rudged his absence for a day. On one occasion, in
accordance with a lifelong passion and rooted habit, he desired to attend
a funeral, this time in Scotland, and Lord Granville's letter of
remonstrance to him is interesting in more points than one; it shows the
exacting position in which the peculiarities of some colleagues and of a
certain section of his supporters placed him:--

It is the unanimous desire of the cabinet that I should try to
dissuade you.... It is a duty of a high order for you to do all
you can for your health.... You hardly ever are absent from the
House without some screw getting loose. I should write much more
strongly if I did not feel I had a personal interest in the
matter. In so strained a state as Europe is now in, the slightest
thing may lead to great consequences, and it is possible that it
may be a disadvantage to me and to the _chose publique_ if
anything occurs during the thirty-six hours you are absent.

This letter of Lord Granville's was written on July 10, 1870, just five
days before war was declared between France and Prussia.

He wrote to the _Spectator_ (May 1873) to correct a report "that every day
must begin for me with my old friend Homer." He says: "As to my beginning
every day with Homer, as such a phrase conveys to the world a very untrue
impression of the demands of my present office, I think it right to
mention that, so far as my memory serves me, I have not read Homer for
fifty lines now for a quarter of an hour consecutively for the last four
years, and any dealings of mine with Homeric subjects have been confined
to a number of days which could be readily counted on the fingers." Yet at
the end of 1869, he winds up a letter of business by saying, "I must
close; I am going to have a discussion with Huxley on the immortality of
the soul!"

Who can wonder that after a prolonged spell of such a strain as this, he
was found laying down strong doctrine about the age of a prime minister?
Bishop Wilberforce met him twice in the May of 1873. "Gladstone much
talking how little real good work any premier had done after sixty: Peel;
Palmerston, his work really all done before; Duke of Wellington added
nothing to his reputation after. I told him Dr. Clark thought it would be
physically worse for him to retire. 'Dr. Clark does not know how
completely I should employ myself,' he replied." Four days later:
"Gladstone again talking of sixty as f