Page:Eminent English liberals in and out of Parliament.djvu/22

 Mr. Gladstone's Conduct as a parliamentary leader has been severely censured by professed Liberals, and his resolution to dissolve Parliament in 1874 has been specially instanced as a proof of strategic unwisdom. I distinctly demur both to indictment and proof. Those who say that he is not a good leader are not "in earnest," and such men can never be expected to follow Mr. Gladstone with much comfort to themselves. He is the natural leader of the Advanced Liberals in the House. The Brights, Dilkes, Chamberlains, Taylors, and Courtneys find no difficulty in following his lead. As for the dissolution of 1874, so much complained of, no Liberal Minister professing to govern, as every Liberal Minister is supposed to do, in accordance with the will of the people, could, in the face of the adverse by-elections which had taken place, honestly refrain from directly appealing to the constituent authority. Indeed, the pity is, it seems to me, that the appeal was not made sooner. If that had been done, all might have been well. The Conservative re-action, which gave birth to Jingo and so many sorrows, might have been nipped in the bud.

It remains to notice in very brief compass a few of the more important events in the Premier's public life, giving preference to the more remote. In 1832 he was returned for Newark in the Conservative interest, and in 1834 Sir Robert Peel made him a Junior Lord of the Treasury. In 1835 he found himself Under-Secretary for the Colonies. Shortly after, Sir Robert's administration fell; and Mr. Gladstone, in the cool shade of opposition, found leisure to write his oft-quoted works, "The State in its Relations with the Church," and "Church Principles considered in their