William Ewart Gladstone; life and public services ...

Front matter

^ ..0

^0^^

^A V^ j:

Preface

MANY writers have been at work of late compiling a "Life of Gladstone." Some who have never seen his face nor heard his voice, will seek to tell the story of his life and record the grand service he rendered his country and his age. Each author will address his readers from his own particular standpoint, and as ' ' every eye sees its own rainbow," so every author will describe his own "Gladstone." It was my privilege to be actively engaged in that grand Campaign which ended in the Disestablishment and Disendowment of the Irish Church. In this happy service I was brought much in contact with Mr. Gladstone, and learned to regard him with enthusiastic homage for the thoroughness and dignity of his leadership. Many years have passed since that eventful period. I have been for ten years a citizen of the United States, and I have been stirred with the ambition to tell my adopted fellow-countrymen what I know of Gladstone and his brave high service to his country and the world. While I write, memory reverts to the days when the masses of England were moving swiftly in the direction of treason and anarchy. I remember unhappy, discontented men, standing at church doors on Sunday mornings, exhibiting loaves of bread dipped in blood, as a token of their feelings and a menace of their purposes. I saw, when a boy, the Bible torn leaf irom leaf in the market place, and God denounced as having "lost his thunderbolts and forgotten to care for the poor. " Mr. Gladstone was classed with the ' ' rascally tyrants of the aristocracy" and openly jeered as "the

PREFACE.

puppet of the Duke of Newcastle." What changes time has wrought ! The first Sabbath after the great stateman's interment in Westminster Abbey, thousands of people gathered around many platforms in Hyde Park, London, to hear eulogies of Mr. Gladstone, and to join in singing ' ' Rock of Ages. " And these were the sons of the men I heard scoflSng God half a century ago and tearing the Bible in scorn. No man did more than Mr. Gladstone to bring about this happy change, to lead men to a higher and a loftier thought.

The compiling of these pages has been the happy work of years. I have sought information from many sources. I owe more than I can tell to the labors of those who have gone before : to G. Barnett Smith, to Justin McCarthy, to Mr. W. E. Russell, to Mr. Lucy, and to the journals of many years. I shall be supremely happy if I can present such a portrait of Mr. Gladstone to American readers as will win the homage his great name deserves. He was an Apostle of Freedom : a Leader through the darkness, and up the heights : He was Incorruptible as the Servant of his Age : His sympathies compassed the whole human race.

He wore the white flower of a blameless life

through the storms and sunshine of four score years and seven. His name deserves to be held in everlasting remembrance.

Chicago, June 6, 1898.

OONTEJSITS.

I. Introductoky 7

II. Birth and Boyhood 15

III. Memories of Early Days , 2-t

IV. School Days at Eton 29

V. Student Life at Oxford 37

VI. Member of Parliament for Newark 46

V VII. Early Speeches in Parliament 55

XVIII. Early Speeches in Parliament — Continued 68

IX. The Young Minister of State 73

X. Accession AND Coronation OF Queen Victoria 79

XI. The Busy Private Member i 88

XII. The Champion of the Church 96

XIII. Wedding Bells 104

-=.XIV. At Work in Earnest: Eepeal op the Corn Laws 111

XV. The British House of Commons — A Sketch 121

XVI. Member for Oxford 130

XVII. Rejected by Oxford — Liberal Leader 177

_ XVIII. The Great Work of Reform 188

XIX. Humors of the Old Election Days 199

XX. Disestablishment and Disendowment of the Irish

Church 211

XXL Years of Wonderful Progress 332

XXII. Home Rule , 35a,

XXIII. The Midlothian Manifesto 365

XXIV. Ireland: — Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule Bill ..... S81 -y XXV. The Champion of the Greeks 300

XXVI. The Golden Wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone 315 -XXVII. Gladstone on America — "Our Kin Beyond the

XXVIII. Gladstone's Friends 334

XXIX. Sunday AT Hawarden Church 334

XXX. Mr. Gladstone at Home 341

XXXI. Mrs. Gladstone 348

•i XXXII. Words op Wisdom Selected From Mr. Gladstone's

Books and Speeches 354

^ XXXIII. Words op Wisdom Selected From Mr. Gladstone's

Books and Speeches — Continued 361

XXXIV. An American Lady's Estimate of Gladstone 369

XXXV. Miscellaneous Sketches, Etc 380

^ XXXVI. Mr. Gladstone as an Orator 391

XXXVII. T. P. O'Connor's Tribute to Gladstone 397

XXXVIII. Last Scenes 407

XXXIX. The Nation's Tribute , 417

ILLUSTEATIONS.

