ation of Sir George
Lewis's when at the exchequer here. Speaking of my controversy with the
Bank in 1854, he said, "It is a pity Gladstone puts so much heat, so
much irritability into business. Now I am as cool as a fish."' The worst
of being as cool as a fish is that you never get great things done, you
effect no improvements, and you carry no reforms, against the lethargy
or selfishness of men and the tyranny of old custom.[334]

Now also his attention was engaged by the controversies on currency that
thrive so lustily in the atmosphere of the Bank Charter Act, and, after
much discussion with authorities both in Lombard Street and at the
treasury, without committal he sketched out at least one shadow of a
project of his own. He knew, however, that any great measure must be
undertaken by a finance minister with a clear position and strong hands,
and he told Graham that even if he saw his way distinctly to a plan, he
did not feel individually strong enough for the attempt. Nor was there
time. To reconstitute the Savings Bank finance, to place the chancery
and some other accounts on a right basis, and to readjust the banking
relations properly so-called between the Bank and the state, would be
even more than a fair share of financial work for the session. Before
the year was over he passed a bill, for which he had laid before the
cabinet elaborate argumentative supports, removing a number of
objections to the then existing system of dealing with the funds drawn
from Savings Banks.[335]

The year closed with an incident that created a considerable stir, and
might by misadventure have become memorable. What has been truly called
a warm and prolonged dispute[336] arose out of Mr. Gladstone's removal
of a certain official from his post in the department of woods and
forests. As Lord Aberdeen told the Queen that he could not easily make
the case intelligible, it is not likely that I should succeed any
better, and we may as well leave the thick dust undisturbed. Enough to
say that Lord John Russell thought the dismissal harsh; that Mr.
Gladstone stood his ground against either the reversal of what he had
done, or any proceedings in parliament that might look like contrition,
but was willing to submit the points to the decision of colleagues; that
Lord John would submit no point to colleagues 'affecting his personal
honour'--to such degrees of heat can the quicksilver mount even in a
cabinet thermometer. If such quarrels of th