Of The New Parliament. (1880)

Il y a bien du factice dans le classement politique des hommes.
--GUIZOT.

There is plenty of what is purely artificial in the political
classification of men.

I

On May 20, after eight-and-forty years of strenuous public life, Mr.
Gladstone met his twelfth parliament, and the second in which he had been
chief minister of the crown. "At 4.15," he records, "I went down to the
House with Herbert. There was a great and fervent crowd in Palace Yard,
and much feeling in the House. It almost overpowered me, as I thought by
what deep and hidden agencies I have been brought back into the midst of
the vortex of political action and contention. It has not been in my power
during these last six months to have made notes, as I would have wished,
of my own thoughts and observations from time to time; of the new access
of strength which in some important respects has been administered to me
in my old age; and of the remarkable manner in which Holy Scripture has
been applied to me for admonition and for comfort. Looking calmly on this
course of experience, I do believe that the Almighty has employed me for
His purposes in a manner larger or more special than before, and has
strengthened me and led me on accordingly, though I must not forget the
admirable saying of Hooker, that even ministers of good things are like
torches, a light to others, waste and destruction to themselves."

One who approached his task in such a spirit as this was at least
impregnable to ordinary mortifications, and it was well; for before many
days were over it became perceptible that the new parliament and the new
majority would be no docile instrument of ministerial will. An acute chill
followed the discovery that there was to be no recall of Frere or Layard.
Very early in its history Speaker Bran