of the British Islands to expand. I had held that the
disestablishment of the English Church was inevitable, because among
other reasons it was an anomaly. No other part of the race had it. All
religions were fostered, none favored, in every other English-speaking
state. Mr. Gladstone asked:

"How long do you give our Established Church to live?"

My reply was I could not fix a date; he had had more experience than I
in disestablishing churches. He nodded and smiled.

When I had enlarged upon a certain relative decrease of population in
Britain that must come as compared with other countries of larger
area, he asked:

"What future do you forecast for her?"

I referred to Greece among ancient nations and said that it was,
perhaps, not accident that Chaucer, Shakespeare, Spenser, Milton,
Burns, Scott, Stevenson, Bacon, Cromwell, Wallace, Bruce, Hume, Watt,
Spencer, Darwin, and other celebrities had arisen here. Genius did not
depend upon material resources. Long after Britain could not figure
prominently as an industrial nation, not by her decline, but through
the greater growth of others, she might in my opinion become the
modern Greece and achieve among nations moral ascendancy.

He caught at the words, repeating them musingly:

"Moral ascendancy, moral ascendancy, I like that, I like that."

I had never before so thoroughly enjoyed a conference with a man. I
visited him again at Hawarden, but my last visit to him was at Lord
Randall's at Cannes the winter of 1897 when he was suffering keenly.
He had still the old charm and was especially attentive to my
sister-in-law, Lucy, who saw him then for the first time and was
deeply impressed. As we drove off, she murmured, "A sick eagle! A sick
eagle!" Nothing could better describe this wan and worn leader of men
as he appeared to me that day. He was not only a great, but a truly
good man, stirred by the purest impulses, a high, imperious soul
always looking upward. He had, indeed, earned the title: "Foremost
Citizen of the World."

In Britain, in 1881, I had entered into business relations with Samuel
Storey, M.P., a very able man, a stern radical, and a genuine
republican. We purchased several British newspapers and began a
campaign of political progress upon radical lines. Passmore Edwards
and some others joined us, but the result was not encouraging. Harmony
did not prevail among my British friends and finally I decided to
withdraw, which I was fortunately able