His gun was
prematurely discharged while he was loading it, and shattered the first
finger of his left hand, so that amputation was necessary.
[Illustration: Loyal Ulster]
CHAPTER VII
MEMBER FOR OXFORD
"Mr. Gladstone's career," says his biographer, G.W.E. Russell,
"naturally divides itself into three parts. The first of them ends with
his retirement from the representation of Newark. The central part
ranges from 1847 to 1868. Happily the third is still incomplete." The
first division, according to Dr. Russell, of this remarkable life, we
have considered, and we now pass on to the development of the second
period. The causes which led up to Mr. Gladstone's retirement from the
representation for Newark to that of Oxford we will now proceed
to trace.
The agitation by the ablest orators against the corn laws had been going
on for ten years, when an announcement was made in the "Times" of
December 4, 1845, that Parliament would be convened the first week in
January, and that the Queen's address would recommend the immediate
consideration of the corn laws, preparatory to their total abolition.
This startling news took the other daily papers by surprise, for there
had been recently a lull in the agitation, and several of them
contradicted it positively.
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