iples of politics, and about which the country
understands almost nothing, and cares, for the most part, very
little. All this he took without rejoinder.

_P.S._--We are going to Holker next week, and Hartington said he
would try to come and see me there.

As we have already seen,(111) Mr. Gladstone paid his visit to Holker
(January 30), where he found the Duke of Devonshire "wonderfully well, and
kind as ever," where he was joined by Lord Hartington, and where they
together spelled out the cipher telegram (on February 5) bringing the evil
news of the fall of Khartoum.

It is not uninteresting to see how the notion of Mr. Gladstone's
retirement, now much talked of in his family, affected a friendly,
philosophic, and most observant onlooker. Lord Acton wrote to him
(February 2):--

You mean that the new parliament, the first of our democratic
constitution, shall begin its difficult and perilous course
without the services of a leader who has greater experience and
authority than any other man. You design to withdraw your
assistance when most urgently needed, at the moment of most
conservative apprehension and most popular excitement. By the
choice of this particular moment for retirement you increase the
danger of the critical transition, because nobody stands as you do
between the old order of things and the new, or inspires general
confidence; and the lieutenants of Alexander are not at their
best. Next year's change will appear vast and formidable to the
suspicious foreigner, who will be tempted to doubt our identity.
It is in the national interest to reduce the outer signs of
change, to bridge the apparent chasm, to maintain the traditional
character of the state. The unavoidable elements of weakness will
be largely and voluntarily aggravated by their untimely
coincidence with an event which must, at any time, be a blow to
the position of England among the Powers. Your absence just then
must grievously diminish our credit.... You alone inspire
confidence that what is done for the great masses shall be done
with a full sense of economic responsibility.... A divided liberal
party and a weak conservative party mean the supremacy of the
revolutionary Irish....

To this Mr. Gladstone replied:--

_10 Downing Street, Feb. 11, 1885._ Your argument against letting
the outworn hack go to grass, de