ore in vogue, far more
honoured and esteemed and cultivated by both political parties twenty or
thirty years ago than it is at the present moment." An intense love of
justice, a singleness of aim, a habit of judging men fairly and estimating
them favourably, an absence of the suspicion that so often forms the bane
of public life--these elements and all other such elements were to be found
in the character of Cobden abundantly supplied. Mr. Cobden's was a mind
incapable of entertaining the discussion of a question without fully
weighing and estimating its moral aspects and results. In these words so
justly applied to Cobden, the orator was doubtless depicting political
ideals of his own.

II

In the autumn Mr. Gladstone determined on going abroad with his wife and
daughters. "One among my reasons for going," he told Mr. Brand, "is that I
think I am better out of the way of politics during the recess. In England
I should find it most difficult to avoid for five minutes attending some
public celebration or other, especially in Lancashire. I think that I have
said already in one way or other, all that I can usefully say, perhaps
more than all. So far as I am concerned, I now leave the wound of the
liberal party to the healing powers of nature.... If we cannot arrive in
sufficient strength at a definite understanding with respect to the mode
of handling the question of the franchise, then our line ought to be great
patience and quietude in opposition. If we can, then certainly the
existing government might at any time disappear, after the opening of the
session I mean, with advantage." "The journey to Italy," says Phillimore,
"was really a measure of self-defence, to escape the incessant persecution
of correspondence, suggestions, and solicitations."

(M62) They left England in the last week of September, and proceeded
direct to Rome. The Queen had given as one good reason against a change of
ministers the dangerous outlook on the continent of Europe. This was the
year of the Seven Weeks' War, the battle of Sadowa (July 3), and the
triumph of Prussia over Austria, foreshadowing a more astonishing triumph
four years hence. One of the results of Sadowa was the further
consolidation of the Italian kingdom by the transfer of Venetia. Rome
still remained outside. The political situation was notoriously
provisional and unstable, and the French troops who had gone there in 1849
were still in their barracks at the Castle of