who saw exalted
visions of the great future of their country, now threatened with
destruction. He had never agreed with those who thought it a matter of
high British interest that the old American union should be torn in
pieces. He had always thought that, involved as England was both in
interest and in duty and honour with Canada, the balanced state of the
American union which caused the whole of American politics to turn on the
relative strength of the slavery and Northern interests, was more
favourable to our colonial relations in North America, than if the said
union were to be divided into a cluster of Northern and a cluster of
Southern states. The North would endeavour to re-establish their
territorial grandeur by seeking union with the British possessions in
North America. He dwelt upon the horrid incidents of war. He insisted once
more that the public opinion of this country was unanimous that the
restoration of the American union by force was unattainable. Some cries of
"No" greeted this declaration about unanimity, but he would not qualify it
further than to say that at any rate it was almost unanimous. The other
chief speakers that night were Mr. Forster (who played a brave and
clear-sighted part throughout), Lord Robert Cecil, who attacked the "vague
and loose" arguments of the chancellor of the exchequer, and Mr. Bright,
who made perhaps the most powerful and the noblest speech of his life.

Chapter VI. Death Of Friends--Days At Balmoral. (1861-1884)

Itaque verae amicitiae difficillime reperiuntur in iis qui in
honoribus reque publica versantur.--CICERO.

True friendships are hard to find among men who busy themselves
about politics and office.

I

Within a few months of one another, three of Mr. Gladstone's closest
friends and allies were lost to him. Lord Aberdeen died at the end of
1860. The letter written by Mr. Gladstone to the son of his veteran chief
is long, but it deserves reproduction.(64) As a writer, though an alert
and most strenuous disputant, he was apt to be diffuse and abstract.
Partly, these defects were due to the subjects with which, in his literary
performances, he mostly chose to deal. Perhaps one secret was that he
forgot the famous word of Quintilian, that the way to write well is not to
write quickly, but if you take trouble to write well, in time you can
write as quickly as you like.(65) His character of Lord Aberdeen, like his
beautiful letter