ed to thank them, and if
he opened his lips to thank them, the all-engrossing theme was sure to
well up. Some of these earnest utterances jarred even on his admirers in
the press and out of it. Just so would critics in colleges and cathedral
closes have found Wesley and Whitefield in their evangelising mission
north, south, east, and west, excessive, exaggerated, indiscreet, and
deficient in good taste. They could not understand how one supposed to be
so knowing in all the manoeuvres of parliament and party, was at the same
time so naif. This curious simplicity in fact marked him in all the
movements into which he put his heart. Like every other grand
missionary--the abolitionist, the gospel missionary, the free trader, the
peace man, the temperance man--he could not believe that the truths,
arguments, and appeals, of which he was the bearer, could fail to strike
in all who heard them the same fire that blazed in bosoms fervid as his
own.

He went to Birmingham and was received with tumultuous acclamations by
many tens of thousands:--

_May 31._--[Hawarden.] Off before 11. Reached Birmingham at 3-1/4.
A triumphal reception. Dinner at Mr. Chamberlain's. Meeting 7 to
9-1/2, half occupied by my speech. A most intelligent and duly
appreciative audience--but they were 25,000 and the building I
think of no acoustic merits, so that the strain was excessive. A
supper followed. _June 1._--Breakfast party 9.30. Much conversation
on the Birmingham school board system. Off at 10.45 to Enfield
factory, which consumed the forenoon in a most interesting survey
with Colonel Dickson and his assistants. Then to the fine (qy.
overfine?) board school, where addresses were presented and I
spoke over half an hour on politics. After luncheon to the town
hall; address from the corporation, made a municipal speech of say
20 minutes. A good deal of movement in the streets with us even
to-day. Thence to the Oratory and sat with Dr. Newman.(347) Saw
Mr. Chamberlain's very pleasing children. Then to the dinner,
spoke again. To Hagley at 11.5.

Well was, it said of this visit by Dale, that strenuous whole-hearted man,
"Forsaken or but feebly supported by many of those with whom he had shared
many glorious conflicts, and who owed to him their place and fame, his
courage remained undaunted, and his enthusiasm for righteousness and
freedom unquenched."

Mr. Gladstone described, th