They had been months away from business, wives, children, and naturally they were anxious to take advantage of the brief breathing space which was left to them before that time came when they could not leave Westminster for a moment in the weeks during which the Home Rule Bill was in Committee! [Sidenote: Return of the G.O.M.] Mr.Gladstone, of course, was in his place.

Down in Brighton, in a pot-hat, antediluvian in age and shape, he had been courting the breeze of the sea under the hospitable wing of Mr.Armitstead; escaping from the crowds of hero-worshippers, and attending divine service sometimes twice in the same day.

He had not been idle in his temporary retreat.
When the day comes to record his doings before the accurate scales of Omnipotent and Omniscient Justice, he will stand out from all other men in the absolute use of every available second of his days of life.

It was clear that during his retreat, as during his hours of official work, his mind had been busy on the same absorbing and engrossing subject.

He was armed with a considerable manuscript, and had evidently thought out his sentences, his arguments, his statements of facts with intense devotion and thought.
This is one of the things which distinguishes him from other public men of his time.