XI PECULIAK CONTKOVERSIAL METHODS 395 



Considering the gravity of the error which is 

 here admitted, the fashion of the withdrawal 

 appears more singular than admirable. From my 

 "point of view" not from Mr. Gladstone's 

 apparently the little discrepancy between the 

 facts and Mr. Gladstone's carefully offensive 

 travesty of them is " probably " (only " probably ") 

 material. However, as Mr Gladstone concludes 

 with an official expression of regret for his error, 

 it is my business to return an equally official ex- 

 pression of gratitude for the attenuated reparation 

 with which I am favoured. 



Having cleared this specimen of Mr. Gladstone's 

 controversial method out of the way, I may 

 proceed to the next assault, that on a passage in 

 an article on Agnosticism (" Nineteenth Century," 

 February 1889), published two years ago. I there 

 said, in referring to the Gadarene story, " Every- 

 thing I know of law and justice convinces me 

 that the wanton destruction of other people's 

 property is a misdemeanour of evil example." 

 On this, Mr. Gladstone, continuing his candid and 

 urbane observations, remarks (;' Impregnable 

 Rock," p. 273) that, " Exercising his rapid judg- 

 ment on the text," and "not inquiring what 

 anybody else had known or said about it," I had 

 missed a point in support of that "accusation 

 against our Lord " which he has now been con- 

 strained to admit I never made. 



The "point " in question is that " Gadara was a 



