is so clear against him as to _detract_ from his great
reputation. But were I in the unhappy position of having to call for a
large loan, I should be disposed to ask for the tender in more than one
form, _e.g._, to ask for a tender in three per cents, pure and simple, and
an alternative in 4 or 5 per cents., with that rate of interest guaranteed
for a certain number of years. Sir Robert Walpole had not to contend with
like difficulties, and I think his administration should be compared with
the _early years_ of Pitt's, in which way of judging he would come off
second, though a man of cool and sagacious judgment, while morally he
stood low.

French Commercial Treaty. 1860

_Page __66_

_Mr. Gladstone at Leeds, October 8, 1881_:--

I, for my part, look with the deepest interest upon the share that I had
in concluding--I will not say so much in concluding, but in conducting on
this side of the water, and within the walls of parliament as well as in
administration--the proceedings which led to the memorable French treaty of
1860. It is quite true that that treaty did not produce the whole of the
benefits that some too sanguine anticipations may possibly have expected
from it, that it did not produce a universal smash of protective duties,
as I wish it had, throughout the civilised world. But it did something. It
enormously increased the trade between this country and France. It
effectually checked and traversed in the year 1860 tendencies of a very
different kind towards needless alarms and panics, and tendencies towards
convulsions and confusion in Europe. There was no more powerful instrument
for confining and controlling those wayward and angry spirits at that
particular crisis, than the commercial treaty with France. It produced no
inconsiderable effect for a number of years upon the legislation of
various European countries, which tended less decisively than we could
have desired, but still intelligibly and beneficially, in the direction of
freedom of trade.

Lord Aberdeen

_Page __87_

_Mr. Gladstone to Sir Arthur Gordon (Lord Stanmore)_

_Downing Street, April 21, 1861._--MY DEAR ARTHUR,--When, within a few days
after your father's death, I referred in conversation with you to one or
two points in his character, it was from the impulse of the moment, and
without any idea of making my words matter of record. Months have now
passed since you asked me to put on paper the substance of what I sai