It is impossible to describe the
public excitement and confusion which attended the general election thus
unexpectedly decreed. Mr. Gladstone, recovering from a cold, appealed
with great energy to Greenwich for re-election. The general election
resulted in the defeat of the Liberals, and gave to the Conservatives a
majority of forty-six in the House. Mr. Gladstone was elected, but
Greenwich which returned two members, placed the Premier second on the
poll--below a local distiller. Following the example of his
predecessor, in 1868, Mr. Gladstone resigned. "Thus was overthrown one
of the greatest administrations of the century; indeed, it may be
doubted whether any other English Ministry was ever able to show such a
splendid record of great legislative acts within so short a period.
There was not one measure, but a dozen, which would have shed lustre
upon any government; and the six years of Mr. Gladstone's first
Premiership are well entitled to the epithet which has been accorded to
them of 'the Golden Age of Liberalism.'"
Before the next Parliament met Mr. Gladstone was to give the country
another surprise. He was now sixty-four years old, had been forty years
in active parliamentary labors, and thought himself justified in seeking
rest from the arduous duties of public life, at least the pressing cares
as leader of one of the great political parties.
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