r great offence was the failure to
send forward General Graham's force to relieve General Gordon. In the
course of this debate Mr. Goschen warned the government that if they
flinched from the policy of smashing the Mahdi at Khartoum, he should vote
against them. A radical below the gangway upon this went to the party whip
and declared, with equal resolution, that if the government insisted on
the policy, then it would be for him and others to vote against them. Sir
William Harcourt, in a speech of great power, satisfied the gentlemen
below the gangway, and only a small handful of the party went into the
lobby with the opposition and the Irish. The division was taken at four in
the morning (February 28), and the result was that the government which
had come in with morning radiance five years ago, was worn down to an
attenuated majority of fourteen.(112)

When the numbers were declared, Mr. Gladstone said to a colleague on the
bench, "_That will do._" Whether this delphic utterance meant that the
size of the majority would justify resignation or retention, the colleague
was not sure. When the cabinet met at a more mellowed hour in the day, the
question between going out of office and staying in, was fully discussed.
Mere considerations of ease all pointed one way, for, if they held on,
they would seem to be dependent on tory support; trouble was brewing with
Russia, and the Seats bill would not be through in a hurry. On the other
hand, fourteen was majority enough to swear by, the party would be
surprised by resignation and discouraged, and retirement would wear the
look of a false position. In fact Mr. Gladstone, in spite of his incessant
sighs for a hermit's calm, was always for fighting out every position to
the last trench. I can think of no exception, and even when the time came
ten years later, he thought his successors pusillanimous for (M69)
retiring on a small scratch defeat on cordite.(113) So now he acted on the
principle that with courage cabinets may weather almost any storm. No
actual vote was taken, but the numbers for and against retirement were
equal, until Mr. Gladstone spoke. He thought that they should try to go
on, at least until the Seats bill was through. This was the final
decision.

All this brought once more into his mind the general consideration that
now naturally much haunted him. He wrote to the Queen (February 27):--

Mr. Gladstone believes that circumstances independent of his own