f the state. No man can do his duty in that office and be popular
_while_ he holds it. I could easily name the two worst chancellors
of the exchequer of the last forty years; against neither of them
did I ever hear a word while they were in (I might almost add, nor
for them after they were out). "Blessed are ye, when men shall
revile you." You have fought for the public, tooth and nail. You
have been under a storm of unpopularity; but not a fiercer one
than I had to stand in 1860, when hardly any one dared to say a
word for me; but certainly it was one of my best years of service,
even though bad be the best. Of course, I do not say that this
necessity of being unpopular should induce us to raise our
unpopularity to the highest point. No doubt, both in policy and in
Christian charity, it should make us very studious to mitigate and
abate the causes as much as we can. This is easier for you than it
was for me, as your temper is good, and mine not good.

While I am fault-finding, let me do a little more, and take
another scrap of paper for the purpose. (I took only a scrap
before, as I was determined, then, not to "afflict you above
measure.") I note, then, two things about you. Outstripping others
in the race, you reach the goal or conclusion before them; and,
being there, you assume that they are there also. This is
unpopular. You are unpopular this very day with a poor wretch,
whom you have apprised that he has lost his seat, and you have not
told him _how_. Again, and lastly, I think you do not get up all
things, but allow yourself a choice, as if politics were a
flower-garden and we might choose among the beds; as Lord
Palmerston did, who read foreign office and war papers, and let
the others rust and rot. This, I think, is partially true, I do
not say of your reading, but of your mental processes. You will, I
am sure, forgive the levity and officiousness of this letter for
the sake of its intention and will believe me always and sincerely
yours.

Then at last he escaped from Downing Street to Hawarden:--

_Aug. 11._--Off at 8.50 with a more buoyant spirit and greater
sense of relief than I have experienced for many years on this,
the only pleasant act of moving to me in the circuit of the year.
This gush is in proportion to the measure of the late troubles and
anxieti