probable date of the dissolution, that the government
had in his opinion "to choose between a minor or a less smashing defeat
now, or probably a more smashing one after the disclosure and real
presentation of their most discreditable finance, which can hardly be
delayed beyond the spring." They had a chance of better trade, but the
likelihood also of worse revenue. The great reason against dissolution was
that they were in possession, and every day's delay was another day's
exercise of power. He then proceeds to mention his personal position:--

They are beginning to ask _who_ is to succeed if Beaconsfield is
displaced. Voices are coming up here and there, some of them very
confident, that the people will call for me. Nothing, however, but
a very general, a nearly unanimous, call from the liberals, with
the appearance of a sort of national will, could bring this demand
to a form in which it could or ought to be obeyed. The reasons
against my coming forward are of immense force; those against my
indicating any shadow of desire or willingness to come forward are
conclusive. Nor do I at present see any indication of a state of
things which would bring it about.

(M195) Before leaving Dalmeny at the end of his campaign, Mr. Gladstone
wrote a letter to Mr. Bright, a copy of which, along with the reply, and
two letters from Lord Wolverton, he left tied up in a separate packet.

_To Mr. Bright._

_Nov. 28, 1879._--You will probably recollect that during your last
visit to Hawarden you suggested to me in a walk the expectation or
the possibility that when the return of liberals to power seemed
probable, there might be a popular call for my resuming the
leadership of the party, and that I stated to you what I believed,
and you I think admitted, to be the reasons against it. These, if
I remember right, were four, and I attached to them differing
degrees of weight.

The first was that my health and strength would be unequal to the
strain at my time of life.

The second, that the work to be done was so formidable that hardly
any amount of courage availed to look it in the face.

The third, weightier than these, was that a liberal government
under me would be the object from the first of an amount and kind
of hostility, such as materially to prejudice its acts and weaken
or, in given circumstances, neutralise its