If this was the true account of him, one has to ask oneself in wonder what kind of place the House of Commons must be, when such a man can be selected by it as its foremost statesman. There he had sat for thirty years, session after session, ever foremost in the fight, face to face with antagonists who were reputed the ablest speakers, the most powerful thinkers whom the country could produce. Had his enemies' account of him been true, why had they not exposed and made an end of him? The English people had too much respect for their institutions to believe in so incredible a story. The violence of the attacks recoiled upon their authors. With his accession to the Premiership he became an object of marked and general regard. When he went down to Parliament for the first time in his new capacity, he was wildly cheered by the crowds in Palace Yard. The shouts were echoed along Westminster Hall and through the lobbies, and were taken up again warmly and heartily in the House itself, which had been the scene of so many conflicts--the same House in which he had been hooted down when he first rose to speak there. And the tribute was to himself personally. He was not the representative of any great or popular cause. Even in carrying his Reform Bill he had not stooped to inflated rhetoric, or held out promises of visionary millenniums. He was regarded merely as a man of courage and genius, not less honest than other politicians because his professions were few. CHAPTER XIV Reply of the Liberals to the Tory Reform Bill--State of Ireland--The Protestant Establishment--Resolution proposed by Mr. Gladstone--Decay of Protestant feeling in England--Protestant character of the Irish Church--The Upas Tree--Mr. Gladstone's Irish policy--General effect on Ireland of the Protestant Establishment--Voltaire's opinion--Imperfect results--The character of the Protestant gentry--Nature of the proposed change--Sprung on England as a surprise--Mr. Gladstone's resolutions carried--Fall of Disraeli's Government. [Sidenote: IRISH POLICY OF MR. GLADSTONE]