stice on Sunday! But it is
for peace. 24.--To London. 27.--Up at 6. Went with Harry to Dover,
saw him off on board the packet and pier [on his way to India].
Drove over to Walmer, reviewed the place, saw Lord Granville and
Sir W. James. Returned to London, and at 9.30 to the Gaiety, saw a
miserable burlesque of which I had heard a most inviting but false
account. 28.--To Hawarden. 31.--Tennyson and H. T. came. _Nov.
1._--Tennyson read to us his _Harold_. It took near 2-1/2 hours. Walk
with him and a party. 2.--Read Bagehot on Lord Spencer's
_Life_--very clever, very imperfect. Conversation with Tennyson on
future retribution and other matters of theology. He has not
thought, I conceive, systematically or thoroughly upon them, but
is much alarmed at the prospect of the loss of belief. He left us
at one. Walk and long conversation with Lord Acton, who seems in
opinion to go beyond Doellinger, though in certain things he stops
short of him. 8.--Read aloud the debate of the first _Iliad_ from
Pope. 9.--Read aloud my version of the Assembly--_Iliad_ i. 10.--Read
aloud Lord Derby's and Cowper's version of the Assembly. 14.--The
Olympian part of _Iliad_ I. in Pope's version aloud, and then my
own. 17.--We went to Liverpool, where we attended the theatre to
see Pennington in _Hamlet_. It was really excellent. I never was
so well received in that town. 21.--Finished revision of my MS.,
"The Hellenic Factor in the Eastern Problem," and sent it to
press.

III

At the Lord Mayor's feast in November, the prime minister used menacing
language. The policy of England, he said, was peace, but no country was so
well prepared for war as ours. If England were to enter into a righteous
war, her resources were inexhaustible. "She is not a country that, when
she enters into a campaign, has to ask herself whether she can support a
second or a third campaign. She enters into a campaign which she will not
terminate till right is done." This was a hardly veiled threat to Russia,
it was encouragement to Turkey, it was incitement to a war party in Great
Britain. "The provocation offered by Disraeli at the Guildhall," wrote Mr.
Gladstone, "is almost incredible. Some new lights about his Judaic feeling
in which he is both consistent and conscientious have come in upon me."

Still the general feeling was strongly adverse to any action on behalf of
Turk