Athirst for God

Abstract During the 1880s and his second and third administrations, William compared his own long life with those of deceased contemporaries, recorded in their lives and letters, and with certain figures in fiction. While associating himself with a younger generation of liberal catholic Anglicans, he reviewed the history of Tractarianism. When planning for retirement, he established the institute that was to become St Deiniol’s Library, Hawarden, a centre for ‘divine learning and worship’ and his legacy to the Church of England. Undergirding all these activities was a settled belief in divine providence. He registered a deepening sense of God’s guidance in the Commons and out of doors, as the words were given to him in major speeches, along with the strength to deliver them. While campaigning in the present, with a view to the future, he frequently related his current struggles to those of the past.