would sink into the contemptible, and so by a step proverbially easy, he passed from the sublime to the ridiculous. Generally, indeed, he found some admirers wherever he went, but they were not among the class whose approbation a wise man is anxious to obtain. It was the same at Westhampton. All the more grave and thoughtful part of the congregation disapproved of his exhibition, even Mr. Ramsden, his first advocate, frankly confessing that he had been mistaken. But there were others among the uneducated and impulsive who thought it the very perfection of preaching, and were desirous that he should be at once invited to the pastorate, and it soon became evident that it would not be easy to deal with the strong feeling which had thus been excited.

To be continued.

MR. GLADSTONE AND THE DISSENTERS.*

WITH the new year, commences a new political era, in which Mr. Gladstone seems destined to play a prominent part. The death of Lord Palmerston necessarily terminates that period of transition and inactivity which had already almost run itself out, and which, even if he had lived, could not have lasted much longer. There is wisdom and right feeling in the old proverb " De mortuis nil nisi bonum," and we are certainly not disposed to violate it, while the grave has hardly closed over the aged Premier, who has so long occupied the foremost rank among

our statesmen.

Lord Palmerston was certainly not our ideal of a liberal statesman, but we are ready to admit that he rendered a service to the Liberal cause, which one of more pronounced opinions could not have accomplished. Despite the result of the recent elections, we do not see how it can be denied that, during the early period of the American war, there was a strong Conservative reaction, which manifested itself both in and out of Parliament, and which would have rendered it impossible for any thoroughly progressive statesman to have held power. Lord Palmerston was just the man for the time. He saved the country from falling into the hands of a party which would very speedily have involved us in a war with America; he secured for us the benefits of Mr. Glad

The Right Honourable Wm. Ewart Gladstone, M.P. A Political Review. By R. Masheder, B.A. London: Saunders, Otley, & Co.

The

stone's marvellous financial administration, and so he enabled us to tide over, with as little inconvenience as possible, a period of considerable difficulty and peril to the popular cause. Happily, that time has passed; men are beginning to be ashamed of their absurd fears of American institutions; and though Mr. Adderley, Mr. Seymour Fitzgerald, and others of that ilk, still attempt in their post-prandial orations, to alarm the country with the bugaboo of Republicanism, their words fall flat and powerless. disappointment of those sinister predictions as to the American Republic, which asserted that it could only be saved from utter destruction by lapsing into a military despotism, has not been without its effect. The recent elections have shown that Liberal principles are in the ascendant; the halt is over, and the time for decided advance is come. For the active stirring contests on which we are about to enter, Lord Palmerston was not the man. He was too much bound up with the traditions of the past-too well satisfied with a state of things which seemed to secure for him undisputed supremacy,-too much, in fact, under the Conservative influences of age and association to have thrown himself heartily into an aggressive movement; and even had he been able to hold his old place a little longer, his lead would have been endured, rather than cheerfully followed by the more advanced members of his own party. He died, therefore, at a fortunate period for his own fame, and for the interests of the Liberal party, whose eyes now turn anxiously to the successor, who is to stand in the fore-front of the coming battle.

Of course, about a man so conspicuous as Mr. Gladstone, and especially about one whose career has been of so thoroughly abnormal a character, who has broken loose from all the trammels of education and early association, and has carved out for himself an independent position by the sheer force of his own genius, there is an almost endless diversity of opinion. Tories hate him, because in him, with one of the keenest intellects of the time, they see how far the active thought of the age has overleaped the narrow barriers within which they would fain confine it, and how unable they are to retain in their ranks men of vigorous and independent mind, even though they may have been trained in the traditions of the straitest of their sects. Genuine Whigs of the old trueblue stamp, whose association with the popular party is the accident of birth rather than the result of conviction, do not regard him with much more favour. They are compelled to tolerate one without whose help it would be impossible for them to secure that high official status which they consider due to their high . descent and the eminent services rendered by their ancestors, if not by themselves, to the cause of freedom; but they do not relish the idea of following a leader who has been educated

beyond the charmed circle of the great families, who looks at questions in their bearings upon national rather than Whiggish interests, who is little disposed to pay any regard to the conventionalism and traditions of party, and who is sometimes so bold and daring in his policy as to alarm all who have more faith in expediency than in principle. All of this class of men profess to be anxious about his conduct as leader of the House; they tell us of his indiscretions, his irritable temper, his want of tact; they compare him with his predecessors, and then they shrug their shoulders and look unutterable things, as though Mr. Gladstone were another Phaeton, madly taking a position to which he is unequal, and in which he will only work out his own destruction. If, however, such a fate be in store for him, it is certain at least, we may say in passing, that it will not be owing to the fiery character of the steeds which he has to manage.

