sitting below him: London, Winchester, Chester, Oxford, Llandaff,
Gloucester, Exeter, and the Duke of Cambridge incessantly bobbing
assent; but for fear we should be annoyed he then turned round on
the cathedrals plan and flogged it with at least equal vigour. He
has a mind keenly susceptible of what is beautiful, great, and
good; tenacious of an idea when once grasped, and with a singular
power of concentrating the whole man upon it. But unfortunately I
do not believe he has ever looked in the face the real doctrine of
the visible church and the apostolic succession, or has any idea
what is the matter at issue.

Mr. Gladstone says he could not stand the undisputed currency in
conservative circles of a theory like this, and felt that the occasion
ought to be seized for further entrenching the existing institution,
strong as it seemed in fact, by more systematic defences in principle
and theory. He sat down to the literary task with uncommon vigour and
persistency. His object was not merely to show that the state has a
conscience, for not even the newest of new Machiavellians denies that a
state is bound by some moral obligations, though in history and fact it
is true that

Earth is sick,
And Heaven is weary, of the hollow words
Which States and Kingdoms utter when they talk
Of truth and justice.[100]

But the obligation of conscience upon a state was not Mr. Gladstone's
only point. His propositions were, that the state is cognisant of the
difference between religious truth and religious error: that the
propagation of this truth and the discouragement of this error are among
the ends for which government exists; that the English state did
recognise as a fundamental duty to give an active and exclusive support
to a certain religion; and finally that the condition of things
resulting from the discharge of this duty was well worth preserving
against encroachment, from whatever quarter encroachment might threaten.

COMPOSITION OF HIS WORK

On July 23rd, the draft of his book was at last finished, and he
dispatched it to James Hope for free criticism, suggestions, and
revision. The 'physical state of the MS.,' as Mr. Gladstone calls it,
seems to have been rather indefensible, and his excuse for writing
'irregularly and confusedly, considering the pressure of other
engagements'--an excuse somewhat too common with him--was no