PAGE

1 Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone Frontispiece.

3 Birthplace of Gladstone 16

4 W. E. Gladstone, Aetat 75 20

5 Victoria, Queen of England 21

6 Queen Victoria on Her Seventh Birthday 28

7 Eight Hon. Benjamin Disraeli, Earl Beaconsfield 29

8 Christ Church, Oxford 38

9 Lord Roseberry 48

10 Lord Salisbury 49

11 Entrance to the House of Commons 50

12 Mb. Gladstone, M. P. for Newark, Aetat 23 52

13 The Speaker of the House of Commons 54

14 Queen Victoria Opening Parliament 56

15 Chas. S. Parnell 58

16 John Dillon, M. P 59

17 Scene in the House of Commons 60

18 The Lobby of the House of Commons 61

19 Mb. Gladstone Delivering His Maiden Speech 64

20 House of Parliament 72

21 Sir Robert Peel 74

22 Scene in the House of Lords 78

23 In the Lobby of the House of Lords 84

24 The Lobd Chancelloe on the Woolsack 86

25 The Sunday Obator of Hyde Park 90

27 Ruins of the Old Castle, Hawarden 108

28 Albert Edward, Prince OF Wales 116

29 Down With Everything 117

30 Justin McCarthy, M. P 132

31 Right Hon. A. J. Balfour, Moving the House for a Pub-

lic Funeral for Mr. Gladstone 133

32 The Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford 136

ILLUSTEATIONS.

PAGE.

33 Mb. Gladstone LEcxuiiiNG in the Sheldonian Theatke,

Oxford 142

34 Receiving Election Returns at the Reform Club 190

35 The Third Party 193

36 The Bewildered Voter 300

37 The Candidate and the Costermonger 302

38 Hodge, the Young Agriculturist 306

39 The Drive, Hawarden 311

40 Sackville Street, Dublin 213

41 Phcenix Park, Dublin 316

42 Lord Hartington, Duke of Devonshire 224

43 Chatsworth, Seat of the Duke of Devonshire 330

44 Mr. Gladstone Addressing His Cabinet 256

45 Lord Salisbury Addressing the House of Lords 258

46 Mr. Gladstone in Midlothian 268

47 Government Buildings, Dublin 284

48 The Bank of Ireland 386

49 Windsor Castle , 310

50 Right Hon. John Bright, M. P 311

57 Cardinal Newman 336

58 Cardinal Manning 337

59 View of Interior of Hawarden Church 336

60 Interior of Hawarden Church 338

61 Hawarden Church 340

63 The Castle, Hawarden 342

63 Mr. Gladstone's Study 348

65 Mr. Gladstone Reading Prayers in Hawarden Church 353

66 Herbert Gladstone 362

67 Grandpa Gladstone and Dorothy Drew 382

68 Fac-Simile of a Postal Card 387

69 Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone on their Golden Wedding Day. . 414

70 Mr. Gladstone's Last Public Appearance 415

71 Mrs. Gladstone Listening to the Sermon of Dean Wickham 422 73 Mr. Gladstone's Grave 423

Chapter I. Introductory

" Beyond the poet's sweet dream, lives The eternal epic of the man."

— John O. Whittier.

" We live in thoug-hts, not breaths ; In feelings, not in fig-ures on a dial : He lives the most who loves the most, Who thinks the noblest, acts the best."

— Ph. James Bailey.

" A dauntless pioneer ; One of those strong"-armed axemen who are born The tang-led paths of common men to clear :

A herald of that shining morn When all that clouds the human mind shall disappear."

— Ano7iymou8.

To tell the story of Mr. Gladstone's life would require a library rather than a book ; for in telling that story with any degree of faithfulness, one would have to rehearse the salient events of the nineteenth century — the grandest century of all the years of time. The years of England's greatest commoner have run parallel with the years of this eventful period of time. He saw the century in its infancy, he saw its hopeful youth, he marked with wonder its struggling manhood, he followed its career to venerable age, and was permitted in his own advanced years to stand with calm and shining brow a witness of the glory of its sunset hours.

g LIFE OF GLADSTONE.

