I have never doubted that the master-passion of Gladstone's nature
was his religiousness--his intensely-realized relation with God,
with the Saviour, and with "the powers of the world to come." This
was inborn. His love of liberty was acquired. There was nothing
in his birth or education or early circumstances to incline him
in this direction. He was trained to "regard liberty with jealousy
and fear, as something which could not wholly be dispensed with,
but which was continually to be watched for fear of excesses."
Gradually--very gradually--he came to regard it as the greatest
of temporal blessings, and this new view affected every department
of his public life. In financial matters it led him to adopt the
doctrine of Free Exchanges. In politics, it induced him to extend
the suffrage, first to the artisan and then to the labourer. In
foreign affairs, it made him an unrelenting foe of the Turkish
tyranny. In Ireland, it converted him to Home Rule. In religion,
it brought him nearer and nearer to the ideal of the Free Church
in the Free State.