A colleague once said about Gladstone, "The only two things which
really interest him are Religion and Finance." The saying is much
too unguarded, but it conveys a certain truth. My own opinion is
that Finance was the field of intellectual effort in which his
powers were most conspicuously displayed; and it was always remarked
that, when he came to deal with the most prosaic details of national
income and expenditure, his eloquence rose to an unusual height and
power. At the same time, he was a most vigilant guardian of the
public purse, and he was incessantly on the alert to prevent the
national wealth, which his finance had done so much to increase,
from being squandered on unnecessary and unprofitable objects. This
jealousy of foolish expenditure combined with his love of peace
to make him very chary of spending money on national defences.
When he was Chancellor of the Exchequer under Lord Palmerston, his
eagerness in this regard caused his chief to write to the Queen
that "it would be better to lose Mr. Gladstone than to run the risk
of losing Portsmouth or Plymouth." At the end of his career, his
final retirement was precipitated by his reluctance to sanction
a greatly increased expenditure on the Navy, which the Admiralty
considered necessary. From first to last he sheltered himself under
a dogma of his financial master--Sir Robert Peel--to the effect
that it is possible for a nation, as for an individual, so to
over-insure its property as to sacrifice its income. "My name,"
he said at the end, "stands in Europe as a symbol of the policy
of peace, moderation, and non-aggression. What would be said of
my active participation in a policy that will be taken as plunging
England into the whirlpool of Militarism?"