It appears that Mr. Gladstone merely traveled and observed during his first tour on the Continent, and that he wrote but little in that time. Six years afterward, however, he went a second time to Italy, and thence to Sicily. On this journey he kept a diary, and wrote copiously of what he saw and thought. In the interval between his first and second journey he had entered public life, and his name was already known in the parliamen­tary history of the epoch. There is a great difference in the intellectual power and development of a young man at the ages of twenty-one and twenty-nine. At the former age he may still be to a certain extent a boy in energy and purpose; but if the manly power has not come upon him at twenty-nine then will it not come at all.

The biographers of Mr. Gladstone have dwelt with interest upon the account which he gives of his visit to Sicily in the year 1838, and in partic­ular upon his description of AEtna and the eruption which fortunately for him occurred coincidently with his visit. AEtna and Vesuvius are not in the habit of displaying their powers for the special delight of travelers with a descriptive turn. Bayard Taylor, on one of his returns from the East, was delayed ten days, as if to make his arrival at Naples (he dwells half-humorously upon the incident) coincident with a Vesuvian vomit. It appears that Gladstone was almost equally favored on the occasion of his ascent of AEtna. On his way to the fire mountain, he visited the Sicilian temples and ruins. His journal shows the character of his sentiments amid these scenes, and illustrates his descriptive method:

"After AEtna," says he, "the temples are certainly the great charm and attraction of Sicily. I do not know whether there is any one among them which, taken alone, exceeds in interest and beauty that of Neptune at Paestum; but they have the advantage of number and variety as well as of

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highly interesting position. At Segeste the temple is enthroned in a per­fect mountain solitude, and it is like a beautiful tomb of its religion, so stately, so entire; while around, but for one solitary house, of the keeper, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, to disturb the apparent reign of silence and death. At Selinus the huge fragments on the plain seem to make an eminence themselves; and they listen to the ever-young and unwearied waves which almost wash their base and mock their desolation by the image of perpetual life and motion they present, while the tone of their heavy fall upon the beach well accords with the solemnity of the scene. At Girgenti the ridge visible to the mariner from afar is still crowned by a long line of fabrics, presenting to the eye a considerable mass and regularity of struc­ture, and the town is near and visible; yet that town is so entirely the mere phantom of its former glory within its now shrunken limits, that instead of disturbing the effect, it rather seems to add a new image and enhance it The temples enshrine a most pure and salutary art, that which connects grandeur of effect with simplicity of detail; and retaining their beauty and their dignity in their decay they represent the great man when fallen, as types of that almost highest of human qualities—silent, yet not sullen, endurance." This style, though rather magniloquent and a little indistinct and drawling, is superior to most of the descriptive writing which English liter­ature displayed sixty years ago. We miss the clear-cut, brilliant, and poeti­cal imagery which the taste of the present day demands. The most signifi­cant paragraph or expression in the extract is the last, in which the silent, unresentful, and sublime ruin of Girgenti is compared to a great man, say, a defeated prime minister (such as we shall be fifty years from now!) fallen from power, but magnificent in overthrow. The Gladstonian mind was man­ifestly, even at that early day, full of such imagery and thought as that. It is as true as ever that "coming events cast their shadows before."

Mr. Gladstone's journal shows the stages of his ascent to the crater of the volcano. He gives us an account of the immense chestnut trees, per­haps the finest in the world, which mark the limit of tree growth on the side of the mountain. The traveler observes with care the aspects of nature, not failing to note the character of the soil and the relative fertility at dif­ferent points. The account is an odd mixture of inchoate poetry and polit­ical economy. It was on the 30th of October, 1838, that the writer set out from Catania to the summit of AEtna. On reaching Nicolosi the moun­tain began to rumble. There were patches of woods and some mountain pastures in which flocks were browsing. The tropical temperature gave place, first to temperate and then to frigid conditions. The night was passed by the company at Casa degli Inglesi, and on the following morning the travelers beheld a sublime sunrise. Gladstone was greatly impressed with the scene, and gives the following account of what he witnessed :

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"Just before we reached the lip of the crater the guide exultingly pointed out what he declared to be ordinarily the greatest sight of the moun­tain, namely, the shadow of the cone of AEtna drawn with the utmost deli­cacy by the newly risen sun, but of gigantic extent; its point at this mo­ment rested on the mountains of Palermo, probably a hundred miles off, and the entire figure was visible the atmosphere over the mountains having become and continuing perfectly and beautifully transparent, although in the hundreds of valleys which were beneath us, from the east to the west of Sicily, and from the mountains of Messina down to Cape Passaro, there were still abundant vapors waiting for a higher sun to disperse them ; but we enjoyed in its perfection this view of the earliest and finest work of the greater light of heaven in the passage of his beams over this portion of the earth's surface.

