Bishop Wilberforce, who met him in this hour of triumph, wrote of him thus in his journal: "Gladstone as ever great, earnest, and honest; as unlike the tricky Disraeli as possible. He is so delightfully true and the same; just as full of interest in every good thing of every kind." The period which followed the election of 1868--the period of the Gladstone Administration of 1868-74--has been called "the golden age of Liberalism." It was certainly a period of great reforms. The first, the most heroic, and probably--taking all the results into account--the most completely successful of these, was the disestablishment of the Irish Church. Though Mr. Gladstone had a great majority at his back, the difficulties which confronted him were immense. In Ireland the wildest protests emanated from the friends of the Establishment. The "loyal minority" declared that their loyalty would come to an end if the measure were passed. One synod, speaking with a large assumption, even for a synod, of inspired knowledge, denounced it as "highly offensive to the Almighty God." The Orangemen threatened to rise in insurrection. A martial clergyman proposed to "kick the Queen's crown into the Boyne" if she assented to such a Bill. Another announced his intention of fighting with the Bible in one hand and the sword in the other. These appeals and these threats of civil war, absurd as they proved to be in reality, were not without producing some effect in Great Britain, and it was amid a din of warnings, of misgiving counsels, and of hostile cries, that Mr. Gladstone proceeded to carry out the mandate of the nation which he had received at the polls. [=Disestablishment of the Irish Church=] On the first of March, 1869, he introduced his Disestablishment Bill. His speech was one of the greatest marvels amongst his oratorical achievements. His chief opponent declared that, though it lasted three hours, it did not contain a redundant word. The scheme which it unfolded--a scheme which withdrew the temporal establishment of a Church in such a manner that the Church was benefited, not injured, and which lifted from the backs of an oppressed people an intolerable burden--was a triumph of creative genius. Leaving aside his Budgets, which stand in a different category, it seems to us there is no room to doubt that in his record of constructive legislation this measure for the disestablishment of the Irish Church is Mr. Gladstone's most perfect masterpiece. Disraeli's speech in opposition to this measure was referred to by the _London Times_ as "flimsiness relieved by spangles." After a debate in which Mr. Bright made one of his most famous speeches, the bill was carried by a majority of 118. Before this strong manifestation of the popular will the House of Lords, which deeply disliked the Bill, felt obliged to give way, and passed it by a majority of seven. [=The Irish Land Bill Enacted=]