Gladstone was in closer touch with the spirit of his time when, ...

Gladstone was in closer touch with the spirit of his time when, in 1880, he included neglect of legislation among the sins of his predecessor's Government.

The charge was no truer than most of his statements about Disraeli, but it told.

The age of programmes is on us, and of programmes Chamberlain was a master-maker. To raise, by agitation, a powerful head of opinion through the Caucus, to embody it in a solid well-drilled party; to cast it into legislative form, and then by means of the closure to force it swiftly through the Commons; these, to certain masterful and aggressive spirits, were the tactics proper to modern politics.