"During the hour we spent on the summit, the vision of the shadow was speedily contracted and taught us how rapid is the real rise of the sun in the heavens, although its effect is diminished to the eye by a kind of fore­shortening."

The travelers next come to the edge of the crater. Within there was a state of active eruption. Certainly the scene was enough to kindle the enthusiasm of the most phlegmatic spirit. It illustrates the whole culture of that age and the temperament of Mr. Gladstone in particular, that this sublime exhibition of the natural world, this heaving bituminous lake of fire and terror swelling as if to vent itself upon the beauty and life of the world, suggested Vergil and what he had said and thought in visiting and describ­ing the same scene. Gladstone, yielding to the past, catches up the imagery of the AEneid, and repeats that, and weighs it and criticizes it as the expression of his own emotions in the presence of the smoking and roaring AEtna! The influence of the scholastic spirit could go no further. The Gladstonian intellect and imagination, strong as they were, and excited as they were by one of the sublimest spectacles to be witnessed on the earth, turns to the fictions of a Roman poet, distant from his own point of obser­vation by more than eighteen hundred years, and criticizes and analyzes his expressions as to their adequacy and correctness considered as linguis­tic pictures of a volcanic mountain in the act of disgorging itself on the world. That method was the natural result of six years of Latin and Greek readings at Eton, followed by the apotheosis of the past at Oxford! The vision of the future Premier of England, stretching over the hell-throat of AEtna, was obfuscated with his Latin hexameters.

It could not be said that Gladstone was ever a great traveler. His absences on the Continent were never frequent, and were in the beaten way. His thoughts were too much occupied with the organic movements of society and the conditions and tendencies of political parties to be

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greatly absorbed with the aspects of the natural world or deeply concerned with the manners and customs of foreign races. He must return as soon as practicable to England, in order to participate in the great action of the age.

It was in the year 1832 that Gladstone first stood for Parliament He appeared in public life as a Tory, under the patronage of the Duke of Newcastle. It was the custom of the times for political leaders to select promising young men whose views were accordant with their own, and to promote their election to the House of Commons. In such cases a borough would be selected whose voters were known to be favorable to that party to which the young man belonged, and he would be sent there to contest the election with some rival or rivals of opposing politics.

The epoch at which William E. Gladstone first appeared before the public was so extraordinary as to demand some special consideration. It was the very crisis at which the great Reform Bill was forced through Parliament against the opposition of the ministry, the king, and the landed aristocracy of England.

Let us note a few of the political conditions which were present in the United Kingdom as late as the year 1830. That was the year of the revo­lutionary movement on the Continent, in which the roused-up people of France discharged Charles X from further service, and took the citizen king instead. In that year Belgium became independent, and soon after­ward gave the crown to Leopold I. In England there was less audacity. As to royal conditions, George IV died, and William IV came to the throne. The agitation in England, coincident with that on the Continent, took the form of a movement for the reorganization of the House of Com­mons on a reformed basis.

Than this project nothing could be more reasonable, and certainly nothing was ever more bitterly opposed. The House of Commons rested upon a foundation thoroughly corrupt and absurd; but conservatism upheld the existing system. The population of England had now fluctu­ated from the land side to the great manufacturing cities. Populous com­munities had sprung up where none had existed before. Industry had under­gone great changes. The House of Commons no longer represented the actual England, but the old England of a mythical past. Tremendous cities now flourished, and because they were of recent growth were unrep­resented in Parliament. Such were Liverpool and Manchester and Leeds, whose teeming thousands of people had no voice in the House of Com­mons. But the ancient boroughs, however depopulated, kept their rights of representation. Nothing could be more preposterous than the system which had supervened. Conservative England continued to declare that her ancient boroughs, such as Gratton and Old Sarum, though having not

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a single house, must be represented by two members in the Commons; for it had once been so, and nothing must be changed!

