Thundering like ramping hosts of warrior horse
To throw that faint thin line upon the shore.(328)

Nor are things all one way. If we find Mr. Gladstone writing to the Queen
of "the excellent parliamentary opening" of this man or that, who made the
worst possible parliamentary close, there is the set-off of dull unmarked
beginnings to careers that proved brilliant or weighty. If there are a
thousand absurdities in the form of claims for place and honours and steps
in the peerage, all the way up the ladder, from a branch post-office to
the coveted blue riband of the garter, "with no infernal nonsense of merit
about it," there are, on the other hand, not a few modest and considerate
refusals, and we who have reasonable views of human nature, may set in the
balance against a score of the begging tribe, the man of just pride who
will not exchange his earldom for a marquisate, and the honest peer who to
the proffer of the garter says, with gratitude evidently sincere, "I
regret, however, that I cannot conscientiously accept an honour which is
beyond my deserts." Then the Octagon contains abundant material for any
student of the lessons of a parliamentary crisis, though perhaps the
student knew before how even goodish people begin to waver in great
causes, when they first seriously suspect the horrid truth that they may
not after all be in a majority. Many squibs, caricatures, and malicious
diatribes, dated in Mr. Gladstone's own hand, find shelter. But then
compensation for faintheartedness or spite abounds in the letters of the
staunch. And these not from the party politicians merely. Mr. Gladstone
stirred different and deeper waters. The famous fighting bishop,
Phillpotts of Exeter, then drawing on towards ninety and the realms of
silence, writes to him on the Christmas Day of 1863: "A Christian
statesman is a rare object of reverence and honour. Such I entirely
believe are you. I often remember the early days of my first intercourse
with you. Your high principles gave an early dignity to your youth, and
promised the splendid earthly career which you are fulfilling. I shall not
live to witness that fulfilment." A whole generation later, General Booth
wrote: "Throughout the world no people will pray more fervently and
believingly for your continued life and happiness than the officers and
soldiers of the salvation army." Here is Mr. Spurgeon, the most popular
and effective of the nonconforming preachers and workers o