r England, with loud and
long-continued cheering, to be invariably followed in after act and
event with loud and long-continued groaning.[69] Four years later Mr.
Gladstone heard words from Lord John Russell on this point, that began
to change his mind. 'Often do I think,' he wrote to Lord Russell in
1870, 'of a saying of yours more than thirty years back which struck me
ineffaceably at the time. You said: "The true key to our Irish debates
was this: that it was not properly borne in mind that as England is
inhabited by Englishmen, and Scotland by Scotchmen, so Ireland is
inhabited by Irishmen."'[70]

FOOTNOTES:

[63] _Gleanings_, i. p. 38.

[64] In another place he describes it as an action done 'with no sort of
reason' (_Ib._ p. 78). But the Melbourne papers, published in 1890, pp.
219-221 and 225, indicate that Melbourne had spontaneously given the
king good reasons for cashiering him and his colleagues.

[65] Lord Palmerston doubted (Nov. 25, 1834) whether Peel would
dissolve. 'I think his own bias will rather be to abide by the decision
of this House of Commons, and try to propitiate it by great professions
of reform. The effect of a dissolution must be injurious to the
principles that he professes.... But he may be overborne by the violent
people of his own party whom he will not be able to control.' Ashley's
_Life of Palmerston_ (1879), i. p. 313.

[66] Greville, on the other hand, grumbled at Peel, for taking high
birth and connections as substitutes for other qualities, because he
made Sidney Herbert secretary at the board of control, instead of making
him a lord of the treasury, and sending 'Gladstone, who is a very clever
man,' to the other and more responsible post.

[67] Lord Stanmore's _Earl of Aberdeen_ (1893), p. iii.

[68] Parker's _Peel_, ii. p. 267.

[69] O'Connell paid Newark a short visit in 1836--spoke against Mr.
Gladstone for an hour in the open air, and then left the town, both he
and it much as they had been before his arrival.

[70] Walpole, _Life of Lord John Russell_, ii. p. 455.

CHAPTER III

PROGRESS IN PUBLIC LIFE

(_1835-1838_)

Les hommes en tout ne s'eclairent que par le tatonnement de
l'experience. Les plus grands genies sont eux-memes entraines par
leur siecle.--TURGOT.

Men are only enlightened by feeling their way through experience.
The greatest geniuses a