For four years--from 1876 to 1880--he sustained the
high and holy strife with an enthusiasm, a versatility, a courage and a
resourcefulness which raised the enthusiasm of his followers to the
highest pitch, and filled his guilty and baffled antagonists with a rage
which went near to frenzy. By frustrating Lord Beaconsfield's design of
going to war on behalf of Turkey, he saved England from the indelible
disgrace of a second and more gratuitous Crimea. But it was not only in
Eastern Europe that his saving influence was felt. In Africa and India,
and wherever British honor was involved, he was the resolute and
unsparing enemy of that odious system of bluster and swagger and might
against right, on which Lord Beaconsfield and his colleagues bestowed
the tawdry nickname of Imperialism."
[Illustration: MR. GLADSTONE ON HIS WAY HOME]
CHAPTER XVII
MIDLOTHIAN AND THE SECOND PREMIERSHIP
The leadership of the Liberal party had, upon the retirement of Mr.
Gladstone, been turned over to Lord Hartington. His sympathies were upon
the right side on the Eastern question, but he was a calm, slow-moving
man. At the proper time he would have taken the right measures in
Parliament, but the temper of the Liberal party and of the people
demanded present action and emphatic speech, then Mr.
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