Gladstone had, up to this
time, acted in religious matters. These troubles in the Church so
powerfully affected them that they withdrew.
The following quotation shows Mr. Gladstone's firmness in regard to his
own choice of the Protestant Christianity over and above Catholicism, In
a letter, written in 1873, to Mrs. Maxwell-Scott, of Abbotsford, the
daughter of his friend Hope, he thus writes of an interview had with
her father: "It must have been about this time that I had another
conversation with him about religion, of which, again, I exactly
recollect the spot. Regarding (forgive me) the adoption of the Roman
religion by members of the Church of England as nearly the greatest
calamity that could befall Christian faith in this country, I rapidly
became alarmed when these changes began; and very long before the great
luminary, Dr. Newman, drew after him, it may well be said, 'the third
part of the stars of Heaven.' This alarm I naturally and freely
expressed to the man upon whom I most relied, your father."
[Illustration: Gladstone in Wales; addressing a meeting at the foot of
Snowden]
CHAPTER VIII
THE NEAPOLITAN PRISONS
In considering Mr. Gladstone's exposure of the cruelties practiced in
the prisons of Naples, we are confronted with his attitude in the House
of Commons just before, in a case where the same principles seemed to be
involved, and in which Mr.
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