Early  in  1833  Mr.  Gladstone  took  a  fancy  for
becoming  a  student  of  law.  It  was  then  his  wish
to  go  to  the  bar  and  practise  there.  One  can
easily  imagine  what  a  success  he  would  have
made  if  he  had  only  followed  the  bent  of  that
inclination.  One  can  imagine  how  he  would


GLADSTONE    IN    OFFICE  51

have  cross-examined  some  evasive  and  reluctant
witness,  how  he  would  have  argued  a  point  of
law  with  the  judge,  and  how  he  would  have
carried  the  jury  along  with  him  by  the  force  of
his  impassioned  eloquence.  He  did  not,  however,
pursue  his  design,  and  although  he  was  a  stu-
dent at  Lincoln's  Inn  for  more  than  six  years,
he  never  took  any  step  towards  getting  called
to  the  bar,  and  at  length  requested  that  his  name
should  be  removed  from  the  books  of  the  society,
on  the  ground  that  he  had  no  longer  any  inten-
tion of  becoming  an  advocate.  In  the  meantime,
of  course,  everything  had  changed  with  him,  and
he  had  found  his  real  career  lying  straight  and
shining  before  him.  His  great  love  for  arithme-
tic and  his  consummate  skill  with  figures  natu-
rally attracted  before  long  the  attention  and  the
admiration  of  Sir  Robert  Peel.  A  change  took
place  in  the  government.  The  Whigs  went  out
of  office  for  the  time.  They  were,  in  fact,  bluntly
dismissed  by  the  King,  William  IV.  —  the  last
time  that  a  sovereign  of  England  ever  made  use
of  his  supposed  royal  prerogative  which  gives  a
right  to  the  peremptory  dismissal  of  a  Ministry.
