icipated; but then are they more probable under Derby and
Disraeli? Lord Aberdeen took another line, insisting that to make any
sort of approach to Lord Derby, after joining Palmerston only the
previous year, would be unjustifiable; the bare apprehension of a
vicious policy would be no intelligible ground for changing sides; more
tangible reasons would be needed, and they were only too likely soon to
arrive from Palmerston's foreign policy. Then a reasonable chance might
come. Herbert, in his turn, told Mr. Gladstone that though he might
infuse vigour and respectability into a party that stood much in need of
both, yet he would always be in a false position. 'Your opinions are
essentially progressive, and when the measures of any government mast be
liberal and progressive, the country will prefer the men whose
antecedents and mottoes are liberal, while the conservatives will always
prefer a leader whose prejudices are with themselves.' As Graham put it
to him: 'If you were to join the tory party to-morrow, you would have
neither their confidence nor their real good will, and they would openly
break with you in less than a year.' It all reminds one of the chorus in
Greek plays, sagely expostulating with a hero bent on some dread deed of
fate.

III

MEDITATIONS

In the autumn of 1856 ecclesiastical questions held a strong place in
Mr. Gladstone's interests. The condemnation of Archdeacon Denison for
heresy roused him to lively indignation. He had long interviews with the
archdeacon, drafted answers for him, and flung his whole soul into the
case, though he was made angry by Denison's oscillations and general
tone. 'Gladstone tells me,' said Aberdeen, 'that he cannot sleep for it,
and writes to me volumes upon volumes. He thinks that Denison ought to
have been allowed to show that his doctrine, whether in accordance or
not with the articles, is in accordance with scripture. And he thinks
the decision ought to have been in his case as it was in Gorham's, that
the articles are comprehensive, that they admit Denison's view of the
Eucharist as well as that of his opponents.'[356]

His closing entry for the year (1856) depicts an inner mood:--

It appears to me that there are few persons who are so much as I am
enclosed in the invisible net of pendent steel. I have never known
what tedium was, have always found time full of calls and duties,