The last two volumes of Gladstone's diaries depict the extraordinary energy of a remarkable octogenarian: Gladstone was eighty-four when he resigned the Premiership in 1894 to close his fourth administration. His pursuit of 'justice for Ireland' through the successful passage of a Home Rule Bill through the Commons in 1893 forms the political centrepiece of these volumes. But there is also a wealth of material on imperial, foreign, domestic, and religious politics contained in the daily diary entries, the minutes of the Cabinets of the 1892-4 government, and the five hundred letters which accompany the entries for the governmental period. Gladstone's life-style made few concessions to his age: his reading, writing, theatre-going, and trips abroad continue, as do his speech-making and his church-going. His declining eyesight eventually curtailed his reading and led to the end of regular diary-writing in 1894. His vast diary, which he began in 1825, ends in 1896. Its final entries are a moving conclusion to one of the most remarkable and one of the most curious documents of British history. a monumental achievement, for which congratulations are in order to the editorial body led by Lord Blake and to the staff of the Clarendon Press as well as to Professor Matthew's devoted assiduity ... There are many felicities and excellences in Professor Matthew's reading of Gladstone ... what remains truly invaluable in the diaries are the very occasional flashes of illumination in which Gladstone reveals the deepest inwardness of himself.