Irish Home Rule, though his mind was constantly occupied with the
subject from 1880 to 1885, and those who watched him closely saw that
the process had advanced a long way even in 1882. And as regards
ecclesiastical establishments, having written a book in 1838 as a warm
advocate of State churches, it was not till 1867 that he adopted the
policy of disestablishment for Ireland, not till 1890 that he
declared himself ready to apply that policy in Wales and Scotland
also.

Both these qualities--his disposition to revise his opinions in the
light of new arguments and changing conditions, and the silence he
maintained till the process of revision had been completed--exposed
him to misconstruction. Commonplace men, unwont to give serious
scrutiny to their opinions, ascribed his changes to self-interest, or
at best regarded them as the index of an unstable purpose. Dull men
could not understand why he should have forborne to set forth all that
was passing in his mind, and saw little difference between reticence
and dishonesty. In so far as they shook public confidence, these
characteristics injured him in his statesman's work. Yet the loss was
outweighed by the gain. In a country where opinion is active and
changeful, where the economic conditions that legislation has to deal
with are in a state of perpetual flux, where the balance of power
between the upper, the middle, and the poorer classes has been swiftly
altering during the last seventy years, no statesman can continue to
serve the public if he adheres obstinately to the doctrines with which
he started in life. He must--unless, of course, he stands aloof in
permanent isolation--either subordinate his own views to the general
sentiment of his party, and be driven to advocate courses he secretly
mislikes, or else, holding himself ready to quit his party, if need
be, must be willing to learn from events, and to reconsider his
opinions in the light of emergent tendencies and insistent facts. Mr.
Gladstone's pride as well as his conscience forbade the former
alternative; it was fortunate that the tireless activity of his
intellect made the latter natural to him. He was accustomed to say
that the capital fault of his earlier days had been his failure
adequately to recognise the worth and power of liberty, and the
tendency which things have to work out for good when left to
themselves. The application of this principle gave room for many
developments, and many developments