in army
of liberals in England. That would have been both politic and decent, even
if we conceive his mind to have been working in another direction. He may,
for instance, have believed that the scandal had destroyed the chances of
a liberal victory at the election, whether he stayed or withdrew. Why
should he surrender his position in Ireland and over contending factions
in America, in reliance upon an English party to which, as he was well
aware, he had just dealt a smashing blow? These speculations, however,
upon the thoughts that may have been slowly moving through his mind, are
hardly worth pursuing. Unluckily, the stubborn impulses of defiance that
came naturally to his temperament were aroused to their most violent pitch
and swept all calculations of policy aside. He now proceeded passionately
to dash into the dust the whole fabric of policy which he had with such
infinite sagacity, patience, skill, and energy devised and reared.

Two short private memoranda from his own hand on this transaction, I find
among Mr. Gladstone's papers. He read them to me at the time, and they
illustrate his habitual practice of shaping and clearing his thought and
recollection by committal to black and white:--

_Nov. 26, 1890._--Since the month of December 1885 my whole
political life has been governed by a supreme regard to the Irish
question. For every day, I may say, of these five, we have been
engaged in laboriously rolling up hill the stone of Sisyphus. Mr.
Parnell's decision of yesterday means that the stone is to break
away from us and roll down again to the bottom of the hill. I
cannot recall the years which have elapsed. It was daring,
perhaps, to begin, at the age I had then attained, a process which
it was obvious must be a prolonged one.

Simply to recommence it now, when I am within a very few weeks of
the age at which Lord Palmerston, the marvel of parliamentary
longevity, succumbed, and to contemplate my accompanying the cause
of home rule to its probable triumph a rather long course of years
hence, would be more than daring; it would be presumptuous. My
views must be guided by rational probabilities, and they exclude
any such anticipation. My statement, therefore, that my leadership
would, under the contemplated decision of Mr. Parnell, be almost a
nullity, is a moderate statement of the case. I have been
endeavouring during all these ye