The condition became so monstrous that intelligent manufacturers and citizens and Whig statesmen began to agitate for a reform. The result was a political revolt. The ministry of the Duke of Wellington was overthrown, and a new ministry was formed under Earl Grey in Novem­ber of 1830. This revolution preceded the Reform Bill, so-called, which was not presented until the 1st of March, 1831. The agitation shook Great Britain to the center. The last months of 1830—31 witnessed a crisis more serious than anything which had been known since the revolution of 1688. There were commotions in the cabinet—intrigues and counter-intrigues, and constant battle between the House of Lords and the rising sentiment of the country. Not until the 7th of June, 1832, was the Reform Bill finally passed, and then only when the movement was backed by imminent revolution.

Two other liberal tendencies appeared at the same time. One was the project for the abolition of slavery throughout the British dominions, and the other for the removal of the remaining disabilities of the Jews. British conservatism, incorporated in the Tory party, was firmly arrayed against all these tendencies of progress. The radicals came on valiantly to the battle. The Whig party as such was generally with the progressive tide. There was at this period, as at all times, in England a great number of leaders and a large following who sought to stand on middle ground between the contending elements—to prevent by their influence the effects of a Tory reaction and to constitute a brake on the too rapidly running wheels of reform. It was the influence of this class that led to the surprising results of the English elections of 1832.

A new reform Parliament had now to be chosen in accordance with the bill which had just been passed. The passage *of the measure seemed to imply that Tory England had gone to the wall. It was confidently expected that the new House of Commons would be overwhelmingly liberal. So thought the radicals, and the discomfited Tories were ready to concede such a result. But both parties were disappointed in the elec­tions. Those who had supported the Reform Bill were not universally and overwhelmingly elected. Many of the leading conservatives were returned to Parliament under the approval of distinct majorities.

It was in this election that William E. Gladstone first offered himself as a candidate for the House. He stood for Newark, in which the Duke of Newcastle correctly divined a chance of success against the reform party. It was to enter into the canvass of this borough that Mr. Gladstone, cutting short his first visit to the Continent, returned to England in September of 1832. The Earl of Lincoln, son of the Duke of Newcastle, was an intimate

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friend of the young aspirant, and it was this personal influence perhaps that led the duke to advance and support Gladstone in the Newark contest.

The political usage in England varies so much from that with which we are familiar in our own country that American readers have difficulty in understanding the English elections. It is not necessary that the Eng­lish candidate for the House of Commons shall stand for election for the borough in which he resides. He may choose his field. He is not "nomi­nated" in the American manner. There is a large freedom on the part of the candidate in declaring himself. As many as compete for the honor of elec­tion go before the people of the borough with public address and printed circulars containing an expression of the alleged principles of the candi­dates ; and when all is done an election is held, at which the voters declare their choice by show of hands or by ballot in the American manner.

In the Newark canvass of 1832, which was the first held after the en­largement of the suffrage under the Reform Bill, the other candidates were Mr. W. F. Handley and Mr. Serjeant Wilde. The three represented the different opinions of the day. The advanced liberal candidate was Ser­jeant Wilde, who had been already three times a candidate—and once successfully—for parliamentary honors. He had canvassed the borough in 1829, -1830, and 1831, as the representative of the reform party and in the last-named year had been elected. There was every presumption that after the passage of the Reform Bill, when the benefits of the measure might be expected to accrue to those who had favored it, the liberal candidate would receive an increased majority.

It would seem, however, that Serjeant Wilde was not able to contend successfully with the stranger Gladstone. The young man's personal ap­pearance was greatly in his favor. He was well-grown and manly. Cur­rent descriptions represent him as possessing a handsome person and an in­tellectual and striking countenance. Pictures preserved of the future states­man from this time represent him as full-visage, with large lustrous eyes, long heavy brows, and a peculiarly adult and forceful expression for a young man only twenty-two years of age. He came to Newark also with unusual oratorical powers. He had carefully prepared himself for the emergency which had now arrived. Wilde, his principal opponent, had experience and abilities. He was skilled in the arts of the platform, and had the enthusi­astic support of the so-called Blue Club, or Liberal League of the borough. He was also thought to be the winning candidate. He had the prestige of being already a member of the House, presenting himself for reelection, un­der the very claim which had been approved by the voters in 1830.

