Mr. Forster added a few words on Mr. Gladstone's retirement,
which were wisely reticent, though they were earnest. "It was only those who had been brought into close personal contact with him who knew the high personal example he had Set of absolute sincerity,—the absolute want of selfishness and of self-seeking in the manner in which he had conducted political business,—what an example of self-sacrifice, purity, and disinterestedness he had set politicians throughout the country, and to what extent he had raised the tone of political life." That was a just tribute ; none the less so that Mr. Gladstone seems to have added a new joy to political vituperation, as well as this new earnestness to political duty. There are even those who describe his resignation as at once a necessity and a caprice, a duty and a sin,—who are furious with any one who thinks he could have led with success, and more furious with any one who thinks his resignation justifiable. It is the natural effect of a great character to intensify both the sympathies and antipathies of political life.
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