Carlyle's senility was not enviable, and even that sturdy veteran Stratford Canning* told Gladstone that longevity was "not a blessing." Like Cephalus at the opening of Plato's Republic, Froude found that he could see more clearly when the mists of sentiment were dispersed.
While at sea Froude pursued his favourite musings on the worthlessness of all orators, from Demosthenes and Cicero to Burke and Fox, from Burke and Fox to Gladstone and Bright.

The world was conveniently divided into talking men and acting men.

Gladstone had never done anything.

He had always talked.
"I wonder whether people will ever open their eyes about all this.
The orators go in for virtue, freedom, etc., the cheap cant which will charm the constituencies.

They are generous with what costs them nothing--Irish land, religious liberty, emancipation of niggers--sacrificing the dependencies to tickle the vanity of an English mob and catch the praises of the newspapers.