Gladstone, however, showed himself superior in public argument—a thing never lost on an English constituency. He also developed political skill, and was supported by the Red Club of Newark with as much enthusi-

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asm as was Wilde by the Blues. Gladstone was an out-and-out Tory in his principles; but he made his argument with a certain reserve which always characterized his policy and contributed much to his success. The British mind demands that the wheels of progress shall indeed revolve, but it also demands that they shall turn slowly, moderately, safely, sometimes imper­ceptibly. Gladstone seems from the first to have understood the nature of that constituency upon which he must rely for support.

On the 9th of October, 1832, the young candidate sent to the electors of Newark his first formal political address. The reader will be interested to see in what manner the neophyte politician aspiring to great things de­livered his cause to his intending constituents. It will be noted that the author of the paper recognized slavery as the leading question at issue. It cannot fail of interest to mark in what manner the young Tory sought to support and defend for a while longer that ancient barbarity of mankind, the system of human bondage :

"Having now completed my canvass," says he, " I think it my duty as well to remind you of the principles on which I have solicited your votes, as freely to assure my friends that its result has placed my success beyond a doubt.

" I have not requested your favor on the ground of adherence to the opinions of any man or party, further than such adherence can be fairly un­derstood from the conviction I have not hesitated to avow, that we must watch and resist that uninquiring and indiscriminating desire for change amongst us, which threatens to produce, along with partial good, a melancholy preponderance of mischief; which, I am persuaded, would aggravate beyond computation the deep-seated evils of our social state, and the heavy burdens of our industrial classes; which, by disturbing our peace, destroys confidence, and strikes at the root of prosperity. Thus it has done already; and thus, we must therefore believe, it will do.

"For the mitigation of those evils, we must, I think; look not only to particular measures, but to the restoration of sounder general principles. I mean especially that principle on which alone the incorporation of religion with the State in our Constitution can be defended; that the duties of governors are strictly and peculiarly religious; and that legislatures, like individuals, are bound to carry throughout their acts the spirit of the high truths they have acknowledged. Principles are now arrayed against our institutions; and not by truckling nor temporizing—not by oppression nor by corruption—but by principles they must be met.

"Among their first results should be a sedulous and special attention to the interests of the poor, founded upon the rule that those who are the least able to take care of themselves should be most regarded by others. Particularly it is a duty to endeavor, by every means, that labor may receive

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adequate remuneration; which, unhappily, among several classes of our fellow-countrymen is not now the case. Whatever measures, therefore— whether by correction of the poor laws, allotment of cottage grounds, or otherwise—tend to promote this object, I deem entitled to the warmest sup­port ; with all such as are calculated to secure sound moral conduct in any-class of society.

"I proceed to the momentous question of slavery, which I have found entertained among you in that candid and temperate spirit which alone befits its nature, or promises to remove its difficulties. If I have not recog­nized the right of an irresponsible society to interpose between me and the electors, it has not been from any disrespect to its members, nor from unwillingness to answer theirs or any other questions on which the electors may desire to know my views. To the esteemed secretary of the society I submitted my reasons for silence; and I made a point of stating these views to him, in his character of a voter.

"As regards the abstract lawfulness of slavery, I acknowledge it simply as importing the right of one man to the labor of another; and I rest it upon the fact that Scripture, the paramount authority upon such a point, gives directions to persons standing in the relation of master to slave, for their conduct in that relation; whereas, were the matter absolutely and necessarily sinful, it would not regulate the manner. Assuming sin as the cause of degradation, it strives most effectually to cure the latter by extir­pating the former. We are agreed that both the physical and the moral bondage of the slave are to be abolished. The question is as to the order and the order only; now Scripture attacks the moral evil before the tem­poral one, and the temporal through the moral one, and I am content with the order which Scripture has established.

" To this end I desire to see immediately set on foot, by impartial and sovereign authority, a universal and efficient system of Christian instruc­tion, not intended to resist designs of individual piety and wisdom for the religious improvement of the Negroes, but to do thoroughly what they can only do partially.

"As regards immediate emancipation, whether with or without com­pensation, there are several minor reasons against it; but that which weighs with me is, that it would, I much fear, exchange the evils now affecting the Negro for others which are weightier—for a relapse into deeper debase­ment, if not for bloodshed and internal war. Let fitness be made a condi­tion for emancipation; and let us strive to bring him to that fitness by the shortest possible course. Let him enjoy the means of earning his freedom through honest and industrious habits; thus the same instruments which attain his liberty shall likewise render him competent to use it; and thus, I earnestly trust, without risk of blood, without violation of property, with

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unimpaired benefit to the Negro, and with the utmost speed which prudence will admit, we shall arrive at that exceedingly desirable consummation, the utter extinction of slavery.

