et they had certainly no less value and truth than they ever had, and
perhaps were more needed than ever in face of the present chaos of
opinion. To this Mr. Gladstone replied at length:--

_To the Duke of Argyll._

_Sept. 30, 1885._--I am very sensible of your kind and sympathetic
tone, and of your indulgent verdict upon my address. It was
written with a view to the election, and as a practical document,
aiming at the union of all, it propounds for immediate action what
all are supposed to be agreed on. This is necessarily somewhat
favourable to the moderate section of the liberal party. You will
feel that it would not have been quite fair to the advanced men to
add some special reproof to them. And reproof, if I had presumed
upon it, would have been two-sided. Now as to your suggestion that
I should say something in public to indicate that I am not too
sanguine as to the future. If I am unable to go in this
direction--and something I may do--it is not from want of sympathy
with much that you say. But my first and great cause of anxiety
is, believe me, the condition of the tory party. As at present
constituted, or at any rate moved, it is destitute of all the
effective qualities of a respectable conservatism.... For their
administrative spirit I point to the Beaconsfield finance. For
their foreign policy they have invented Jingoism, and at the same
time by their conduct _re_ Lord Spencer and the Irish
nationalists, they have thrown over--and they formed their
government only by means of throwing over--those principles of
executive order and caution which have hitherto been common to all
governments....

There are other chapters which I have not time to open. I deeply
deplore the oblivion into which public economy has fallen; the
prevailing disposition to make a luxury of panics, which
multitudes seem to enjoy as they would a sensational novel or a
highly seasoned cookery; and the leaning of both parties to
socialism, which I radically disapprove. I must lastly mention
among my causes of dissatisfaction the conduct of the timid or
reactionary whigs. They make it day by day more difficult to
maintain that most valuable characteristic of our history, which
has always exhibited a good proportion of our great houses at the
head of the liberal movement. If you have ever noted of lat