pathy not only with the attitude of the average Englishman, who is
essentially a Protestant--that is to say, averse to sacerdotalism, and
suspicious of any other religious authority than that of the Bible and
the individual conscience--but also with two of the strongest
influences of our time, the influence of the sciences of nature, and
the influence of historical criticism. Mr. Gladstone, though too wise
to rail at science, as many religious men did till within the last
few years, could never quite reconcile himself either to the
conclusions of geology and zoology regarding the history of the
physical world and the creatures which inhabit it, or to modern
methods of critical inquiry as applied to Scripture and to ancient
literature generally. The training which Oxford then gave, stimulating
as it was, and free from the modern error of over-specialisation, was
defective in omitting the experimental sciences, and in laying undue
stress upon the study of language. A proneness to dwell on verbal
distinctions and to trust overmuch to the analysis of terms as a means
of reaching the truth of things is noticeable in many eminent Oxford
writers of that and the next succeeding generation--some of them, like
the illustrious F. D. Maurice, far removed from Cardinal Newman and
Mr. Gladstone in theological opinion.

When, bringing with him a brilliant University reputation, he
entered the House of Commons at the age of twenty-three, Sir Robert
Peel was leading the Tory party with an authority and ability rarely
surpassed in the annals of parliament. Within two years the young man
was admitted into the short-lived Tory ministry of 1834, and soon
proved himself a promising lieutenant of the experienced chief.
Peel was an eminently wary man, alive to the necessity of watching
the signs of the times, of studying and interpreting the changeful
phases of public opinion. Yet he always kept his own counsel. Even
when he perceived that the policy he had hitherto followed would
need to be modified, Peel continued to use guarded language and did
not publicly commit himself to change till it was plain that the
fitting moment had arrived. He was, moreover, a master of detail,
slow to propound a plan until he had seen how its outlines were to
be filled up by appropriate devices for carrying it out in practice.
These qualities and habits of the minister profoundly affected his
disciple. They became part of the texture of Mr. Gladstone's
politic