They must, on the supposition of their entry into office,
even to satisfy their own constituents, produce a scheme. Their majority
in the House will command it.
To this extent, then, Mr. Gladstone has not been defeated. The question
set on fire by him will never be extinguished until the combustible
matter has gone to ashes. But personally he meets a sharp rebuff. The
Tories may well raise hurrahs over that. Radicals have to admit it, and
point to the grounds of it. Between a man's enemies and his friends there
comes out a rough painting of his character, not without a resemblance to
the final summary, albeit wanting in the justly delicate historical touch
to particular features. On the one side he is abused as 'the one-man
power'; lauded on the other for his marvellous intuition of the popular
will. One can believe that he scarcely wishes to march dictatorially, and
full surely his Egyptian policy was from step to step a misreading of the
will of the English people. He went forth on this campaign, with the
finger of Egypt not ineffectively levelled against him a second time.
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