d of the great facility and
marvellous precision with which he used them; and, if I may so
say, the noble and antique simplicity of character which he united
with such knowledge of men and of affairs.

The final budget of this most remarkable series was that of 1866, when he
swept away the last of the old vexatious duties on timber. It contained
another element as to which, as I have said, some thought he had not been
keen enough. In the budget of 1866 he first started the scheme of a
sinking fund, which, when amplified, and particularly when simplified by
his successors, did so much to reduce the dead weight of debt.(47) The
complication of his scheme was due to his desire to make sure of its
stability, and undoubtedly he would have carried it if he had remained in
office through the session. He is, however, entitled to credit for laying
the foundation of an effective sinking fund.

One word more may be added on Mr. Gladstone as financier. He was far too
comprehensive in his outlook to suppose that the great outburst of
material prosperity during the years in which he controlled the exchequer
and guided parliament in affairs of money, was wholly and without
qualification due to budgets alone. To insist on ascribing complex results
to single causes is the well-known vice of narrow and untrained minds. He
was quite alive to the effects of "the enormous, constant, rapid, and
diversified development of mechanical power, and the consequent saving of
labour by the extension of machinery." He was well aware of the share of
new means of locomotion in the growth of industrial enterprise. But the
special cause of what was most peculiar to England in the experience of
this period he considered to be the wise legislation of parliament, in
seeking every opportunity for abolishing restrictions upon the application
of capital and the exercise of industry and skill. In this wise
legislation his own energetic and beneficent genius played the master
part.

Chapter V. American Civil War. (1861-1863)

Then came the outbreak which had been so often foretold, so often
menaced; and the ground reeled under the nation during four years
of agony, until at last, after the smoke of the battlefield had
cleared away, the horrid shape which had cast its shadow over a
whole continent had vanished, and was gone for ever.--JOHN BRIGHT.

I

Sir Cornewall Lewis in a memorandum printed for the use of h