"And now, gentlemen, as regards the enthusiasm with which you have rallied round your ancient flag, and welcomed the humble representative of those principles whose emblem it is, I trust that neither the lapse of time nor the seductions of prosperity can ever efface it from my memory. To my opponents my acknowledgments are due for the good humor and kind­ness with which they have received me; and while I thank my friends for their zealous and unwearied exertions in my favor, I briefly but emphatic­ally assure them, that if promises be an adequate foundation of confidence, or experience a reasonable ground of calculation, our victory is sure. "I have the honor to be, gentlemen, "Your obliged and obedient servant, " W. E. Gladstone."

No one in America shall unduly wonder at this speech, delivered in the fall of 1832. No age shall judge the preceding but by the standards that then prevailed. Certainly the whole speech, so far as the argument is con­cerned, is an incubus quite intolerable to civilization. But it is a speech that would have been regarded as remarkably moderate anywhere in the United States, even in Boston, for twenty years after the date of its delivery! We shall not, therefore, be surprised that in the England of more than sixty years ago a casuistical argument, buttressed with "Cursed be Canaan," was acceptable to a Tory constituency. We may remember in this connection that as much as eight years after this election in Newark the law of England still gave to a husband the same rights over his wife that he might exercise over his slave ! In such a condition of opinion and usage, we need hardly expect any refinement of conscience or clear recognition of human rights.

As the canvass in Newark progressed, it became evident that Glad-stone was the favorite. The influence of the Duke of Newcastle, exercised through the Conservative Club, secured to him in advance about six hundred and fifty votes. To these the young orator succeeded in adding before the election nearly two hundred and fifty additional pledges. Notwithstanding his alliance with the past as against the progressive principles represented by Serjeant Wilde, he forged to the front, and on the 11th of December was able to come to the hustings with confidence of success.

Here again the scene was one unfamiliar to American readers. It was the custom of the English constituencies to come together and to oblige their candidates to appear on the platform in turn, as if to show their parts Each might say what he would in the way of a speech, and each was sub-

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jected to a running fire of questions and bullying well calculated to try the nerve of seasoned politicians, to say nothing of young aspirants. The three candidates appeared at the date mentioned, and Gladstone was subjected to not a little injustice and harsh treatment at the hands of the Liberals. Mr. Wilde consumed the* time with a long speech, intending to wear out the patience of the Gladstone following; and in this he partly suc­ceeded. Two or three well-informed leaders of the Liberal party plied Gladstone with hard questions, which might well put him at his wits' end to answer. But he came through the ordeal with less hurt and more dig­nity than might have been expected. His opponents had managed the affair so that Gladstone's address must come at a late hour in the evening. Wilde spoke for about three hours. The young candidate could do no more than say a few words on leading topics before nightfall. The Liberals in the crowd interrupted him with yelling, and when the show of hands was called, it was evident that Wilde and Handley were in the lead. Many of Gladstone's supporters had gone away, and the enemy was in possession of the hustings. Under these circumstances it became necessary that a formal poll be

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held. If the reader has read with attention Carlyle's essay, "An Election to the Long Parliament," he will have a lively impression of the manners and methods of an English constituency such as it was from the middle of the seventeenth to nearly the first quarter of the nineteenth century. We need not here recount the scenes which were constantly witnessed in the old English boroughs, or animadvert on the methods by which an election was carried prior to the passage of the Reform Bill. Even after that event the manners of an English election were nearly the same as before; but turbulence and mere tricks, such as that practiced by Mr. Wilde on the hustings, could not prevail to defeat the capable and proper young Tory, who had been defrauded of the fruits of his popularity at the public meet­ing. Indeed, the unfair scheme to rob him of his rights turned somewhat in his favor, and when the poll was held, instead of being the last, he was the first of the candidates. The tally showed for Gladstone, 882 votes; for Handley, 793; and for Wilde, 719.