Henceforth Mr. Gladstone's name and Mr. Gladstone's work will form an inseparable part of this golden age.

" For tk him who works, and loves his w^ork, The g'olden ag"e is ever at his door."

Mr. Gladstone was not a mere spectator of affairs as these great years rolled on. He was privileged to have a verylarge share in molding their destiny. It is no exaggeration to say, that the England of the nineteenth century was very much what Mr. Gladstone, and men of like mind, made it.

The true wealth of a nation consists more in its men than in any material possession. We can weigh our corn, count our cattle, measure our woods and forests and prairies, and tell with reasonable accuracy the area of our inland seasj but we have no scales in which we can weigh Washington and Whittier and Lincoln. Their influence defies all limitations of time or area, and mocks at our poor foolish dreams of measurement. Banks and mines, corn and cotton mean much, but Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, Charles Sumner and Kalph Waldo Emerson mean more. The grandest crop a land can yield is a crop of noble, earnest men, "with empires in their brains," and faithful women with love's pure flame glowing in their hearts and eternal patience in their ministering hands.

This wealth England has had in rare degree. What glittering names bestud her sky! Shakespeare and Milton, Bacon and Sir Henry Vane, Raleigh and George Herbert, Clive and Pitt, Wilberf orce and Havelock, Palmerston and Lord John Russell, George Canning and John Bright^ Their name is "legion" — thousand-fold.

But England has not spoken a greater name for a thousand years than the name of William Ewart Gladstone. He proved himself to be as devout as Thomas a Kempis, as patriotic as John Hampden, as dauntless as Oliver Cromwell and as incorruptible as Andrew Marvell. He was for the best part of two generations the object of the

INTRODUCTORY. 9

almost idolatrous homage of millions of his fellow countrymen, he won and kept, and will retain for countless years the admiration of the world!

At best the story told in these pages will be fragmentary and imperfect. But we shall count ourselves most happy if we may present a picture of Mr. Gladstone in crudest outlines, as we have seen him and known him for many happy years.

Many of Mr. Gladstone's ardent admirers claim for him that he was a man of undoubted genius. It would be fruitless to enter into any controversy on this matter, or even to attempt any definition of that very comprehensive term "genius." The brief analysis from the pen of George Barnett Smith is much more to the purpose. Speaking of the great statesman, he says :

' ' There has rarely, if ever, been witnessed in statesmanship so singular a combination of qualities and faculties. Without being possessed of that highest of all gifts, an absolutely informing genius, he had, perhaps, every endowment save that. Liverpool gave him his financial talent and business aptitude, Eton his classical attainments, Oxford his moral fervor and religious spirit. He threw around the science of finance a halo with which it seemed impossible to invest it, and he diffused a light upon all great questions in which he became interested which has revealed them to and brought them clearly within the popular apprehension and understanding. "

Mr. Hatton's estimate of Mr. Gladstone is too just and discriminating to be overlooked :

' ' He cared even more than trades unions for the welfare of the workingmen ; more than the manufacturers for the interests of capital ; more for the cause of retrenchment than the most jealous and avowed foes of government expenditure ; more for the spread of education than the advocates of a compulsory national system ; more for careful constitutional precedent than the Whigs ; and more for the spiritual independence of the Church than the highest Tories. He united cotton with culture, Manchester with Oxford, the deep classical joy over the Italian resurrection and Greek independence with the deep English interest on the amount of duty on Zante raisins and Italian rags. The great railway boards and the bishops were about equally interested in Mr. Grladstone. And again, from the intellectual point of view, Mr. Gladstone's mind mediated between the moral and material interests of the age, and rested in neither. He moralized finance and commerce, and (if we may be allowed the barbarism) institutionalized ethics and faith."

In addition to a phenomenal physical constitution, nature was lavish to Mr. Gladstone in other ways. Education, association and instinct early led him into the political arena, where he immediately made his mark. But there are half a dozen other professions he might have embarked upon with equal certainty of success. Had he followed the line r one of his brothers took he would have become a prince among the merchants of Liverpool. Had he taken to the legal profession he would have filled the courts with his fame. Had he entered the Church its highest honors would have been within his grasp. The Church lost a great bishop, and perhaps archbishop, when Mr, Gladstone went into politics. If the stage had allured him the world would have been richer by another great actor — an opportunity some of his critics say not altogether lost in existing circumstances. To the personal gifts of a mobile countenance, a voice sonorous and flexible, and a fine presence, Mr. Gladstone possessed dramatic instincts frequently brought into play in House of Commons debate or in his platform speeches. It is the fashion to deny him a sense of humor, a judgment that could be passed only by a superficial observer. In private conversation his marvelous memory gave forth from its apparently illimitable store an

INTRODUCTORY. 11.

appropriate and frequently humorous illustration of the current topic. If his fame had not been established on a loftier line he would be known as one of the most delightful conversationalists of the day.

