[Illustration: Gladstone's London Home]




CHAPTER III


EARLY PARLIAMENTARY EXPERIENCES

It is customary for the sons of gentlemen who graduate at Cambridge and
Oxford to spend some time in travel on the continent upon the completion
of their university studies. The custom was observed in Mr. Gladstone's
early days even more than at the present. In accordance then with the
prevailing usage he went abroad after graduating at Oxford. In the
spring of 1832 he started on his travels and spent nearly the whole of
the next six months in Italy, "learning the language, studying the art,
and revelling in the natural beauties of that glorious land." In the
following September, however, he was suddenly recalled to England to
enter upon his first Parliamentary campaign.

At Oxford Toryism prevailed, and was of the old-fashioned type, far
removed from the utilitarian conservatism of the present day. Charles I
was a saint and a martyr, the claims of rank and birth were admitted
with a childlike simplicity, the high functions of government were the
birthright of the few, and the people had nothing to do with the laws,
except to obey them. Mr. Gladstone was a Tory. The political views he
held upon leaving Oxford had much to do with his recall from abroad and
his running for a seat in the House of Commons. Of these opinions held