Excerpt from The British Quarterly Review, Vol. 79: January and April, 1884 Very probably some of the members of the Cabinet were very indignant when their own procedure was set before them in the light thrown upon it by the keen criticisms and righteous denunciations of Mr. Gladstone. All this, of course, they are free to retaliate now. No true Liberal can complain of similar tactics being adopted by the Opposition of to-day. If the Government have betrayed the real interests of the country, compromised its true honour abroad, or unfairly increased its burdens at home, it is only right and patriotic that its mistakes should be exposed and its delinquencies condemned. But when the partisan tem er is so strongly developed as to forbid the poss1bility of all passionate judgment; when the policy of Ministers is con demned simply because it is theirs - aud 'not only condemned, but credited with motives so evil, and results so disastrous, that the exaggeration trenches on the verge of absurdity; and, above all, when the criticism ceases to be political stricture and becomes merely personal abuse, then there is reasonable ground for complaint. Extreme sensitiveness is nowhere more out of place than in political controversy; but it is not to be expected that a statesman who has a character to lose will be content to see it slandered away, however indifi'ereut he be to attacks which he is satisfied will not permanently injure him. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.