from ’a chapter on semi-sovereign assemblies in Dicey’s Law of the Constitution (p. 280).  He tries to see the question from fresh points of view in intimate personal discussions, and by imagining what ‘the civilised world’ (p. 225) will think.  As he gets nearer to his subject, he has definite statistical reports made for him by ‘Welby and Hamilton on the figures’ (p. 306), has ’stiff conclaves about finance and land’ (p. 298), and nearly comes to a final split with Parnell on the question whether the Irish contribution to Imperial taxation shall be a fifteenth or a twentieth.

Time and persons are important factors in his calculation.  If Lord Salisbury will consent to introduce some measure of Irish self-government, the problem will be fundamentally altered, and the same will happen if the general election produces a Liberal majority independent of both Irish and Conservatives; and Mr. Morley describes as underlying all his calculations ’the irresistible attraction for him of all the grand and eternal commonplaces of liberty and self-government’ (p. 260).

It is not likely that Mr. Morley’s narrative touches on more than a fraction of the questions which must have been in Gladstone’s mind during these months of incessant thought.  No mention is made, for instance, of religion, or of the military position, or of the permanent possibility of enforcing the proposed restrictions on self-government.  But enough is given to show the complexity of political thought at that stage when a statesman, still uncommitted, is considering what will be the effect of a new political departure.

What then was the logical process by which Gladstone’s final decision was arrived at?

Did he for instance deal with a succession of simple problems or with one complex problem?  It is, I think, clear that from time to time isolated and comparatively simple trains of reasoning were followed up; but it is also clear that Gladstone’s main effort of thought was involved in the process of co-ordinating all the laboriously collected contents of his mind onto the whole problem.  This is emphasised by a quotation in which Mr. Morley, who was closely associated with Gladstone’s intellectual toil during this period, indicates his own recollection.

‘Historians,’ he quotes from Professor Gardiner, ’coolly dissect a man’s thoughts as they please; and label them like specimens in a naturalist’s cabinet.  Such a thing, they argue, was done for mere personal aggrandisement; such a thing for national objects, such a thing from high religious motives.  In real life we may be sure it was not so’ (p. 277).

And it is clear that in spite of the ease and delight with which Gladstone’s mind moved among ’the eternal commonplaces of liberty and self-government,’ he is seeking throughout for a quantitative solution.  ‘Home Rule’ is no simple entity for him.  He realises that the number of possible schemes for Irish government is infinite, and he attempts to make at every point in his own scheme a delicate adjustment between many varying forces.