Though Mr. Gladstone was in the plurality, he was very far from receiving a majority of the suffrages. This, however, sufficed; and the successful candidate became a member of Parliament for the first time, being as yet within his twenty-third year. The election was significant in this—-that it showed the temper of the English voters in declaring for reform and then choosing men of Conservative dispositions to hold the reform in check The like spirit was manifested throughout England, though the gains for the Tories were insufficient to restore them to their lost ascendancy.

The attention of Conservative leaders was immediately turned to the young member-elect from Newark. Mr. Gladstone seems to have borne himself with remarkable propriety, and to have been in no great measure inflated by his success. He pressed on, however, to make addresses at different places, notably before the Constitutional Club at Nottingham and at Newark, on both of which occasions he delivered eloquent and able speeches, conceived and uttered in the manner of the Tory statesman. A writer has pointed out the significant circumstance that the orator, in addi­tion to repeating what now appear to be his inane arguments about slavery opposed in his Newark speech a proposition then pending for the abolition of certain taxes and restrictions on the public press. In doing so he made an argument to show that the press tax was essential to the maintenance of the revenue, and, secondly, that the tax in question had a wholesome influence in preventing the dissemination of false and corrupt matter by means of newspapers. It was equivalent to saying that an editor would not pay a tax for the privilege of circulating lies—a proposition clearly disproved by the journalistic history of all civilized countries !

In the Life of Gladstone, by George Burnett Smith, we have preserved from the newspapers of the day some extracts out of the chorus of cheers

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and hisses that arose on the occasion of the young man's first election to Parliament. The Nottingham Journal, highly pleased with the result speaking of the opinion that the election had a ministerial significance, said: "The delusion has now vanished and made room for sober reason and reflection. . . . The return of Mr. Gladstone—to the discomfiture of the learned Serjeant and his friends—has restored the town of Newark to that high rank which it formerly held in the estimation of friends of order and good government. We venture to predict that the losing candidate [Wilde] in this contest has suffered so severely that he will never more show his face at Newark on a similar occasion." The extract shows that the genus scribblerus politicus is the same in all generations. Here we have the town of Newark "saved and restored "by the election of a young man twenty-two years of age, chosen by plurality, with nearly two thirds of the vote against him! We also have the usual and well-known prophecy that the defeated candidate is utterly ruined and done for world without end! The Reflector, another newspaper of Newark, liberal in politics, said: " Mr. Gladstone is the son of Gladstone of Liverpool, a person who (we are speaking of the father) had amassed a large fortune by West India dealings. In other words, a great part of his gold has sprung from the blood of black slaves. Respecting the youth himself—a person fresh from the college, and whose mind is as much like a sheet of white foolscap as possible—he was utterly unknown. He came recommended by no claim in the world except the will of the duke. The duke nodded unto Newark, and Newark sent back the man, or rather the boy, of his choice. What! is this to be, now that the Reform Bill has done its work ? Are sixteen hundred men still to bow down to a wooden-headed lord, as the people of Egypt used to do to their beasts, to their reptiles, and their ropes of onions? There must be something wrong—something imperfect. What is it? What wants? Why, the ballot! If there Joe a doubt of this (and we believe there is a doubt even among intelligent men) the tale of Newark must set the question at rest. Serjeant Wilde was met on his entry into the town by almost the whole population. He was greeted everywhere, cheered everywhere. He was received with delight by his friends and with good and earnest wishes for his success by his nominal foes. The voters for Gladstone went up to that candidate's booth (the slave driver as they called him) with Wilde's colors. People who had before voted for Wilde on being asked to give their suffrage said: ' We cannot, we dare not. We have lost half our business, and shall lose the rest if we go against the duke. We would do anything in our power for Serjeant Wilde and for the cause, but we cannot starve!' Now what say ye, our merry men, touching the ballot? "Such were the two opinions that vented themselves in respect to Glad­stone's election. No doubt the statesman himself, in the after part of his

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career, would have cheerfully coincided with what was said by the Reflector against himself and the manner of his first election to the House of Commons. It can hardly be doubted that the organized power of Toryism was turned by the Duke of Newcastle upon the constituency of Newark to secure the election of his son's friend and his own supporter to Parliament It will be noted that the number of votes secured for Gladstone was just fairly sufficient to make his election unambiguous. Certainly the carping of the Liberal opposition did not go so far as to asperse the character and talents of the young man who had come home from his travels in Italy to begin one of the longest and most conspicuous public careers known in history.