[71] For instance, he recommended Dr. Stubbs for a bishopric and Sir John Holker for a lord justiceship, knowing both of them to be Tories. [72] His respect and regard for Mr. Bright were entirely unaffected by the fact that Mr. Bright's opposition to the Home Rule Bill of 1886 had been the chief cause of its defeat. [73] Usually over-anxious to vindicate his own consistency, he showed on one occasion a capacity for recognising the humorous side of a position into which he had been brought. In a debate which arose in 1891 frequent references had been made to a former speech in which he had pronounced a highly-coloured panegyric upon the Church of England in Wales, the disestablishment of which he had subsequently become willing to support. He replied, "Many references have been made to a former speech of mine on this subject, and I am not prepared to deny that in that speech, when closely scrutinised, there may appear to be present some element of exaggeration." The House dissolved in laughter, and no further reference was made to the old speech. [74] His Oxford contemporary and friend, the late Mr. Milnes Gaskell, told me that when Mr. Gladstone was undergoing his _viva voce_ examination for his degree, the examiner, satisfied with the candidate's answers on a particular matter, said, "And now, Mr. Gladstone, we will leave that part of the subject." "No," replied the examinee, "we will, if you please, not leave it yet." Whereupon he proceeded to pour forth a further flood of knowledge and disquisition. [75] _Purgat._ xi. 100-126. INDEX Acton, John Edward Emerich Dalberg, Lord-- career of, 382-84 characteristics of, 399 critical taste of, 390 family of, 382 history, view of, 391-92; view of study of, 394-95 learning of, 386-89, 392 liberty, history of, projected by, 395-96 libraries of, 388-89 and note political opinions of, 384 style of, 396-97 thoroughness of, 390, 393-95 University work of, 397-98 writings of, 395 American Civil War, 55, 57, 90 and note. _See also_ United States Arnold, Dr., 343, 346 Austen, Jane, 127