had not yet "educated" his party to the point whence they could discern that the Tory party, if it was to have its share in guiding the destiny of the kingdom, would have to draw to it the confidence of other classes than that which was "acred up to its chin," and the squirearchy muttered unkind things about the Bookstall Man who was thus brought into greater prominence than distinguished class-men and persons of pedigree. On the whole, however, the announcement of this appointment was well received; it was hailed with special favour by the great middle class, and it is perhaps not generally recognised how great was the direct influence it had in bringing them over to support the Conservative party. A few weeks later, Smith, writing to his old schoolfellow and friend the Rev. William (now Canon) Ince of Christ Church, says : I am myself surprised at my position when I compare it with the time to which you refer when we were both young together, and yet I can say most confidently that I never set to work aiming at personal advancement in the slightest degree. One circumstance has led to another, and I have gradually found myself of more account in men's eyes, simply from doing the work of the day as it presented itself to me. Smith found it necessary, on taking office, to give up a part of the active share he had taken A.D. 1874.] RESIGNS S.P.C.K. 259 in philanthropic schemes. Among others, he resigned his post as one of the Treasurers of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, which he had held for seven years; but he remained Treasurer of the London Diocesan Council for the Welfare of Young Men from its foundation until his death. 260 CHAPTER X. 1874-1876. HE RETIREMENT OF MR GLADSTONE FROM LEAD OF LIBERAL PARTY WORK. IF the result of the general election had come as a surprise, not less unexpected was its immediate effect upon the Minister who was responsible for having brought it about. Members of the Liberal Opposition were filled with dismay one morning-March 13, 1874-on taking up their newspapers at the purport of a letter addressed by Mr Gladstone, their leader in the House of Commons, to Lord Granville, their leader in the House of Lords. A.D. 1874.] LETTER TO LORD GRANVILLE. 261 At my age [it ran] I must reserve my entire freedom to divest myself of all the responsibilities of leadership at no distant time. . . . I should be desirous, shortly before the commencement of the session of 1875, to consider whether there would be advantage in my placing my services for a time at the disposal of the Liberal Party, or whether I should claim exemption from the duties I have hitherto discharged. Now Mr Gladstone was at that time but sixty-four, a period of life certainly not beyond the normal limits of parliamentary activity, his health was understood to be unimpaired, and the only construction to be placed upon this precipitate act was that he was suffering from chagrin, if not from pique, at the overthrow of his party. It cannot, indeed, have been pleasant for him to reflect that, in dealing with the Irish Church and in pressing the Ballot Act through the House of Commons, he had, in order to secure support for his party, thrown overboard principles which he had cherished through many years of public life, and that, after all this sacrifice, he had failed of his reward. Of course the gain to Ministerialists was proportionate to the confusion caused by this announcement in the ranks of their opponents. A leaderless Opposition is a transcendental state of parties which a Prime Minister may see in his dreams, but hardly ever hope to see realised. There was the more reason for gratitude for this unlooked-for dispensation, because Ministers could not but be conscious that they came on the boards without any very dazzling or seductive programme. The Chancellor of the Exchequer had inherited a large surplus from his predecessors, and something might be expected in the way of IncomeTax reduction and relief of Local Taxation. But gratitude for relief from taxation is altogether out of proportion to the unpopularity incurred when it is necessary to increase it, and already the Opposition press was clamorous for a programme. Where are the measures of the new Government? they asked, and made reply themselves, that, like snakes in Iceland, there were none. But indeed the country was only too glad to be spared fresh legislation of the heroic kind. Trade was active; prices were good; to the farmers, if some of them had already descried American competition in the offing, it seemed no bigger than a man's hand. Nobody wanted Ministers to devise an exciting programme of new laws. Disraeli's tact was equal to the occasion the Opposition was downcast and perplexed, he was careful to give them no point on which they could rally. The word : |