In the Revieio of Revietos^ Mr. W. T. Stead in an exhaustive and judicious sketch of Mr. Gladstone, seeking among other things to account for the great statesman's hold upon his country and the world, has this to say:

"The great secret of Mr. Gladstone's hold upon the nation's heart was the belief which has become a fixed conviction with the masses of the voters that he was animated by a supreme regard for the welfare of the common people, and an all-constraining conviction of his obligation to God. Mr. Gladstone was far and away the most conspicuous Christian of his time. He would have divided the honors with Lord Shaftesbury,' Mr. Spurgeon, Mr. Bright and Cardinal Manning. Nor is there a bishop or an archbishop among them who can so much as touch the hem of his garment so far as the popular feeling goes. Mr. Gladstone was far and away the greatest pillar and prop of English orthodoxy. To the ordinary voter here and beyond the seas it was more important that Mr. Gladstone was unshaken in his assent to what he regarded as the eternal verities than that all the bishops in all the churches should unhesitatingly affirm their faith in the creed of Athanasius. He was a man whose intellect they respected, even if they did not understand it perfectly. ' He was a capable man, a practical man, a ripe scholar, and an experienced statesman; what was good enough for him, is good enough for us.' so reasoned many men more or less logically, and so the services in Hawarden Parish Church, where Mr. Gladstone read the lessons, much more than any cathedral service, came to have a religious importance that was felt throughout the empire.

' ' There is something imposing and even sublime in the long procession of years which bridge as with arches the abyss of past time, and carry us back to the days of Canning, and of Castlereagh, of Napoleon, and of Wellington. His parliamentary career extended over sixty years — the lifetime of two generations. He was the custodian of all the traditions, the hero of the experience of successive administrations, from a time dating back longer than most of his colleagues can remember. For nearly forty years he had a leading part in making or unmaking Cabinets, he served his Queen and his country in almost every capacity in office and in opposition, and yet to the end of his venerable years his heart seemed to be as the heart of a child. "

If Mr. Gladstone's early years were sublime in their force and courage, in their dauntless, indomitable perseverance, his later years were marked by the confidence and hope that made his old age a prolonged Indian summer of grace and beauty.

As men grow old they often grow morose and despairing. All things are out of joint ; the lights burn low, and the wheels are turning backward. But Mr. Gladstone was full of hopeful enthusiasms. He had great faith in the future. He refused to believe that God had forgotten His world.

He had large hopes concerning the destiny of England. He thought she might possibly become less conspicuous ; that she might not dictate the forms of national greatness to aspiring nations, but he believed that for many a long, happy year she would continue to inspire and enkindle the true spirit of national greatness. It was one of the golden dreams of his veneral^le years that the tender hand of England would yet heal the wounded heart of Ireland.

Mr. Gladstone was hopeful of his country to the last hour of his glorious life. When men foretold with solemn voices that England was on the decline, that her glory Avas departing, that her sun was setting, that venerable statesman

INTRODUCTOKY. 13

presented the aspect of one who has taken a young heart into the autumn of his years. There was a smile upon his face as men spoke of disaster, as though forsooth his listening ears caught the strains of

" Music in every bell that toiled."

He did not think that the Thames, the Severn and the Wye would blend their soft murmurings to a requiem ; he rather heard in their flowing waters an anthem of lofty hope. He repelled the thought that the Malvern hills, the Langdale pikes, and the grand old Welsh mountains were ever to stand as mute mourners of a dying empire ; they seemed to him more like majestic sentinels on guard, keeping vigil for future greatness.

Among some of his latest utterances are these fine loyal words : " But I fully recognize that we have a great mission. The work of England has been great in the past, but it will be still greater in the future. This is true, I believe, in its broadest sense of the English-speaking world. I believe it is also true of England herself. I think that the part which England has to play, and the influence of England in the world will be even vaster in the future than it is to-day. England will be greater than she has ever been. "

" The old nursing mother's not hoary yet ;

There is sap in her Saxon tree.