But if neither of the old parties in the State is disposed to give its confidence to Mr. Gladstone, there are numbers who have watched his career with intense interest, who have rejoiced to see his gradual emancipation from the traditions of the fathers, and his growing adaptation to the necessities of a progressive age, and who have learned year by year more sincerely to admire his transcendent genius, his superiority to mere routine, his high statesmanlike qualities, and, above all, his evident sincerity and unbending principle. It is somewhat remarkable that a politician who made his entrance into public life under the auspices of that famous Duke of Newcastle who was resolved to do as he would with his own, and to deal with the voters as he would with the cattle on his estate-who at first distinguished himself by his extreme Tory opinions, and was regarded by all the champions of the old regime as a young Paladin who was to take the banner then falling from the hands of that honest and sturdy old bigot, Sir Robert Inglis, and do manly battle on its behalf-should now be the hope of the popular party, dreaded and hated by all interested in the maintenance of old abuses, and looked up to with confidence by the great majority of those who are intent on the fuller development both of our civil and religious liberties. To some the question naturally suggests itself-Can so complete a change be genuine, and has it been made in perfect good faith? Is Mr. Gladstone worthy of that implicit and unquestioning trust which some are determined to repose in him? Especially are there some Dissenters who are inclined to indulge in such scepticism. They cannot forget his antecedents; his association with a party that favours high ecclesiastical pretensions; his zealous advocacy of extreme principles as to the relations of the Church and

State in his celebrated volume;-his indisposition, so frequently shown, to concede anything to Nonconformists. They remind us how up to the present time he has resisted the abolition of Church-rates, how jealously he has guarded the monopoly of Oxford and Cambridge; how Dr. Pusey and others of the same school still regard him as their most powerful champion, and they ridicule the notion that such a man will do any service to the cause of religious liberty, or concede any of the just demands of Protestant Dissenters. The question is one of considerable importance, for though the ultimate triumph of our principles is independent of any man or class of men, yet considerable present injury might be inflicted by one who, while standing at the head of the Liberal party and zealous enough for commercial and even political progress, should resolutely oppose himself to all advances in the direction of religious equality. Were a misplaced confidence on our part to exalt such a man to a position of influence which independent of the help of Nonconformists it would be impossible for him to attain, we might for years to come have reason to repent our folly. We think it well, therefore, to look somewhat thoughtfully at the subject, and to indicate the grounds on which it appears to us that Dissenters should view Mr. Gladstone with a generous trust, rather than with a jealous suspicion.

In the first place, we rest much on the fact that Mr. Gladstone is a conscientious man, intently anxious to see and do the right. There is in his mind a love of subtle speculations, which disposes him to over-refinement, and not unfrequently leads him wrong; but however his judgment may be warped, he is always true to his own convictions. His most bitter opponents can hardly insinuate that his change of political opinions is owing to any selfish motive, for it cannot be questioned that he might have obtained the lead of the Tory party with infinitely more ease than he has won his present position. Touchy, irritable, strongly influenced by personal likes and dislikes, rash and impulsive they may say he is, and may even find some warrant for most of their allegations, but insincere, tricky, self-seeking they cannot charge him with being. Mr. Masheder Mr. Gladstone's most severe critic, who has dipped his pen in gall, while preparing an indictment into which he has crowded every charge which it was possible to bring against him-never attempts to impugn his sincerity. He complains bitterly of his "ambiguous relations" to the Conservative party, and of the injurious influence which he has exerted on its fortunes; he charges him with having betrayed his constituencies, and especially that of the University of Oxford;-forgetting that his changes, even on his own showing, have been gradual; that in

the first instance Oxford elected him as a free-trader, that his frequent re-elections showed that up to a certain point his con stituency were prepared to condone if not to approve his Liberal tendencies, and that even to the last, the University itself never withdrew from him its confidence; he talks loudly about his " eccentric foibles and audacious freaks," his "crooked courses," his "self-confidence," and his "outrage upon political morality;" he accuses him just as Sokrates was accused of old, of setting an example "which has a tendency direct and immediate to corrupt the minds of young men ;" but still he hesitates to question his motives; indeed he tells us, " as to his character I mean, of course, politically, Mr. Gladstone appears to me a moral chaos. His principles I believe to be thoroughly honourable and conscien tious, and-never to be trusted." This is one of the qualities which inspire us with hope in Mr. Gladstone. A mere time. server, who is incapable of taking any broad and enlarged views, who avows his contempt for abstract propositions, and his care for what are called "practical" measures, is never very likely to look favourably on the demands of Protestant Dissenters. Though he may attach little value to religious opinions and institutions himself, and his attachment to the Established Church may be little more than a preference for the most fashionable and easy form of religion-going, or one of those great institutions of the country with which, from pure Conservative instinct, he does not wish to meddle; yet there is no one whose opposition to every innovation is more resolute. Dissenters are, in his view, mere fanatics, who make "much ado about nothing," a set of radicals and levellers, who only bore men indifferent to mere crotchets and intent on the real progress of the country. Probably he would desire to make the National Church more comprehensive, or to speak more correctly, latitudinarian; he would, if it were possible, abolish all dogmatic tests and distinctions; he would accommodate himself to the "Liberal" notions of the "advanced" school, and make the Church by law, as she already is in fact, the home and refuge of every shade of unbelief. But as to respecting the scruples of conscientious men, it would be utterly beyond his power, if for no other reason, because he is utterly without the capacity to understand them. Very different is it with Mr. Gladstone. Influenced mainly by strong religious convictions himself, he is capable of appreciating the opinions of others, and is disposed to judge all questions by considerations of high principle, and not by those of mere convenience or expediency. To such a man we can appeal on very different grounds from those which would have weight with a mere politician, and surely we have sufficient faith in our own principles to believe that they will commend themselves to the calm and dispassionate