nd will do its
duty.

On the morning of the 16th, Mr. Gladstone started. Hundreds of people grew
to thousands long before his train left King's Cross, and all the way to
Edinburgh he found the same vivid interest and acclamation on the east
coast that had greeted him in November on the west. At Grantham the mayor
and a crowd estimated by nimble statisticians at two thousand, awaited him
at the station; at York the lord mayor and six thousand; at
Newcastle-on-Tyne too many thousands to count. The little addresses made
at these stopping-places were described as a sort of table of contents of
the more elaborate speeches to be delivered in Midlothian itself. As he
crossed the Tweed the fervour did not cool, and when at last he reached
Edinburgh, he encountered a scene almost as wonderful as that which had
met him four months before.

Again he was the guest at Dalmeny, and again he renewed his prodigious
exertions amid a vehemence of admiration and delight that became more
intense as the days passed. Here is an entry or two from the diary:--

Travelled forty miles and delivered three speeches of forty-five
or fifty minutes each, at Juniper Green, Colinton, and Mid Calder.
Enthusiasm unabated.... Corrected and despatched proofs of
_Religion, Achaian and Semitic_. _Mar. 21, Palm Sunday._--Drove to
Edinburgh cathedral; service 11-1-1/2. Free St. George's in the
afternoon. Walked out seven miles with Lord Rosebery. 22.--To
Edinburgh (after working as usual on my papers) at 1.15. Short
complimentary address at liberal club. Then to George Street and
on to the city election committee; short speech. Then by train to
Gilmerton; spoke forty-five or fifty minutes; next after tea to
Loanhead, and after more tea, spoke again for some time on Russian
aggrandizement. Everywhere the greatest enthusiasm. Mr. C[owan]
gave me interesting details about Magyar and Bohemian students.
Back to Dalmeny at 7.20.

And so day after day did panting time toil after him in vain. Many of us
have known long spells of hard electioneering--but not in one's
seventy-first year, with every single word as it fell into print on the
morrow watched with the lynx eyes of party scrutiny, and all loaded with
the heaviest personal responsibility.

(M196) On March 24 the parliament was dissolved. On March 30 the first
elections took place, and the first pollings on the day following. From
the early