Note 30 — Chapter VI
Reading edition
Mr. Gladstone wrote the following by-election letter:
“Dear Sir,
“Your sanguine anticipations do not surprise me. My surprise would be this time, if a Welsh constituency were to return a gentleman who, whether Tory or Liberal, would vote against the claims which Wales is now justly making, that her interests and feelings should at length be recognised in concerns properly her own. Even if he reserved or promised you his individual vote, by supporting the party opposed to you and keeping it in power, he would make that favourable vote perfectly nugatory.
“I remain,
“Your faithful servant.
“W. E. Gladstone.”