ey. Mr. Gladstone eagerly noted even the most trivial incident that
pointed this way. "Yesterday night," he wrote (Nov. 26), "in the tory town
of Liverpool, when Othello was being acted, and the words were reached
'The Turks are drowned,' the audience rose in enthusiasm and interrupted
the performance for some time with their cheering. These things are not
without meaning." Men who commonly stood aside from political activity
were roused. "Mr. Carlyle," says Mr. Ruskin, "Mr. Froude, and several
other men of creditable name gathered together at call of Mr. Gladstone as
for a great national need, together with other men of more retired
mind--Edward Burne-Jones for one, and myself for another."

(M180) The reply to the Guildhall speech was a conference at St. James's
Hall (Dec. 8), one of the most remarkable gatherings of representative men
of every type and from every part of the kingdom ever held in this
country. "I have most flourishing accounts of the progress of preparations
for the conference of which I have been a promoter from the beginning.
They urge me to speak on the 8th, but I should much prefer that others
should put themselves in the foreground." Besides the eminent politicians,
great territorial magnates were there, and men of letters, and divines of
various churches, and men who had never been to a militant assembly in
their lives before,--all with a resolute purpose expressed by Mr.
Trevelyan, "No matter how the prime minister may finger the hilt of the
sword, the nation will take care that it never leaves the scabbard." Mr.
Gladstone reached London a day or two before. On the 8th, he enters:--

8.--Made notes and extracts for speech. Attended the meetings at
St. James's Hall, 12-1-1/2 and 4-8. Spoke (I fear) 1-1/2 hours with
some exertion, far from wholly to my satisfaction. The meetings
were great, notable, almost historical.

The day after this important and impressive gathering he was back
at Hawarden, busy at his article upon the life of the Prince
Consort. Then came Christmas day,--"The most solemn I have known
for long; I see that eastward sky of storm and of underlight!"

At a suggestion from the London foreign office, a conference of the great
Powers met at Constantinople in the middle of December. Lord Salisbury
went as the representative of England. To a correspondent Mr. Gladstone
spoke of this as an excellent selection:--

I think it right at once t