returns it was pretty evident that the liberals would have a
majority. On the first day they made a net gain of fifteen seats in
sixty-nine constituencies. By the end of the fourth day a total net gain
of fifty seats was recorded. The ministerial majority was already gone.
The county elections brought new surprises, and by the end of the second
week the liberal gains were reckoned at ninety-nine.

Mr. Gladstone's fortnight of discourse ended on the 2nd of April. "So," he
records, "ends the second series of the speeches in which I have hammered
with all my poor might at the fabric of the present tory power. _April
3._--Cut down a Spanish chestnut in Dalmeny Park by order. The day was
quiet, but my papers and letters and the incoming news made it busy. It
seemed as if the arm of the Lord had bared itself for work that He has
made His own. 4.--A lull in election news, but the reflections on what has
passed are overpowering." Here are his closing words, and they are not
without historic import:--

The great trial, gentlemen, proceeds. You have great forces
arrayed against you. I say "You"; if you will permit me to
identify myself with you, I will say, We have great forces arrayed
against us, and apparently we cannot make our appeal to the
aristocracy, excepting that which must never be forgotten, the
distinguished and enlightened minority of that body of able,
energetic, patriotic, liberal-minded men, whose feelings are with
those of the people, and who decorate and dignify their rank by
their strong sympathy with the entire community. With that
exception, in all the classes of which I speak, I am sorry to say
we cannot reckon upon what is called the landed interest, we
cannot reckon upon the clergy of the established church either in
England or in Scotland, subject again and always in each case to
the most noble exceptions--exceptions, I trust, likely to enlarge
and multiply from day to day. On none of these can we place our
trust. We cannot reckon on the wealth of the country, nor upon the
rank of the country, nor upon the influence which rank and wealth
usually bring. In the main these powers are against us, for
wherever there is a close corporation, wherever there is a spirit
of organised monopoly, wherever there is a narrow and sectional
interest apart from that of the country, and desiring to be set up
above the interest of the