when he sees his church go will
leave the country. If you do that, you will find Ireland so difficult to
manage that you will have to depend on the gibbet and the sword." The
Bishop of Chester and Bishop Thirlwall, whom Mr. Gladstone described as
"one of the most masculine, powerful, and luminous intellects that have
for generations been known among the bishops of England," were
deliberately absent from the division. The effect of the bill was not
impaired, perhaps it was even heightened; for it convinced the public that
its author meant earnest and vigorous business, and the air was instantly
alive with the thrill of battle. For it is undoubted that if the country
cares for a thing, the resistance to it of the hereditary House seems to
add spice and an element of sport.

Chapter XVI. Prime Minister. (1868)

Geworden ist ihm eine Herrsoherseele,
Und ist gestellt auf einen Herrscherplatz.
Wohl uns, dass es so ist!...
Wohl dem Ganzen, findet
Sich einmal einer, der ein Mittelpunkt
Fuer viele Tausend wird, ein Halt.
--SCHILLER.

He is possessed by a commanding spirit,
And his, too, is the station of command.
And well for us it is so....
Well for the whole if there be found a man
Who makes himself what Nature destined him,
The pause, the central point of thousand thousands.
--_Coleridge's Translation._

I

During the election (Nov. 23) Mr. Gladstone published his _Chapter of
Autobiography_, the history of his journey from the book of 1838 to the
resolutions thirty years later.(170) Lord Granville told him frankly that
he never liked nor quite understood the first book; that the description
of it in the new "Chapter" gave him little pleasure; that he had at first
a feeling that the less a person in Mr. Gladstone's position published,
the better; and that unnecessary explanation would only provoke fresh
attacks. But as he read on, these misgivings melted away; he thought the
description of a certain phase of the history of the English church one of
the most eloquent and feeling passages he ever read; the reference to the
nonconformists was a graceful amend to them for being so passionate an
Oxonian and churchman; the piece of controversy with Macaulay rather an
exaggeration and not easy to understand; the closing pages admirable. In
short, he was all for publication. Another close friend of Mr.
Glad