ular government. The main staple of his discourse was naturally the
Irish case, and though within the next twenty years he acquired a wider
familiarity with detail, he never exhibited the large features of that
case with more cogent and persuasive mastery. He told the story of the
transformation of the franchise bill with a combined precision,
completeness and lightness of hand that made his articles of charge at
once extremely interesting and wholly unanswerable. In a vein of pleasant
mockery, on the accusation that he was going to ruin and destroy the
constitution, he reminded them that within his own recollection it had
been wholly ruined and destroyed eight times: in 1828 by the repeal of the
Corporation and Test acts; in 1829 by admitting Roman catholics to
parliament; in 1832 by reform; in 1846 by free trade; in 1849 by repeal of
the navigation law; in 1858 when Jews were allowed to sit in parliament;
in 1866 when the government of Lord Russell had the incredible audacity to
propose a reform bill with the intention of carrying it or falling in the
attempt.

(M74) It was a magnificent campaign. But in South-West Lancashire the
church of England was strong; orange prevailed vastly over green; and Mr.
Gladstone was beaten. Happily he had in anticipation of the result, and by
the care of friends, already been elected for Greenwich.(171) In the
kingdom as a whole he was triumphant. The liberal majority was 112. When
the gross votes were added up, it was calculated that the liberals had a
million and a half and the conservatives less than a million.(172) After a
long era of torpor a powerful party thus once more came into being. The
cause was excellent, but more potent than the cause was the sight of a
leader with a resolute will, an unresting spirit of reform, and the genius
of political action. This ascendency Mr. Gladstone maintained for quarter
of a century to come.

II

On the afternoon of the first of December, he received at Hawarden the
communication from Windsor. "I was standing by him," says Mr. Evelyn
Ashley, "holding his coat on my arm while he in his shirt sleeves was
wielding an axe to cut down a tree. Up came a telegraph messenger. He took
the telegram, opened it and read it, then handed it to me, speaking only
two words, 'Very significant,' and at once resumed his work. The message
merely stated that General Grey would arrive that evening from Windsor.
This of course implied that a mandate was co