y said, "the whole nation will be in
the poorhouse." The delight of the constituency was intense at the
prospect of having for their champion one whom they described as the
greatest living Scotchman, and Adam (January 10, 1879) predicted a
majority of two hundred. Mr. Gladstone rapidly, but not without
deliberation, entered into the project. "I am now only anxious," he wrote
to Mr. Adam (January 11), "under your advice and Wolverton's, about making
the ground sure before the plunge is taken; after it is taken, you may
depend on me." On the same day he wrote to Lord Granville:--

I believe you have been cognizant of the proceedings about the
county of Midlothian, which are now beginning to bear a practical
aspect. Generally, when one knows the tree is a large tree, yet on
coming close up to the trunk it looks twice as large as it did
before. So it is with this election. If it goes on, it will gather
into itself a great deal of force and heat, and will be very
prominent. Thus far I am not sure whether I have put the matter
pointedly before you, or have been content to assume your approval
of what I found Adam pressing strongly upon me. It will be a tooth
and nail affair.

Lord Granville replied, that he was doing a "very plucky and
public-spirited thing." "Your friends," he said, "must begin working the
coach at once, but I should think you had better not appear too early in
the field. Act Louis XIV." "Having received your approval," Mr. Gladstone
told Lord Granville, "I wrote on the same day to Adam accordingly." He
then went into details with his usual care and circumspection. When the
public were made aware of what was on foot, the general interest became
hardly less lively all over the island than it was in the constituency
itself. It was observed at the time how impossible many people seemed to
find it to treat anything done by Mr. Gladstone as natural and reasonable.
Nothing would appear to be a more simple and unobjectionable act than his
compliance with the request of the electors of Midlothian, yet "he was
attacked as if he were guilty of some monstrous piece of vanity and
eccentricity."(357) Relentless opponents amused themselves by saying that
"Mr. Gladstone lives personally in Wales and intends to live politically
in Scotland; and his most fervently held opinions, like the Celtic
population of the island, have very much followed the same line of
withdrawal."

Mr.