the Board of Trade, yet Mr. Gladstone found time to renew his old
interest in ecclesiastical concerns. In the fall of 1841 an English
Episcopal Bishopric was established at Jerusalem, Mr. Gladstone dined
with Baron Bunsen on the birthday of the King of Prussia, when, as
reported by Lord Shaftesbury, he "stripped himself of a part of his
Puseyite garments, spoke like a pious man, rejoiced in the bishopric of
Jerusalem, and proposed the health of Alexander, the new Bishop of that
see. This is delightful, for he is a good man, a clever man and an
industrious man." And Baron Bunsen, speaking of the same occasion, said,
"Never was heard a more exquisite speech, It flowed like a gentle,
translucent stream. We drove back to town in the clearest starlight;
Gladstone continuing with unabated animation to pour forth his
harmonious thoughts in melodious tone." And Mr. Gladstone himself writes
later; "Amidst public business, quite sufficient for a man of my
compass, I have, during the whole of the week, perforce, been carrying
on with the Bishop of London and with Bunsen a correspondence on, and
inquisition into, the Jerusalem design, until I almost reel and stagger
under it."

And still later he writes: "I am ready individually to brave
misconstruction for the sake of union with any Christian men, provided
the terms of the union be not contrary to sound principle; and perhaps
in this respect might go further, at least in one of the possible
directions, than you. But to declare the living constitution of a
Christian Church to be of secondary moment is of course in my view
equivalent to a denial of a portion of the faith--and I think you will
say it is a construction which can not fairly be put upon the design,
as far as it exists in fixed rules and articles. It is one thing to
attribute this in the way of unfavorable surmise, or as an apprehension
of ultimate developments--it is another to publish it to the world as a