mployed, and I hope that nothing but
blessing may rest upon all your labours.

The feeling among liberals in the country was of deep dismay. Some of the
whigs doubtless found solace in the anticipation that a new middle party
might be formed, with "a recovery of the old liberal position demolished
for the time by John Mill, Gladstone, and Cobden."(311) But this was
limited to a narrow circle. "All sunshine is gone out of politics," was a
general phrase. The news was compared by one correspondent to Gelon's
message to the Greeks, that the spring was taken out of their year.(312)

An organ of the stiff nonconformists said,(313) "Against his government we
felt that we had a great grievance; for himself, the nonconformists of
this country have long cherished a loyalty more fervent, we are inclined
to imagine, than that with which he has been regarded by any other section
of the community. He, beyond all other modern statesmen, with perhaps here
and there a doubtful exception, gave us the impression of a man who
regarded politics as a part of Christian duty." And the same writers most
truly added, "We do not know what the English people have done for Mr.
Gladstone that can be compared for a moment with what Mr. Gladstone has
done for them. Claims on him we have none. He has far more than discharged
any debt that he could have owed to the nation." These words are a just
remonstrance against the somewhat tyrannical conventions of English public
life.

When the session began, he wrote to Mrs. Gladstone (Feb. 15): "I came down
to the House and took my seat nearly in the same spot as last year,
finding Bright my neighbour, with which I was very well pleased. Granville
and Hartington both much preferred my continuing _on_ the front bench to
my going elsewhere." Lord Hartington, strongly encouraged against his own
inclinations by Mr. Gladstone, accepted a thankless and unpromising post,
and held it with honour and credit for five difficult years to come.

Chapter II. Vaticanism. (1874-1875)

Let no susceptibilities, puritan, protestant, anglican, or other,
be startled if we observe that Rome is, and may long be, in some
important respects, the centre of the Christian world. It is
indeed a centre which repels as well as attracts; which probably
repels even more than it attracts; but which, whether repelling or
attracting, influences.---GLADSTONE (1875).

I

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