influences of our time, the influence of the sciences of nature, and
the influence of historical criticism. Mr. Gladstone, though too
wise to rail at science, as many religious men did till within the
last few years, could never quite reconcile himself either to the
conclusions of geology and zoology regarding the history of the
physical world and the animals which inhabit it, or to the modern
methods of critical inquiry as applied to Scripture and to ancient
literature generally. The training which Oxford then gave,
stimulating as it was, and free from the modern error of over
specialization, was defective in omitting the experimental sciences,
and in laying undue stress upon the study of language. A proneness
to dwell on verbal distinctions and to trust overmuch to the
analysis of terms as a means of reaching the truth of things is
noticeable in many eminent Oxford writers of that and the next
succeeding generation--some of them, like the illustrious F. D.
Maurice, far removed from Dr. Newman and Mr. Gladstone in
theological opinion.

When the brilliant young Oxonian entered the House of Commons at the
age of twenty-three, Sir Robert Peel was leading the Tory party with
an authority and ability rarely surpassed in parliamentary annals.
Within two years the young man was admitted into the short-lived
Tory ministry of 1834, and soon proved himself an active and
promising lieutenant of the experienced chief. Peel was an
eminently wary and cautious man, alive to the necessity of watching
the signs of the times, of studying and interpreting the changeful
phases of public opinion. His habit was to keep his own counsel,
and even when he perceived that the policy he had hitherto followed
would need to be modified, to continue to use guarded language and
refuse to commit himself to change till he perceived that the