Then in
the fulness of time, ten years after, it dealt with the men who had roused
it to its duty. And how? It brought them to trial before a special
tribunal, invented for the purpose, and with no jury; it allowed them no
voice in the constitution of the tribunal; it exposed them to long and
harassing proceedings; and it thereby levied upon them a tremendous
pecuniary fine. The report produced a strong recoil against the flagrant
violence, passion, and calumny, that had given it birth; and it affected
that margin of men, on the edge of either of the two great parties by whom
electoral decisions are finally settled.

Chapter IV. An Interim. (1889-1891)

The nobler a soul is, the more objects of compassion it hath.

--BACON.

I

At the end of 1888 Mr. Gladstone with his wife and others of his house was
carried off by Mr. Rendel's friendly care to Naples. Hereto, he told Lord
Acton, "we have been induced by three circumstances. First, a warm
invitation from the Dufferins to Rome; as to which, however, there are
_cons_ as well as _pros_, for a man who like me is neither Italian nor
Curial in the view of present policies. Secondly, our kind friend Mr.
Stuart Rendel has actually offered to be our conductor thither and back,
to perform for us the great service which you rendered us in the trip to
Munich and Saint-Martin. Thirdly, I have the hope that the stimulating
climate of Naples, together with an abstention from speech greater than
any I have before enjoyed, might act upon my 'vocal cord,' and partially
at least restore it."

At Naples he was much concerned with Italian policy.

_To Lord Granville._

_Jan. 13, 1889._--My stay here where the people really seem to
regard me as not a foreigner, has brought Italian affairs and
policy very much home to me, and given additional force and
vividness to the belief I have always had, that it was sadly
impolitic for Italy to make enemies for herself beyond the Alps.
Though I might try and keep back this sentiment in Rome, even my
silence might betray it and I could not promise to keep silence
altogether. I think the impolicy amounts almost to madness
especially for a country which carries with her, nestling in her
bosom, the "standing menace" of the popedom....

-------------------------------------

_To J. Morley._

_Jan. 10._--I hope you have had faith enough not to be trou