The Liberal press of the country, as a rule, treated Colonel Wauchope's candidature with the utmost indifference, if not with contempt, regarding it as a foregone conclusion that it would end in nothing. Indeed, his splendid audacity provoked the Radical party to mirth, and even in Unionist circles there was much shaking of heads. On all hands, by political friends and foes alike, every consideration and deference was shown, and he was listened to generally in respectful silence, rarely with open opposition; but his claims were not considered serious enough to work out to a conclusion that would at all affect Mr. Gladstone's position as the sitting member. Was Mr. Gladstone not the first statesman of the day, and the most brilliant Chancellor of the Exchequer of the century?--a man who, it has been wittily said, 'could apply all the resources of a burnished rhetoric to the illustration of figures; who could make pippins and cheese interesting, and tea serious; who could sweep the widest horizon of the financial future and yet stop to bestow the minutest attention on the microcosm of penny stamps and post horses.' To oppose such a man seemed madness. The feeling was, {113} however, more of pity that a good man should waste his energies on a hopeless effort, than any fear of danger to the Liberal cause. The following, as the expression of a Liberal editor, may be taken as a fair specimen of the general feeling at the time:--'The answer to the question of the Scotsman, "Where is the candidate for Midlothian?" has at last been answered. Colonel Wauchope is a good and a brave man, and one almost regrets that he should have been prevailed upon to lead a forlorn hope. Almost all that was said of Sir Charles Dalrymple when he contested the county, may be said of the Laird of Niddrie. His heart is in the right place. He is justly held in much esteem as a landlord and county gentleman, as well as for his gallant services to his country. Sir Charles is, however, more of and perhaps a better politician, and where HE failed, Colonel Wauchope can have little chance of success.'