was of great interest. I saw many most eminent Frenchmen, so many
that they remained as a cloud upon my recollection, except
Berryer, Thiers, and some whom I had known before. _Jan.
26._--Attended the meeting of the Institute 12-2. Spent the rest of
the afternoon with M. Jules Simon in seeing certain quarters of
Paris.

"Yesterday," he wrote to Mr. Brand (Jan. 27), "a dinner was given to
Cardwell and me at the Grand Hotel, by the Society of Political Economists
of France, and I did my best to improve the occasion in terms which might
imply censure on the military measures here and the new turn of affairs.
Also I am a known accomplice of M. Fould's. So I let all this be balanced
by dining with the Emperor to-day, and with Rouher to-morrow." Of the
reception at court, he says, "Dined at the Tuileries, and was surprised at
the extreme attention and courtesy of both their majesties, with whom I
had much interesting conversation." The fates with no halting foot were
drawing near. The palace was a heap of ashes, host and hostess were
forlorn exiles, before in no long span of time they met their guest again.

Chapter XIV. The Struggle For Household Suffrage. (1867)

First of all we had a general intimation and promise that
something would be done; then a series of resolutions, which
strutted a brief hour upon the stage and then disappeared; then
there was a bill, which we were told, on the authority of a
cabinet minister, was framed in ten minutes, and which was
withdrawn in very little more than ten minutes; and lastly, there
was a bill which--undergoing the strangest transformations in its
course through parliament--did, I will not say, become the law of
the land, but was altered into something like that which became
the law of the land.--GLADSTONE.

I

From Rome Mr. Gladstone kept a watchful eye for the approaching political
performances at Westminster. He had written to Mr. Brand a month after his
arrival:--

_51 P. di Spagna, Oct. 30, '66._--The Clarendons are to be here
this evening to stay for a fortnight or three weeks. Dean and Lady
A. Stanley are in the house with us. I doubt if there are any
other English parties in Rome.

The reform movement is by degrees complicating the question. It is
separating Bright from us, and in one sense thus clearing our way.
But then it may become too strong for us; or at