Lo ! she lifteth a bosom of glory yet,

Through her mists to the sun and the sea.

She sits in her island home,

Peerless among her peers ; And Liberty oft to her arms doth come,

To ease its sad heart of tears.

Old England still throbs with a muffled fire

Of a past she can never forget, And still shall she banner the world up higher,

For there's life in the old land yet."

1-i LIFE OF GLADSTONE.

But, if Mr. Gladstone was a lover of his country, not less was he a lover of his kind. If he was a man of massive intellect, he was not less a man of capacious heart, the sympathies of which went out in brotherly regard to all mankind. We shall have occasion to refer later to his deliffhtful essay on "Our Kin Beyond the Sea," in which he manifested such a keen appreciation of all that seemed to him to be noble and full of promise in our own land. Mr. Gladstone understood America much better than many Americans, and while we can not help admiring the fervency of his love for England, neither can we overlook the broad, magnanimous view he always entertained and generously expressed concerning America. He said:

' ' The England and America of the present are probably the two strongest nations of the world. But there can hardly be any doubt as between the America and the England of the future, that the daughter, at some no very distant time, will, whether fairer or less fair, be unquestionably yet stronger than the mother. "

But Mr. Gladstone's sympathies were world wide. There was room and to spare in his great heart for Neapolitan prisoners and suffering Irishmen, for outraged Bulgarians and Armenians, and for the valiant sons of modern Greece. His largest desire, his most cherished dream was to see all nations clasped in the golden girdle of universal peace. He had come to regard war as both clumsy and cruel, as much a blunder as a crime. He was a fervent advocate of arbitration. His aged eyes longed for the rosy dawn of that glad day when the sword shall seek its scabbard, there to rust.

Chapter II. Birth And Boyhood

Ah ! Happy years ! Once more, "who would not be a boy? ■'

— Lord Byron. ' The childhood shows the man, As morning shows the day."

— John Milton.

" Who can foretell for what hig-h cause This darling of the gods was born ? "'

— Andrew Marvell.

' ' The earlier years of Mr. Gladstone's life belong to a period when Great Britain was struggling with the results of the great revolution in France. The first Napoleon had risen to power as the embodiment of the idea of liberty, equality and fraternity, aided by his splendid military genius and his immense capacities as a ruler. As is common in all such cases, the citizen Bonaparte became dazzled with the possibilities of his position, and was silly enough to prostitute the powers entrusted to his charge to further his own personal aggrandizement. The punishment came at Waterloo and St. Helena. Our own country had also to pay the penalty in death, misery and want. The jails were filled with criminals, the outcome of the social conditions ; the press-gang was in constant work, and the general state of life may be aptly described by one fact : black bread was the ordinary food of large masses of the people, and the four-pound loaf cost thirty-six cents. It will be readily understood how a policy which had produced such results should in the minds of many need a great change. That change and its results are in existence in England

1(3

LIFE OF GLADSTONE.

to-day. The subtle teaching of facts permeated the home at Kodney street, and left its impress on one who was afterward to become Prime Minister.

"William Ewart Gladstone was born at his father's house, 62 Eodney street, Liverpool, December 29, 1809. He was the third son, and early gave promise of considerable mental power. The home surroundings were well calculated to develop all the intellectual qualities. It was the habit of ftf!

HOUSE IN WHICH HE WAS BORN.

Mr. John Gladstone to discuss all manner of questions with his children ; nothing was taken for granted between him and his sons. A succession of arguments on great topics and small topics alike — arguments conducted with the most perfect good humor, but also with the most implacable logic — formed the staple of the family conversation. Such ^conditions were pre-eminently calculated to mould the thoughts and direct the course of an intelligent and receptive nature. There was the father's masterful will and keen perception, the sweetness and piety of the mother, wealth with all its substantial a,dvantages and few of its mischiefs, a strong sense of the value of money, a rigid , avoidance of extravagance and excess, everywhere strenuous purpose in life, constant employment and concentrated ambition.

"In "William Ewart Gladstone we have the same restless energy, the same sympathy with struggling nationalities, the same business aptitude, the same appreciation of great men, the same far-sightedness, and also the same longevity. The great qualities of the father have been modified by surrounding circumstances, but the generic similarity is conspicuous. It was amid surroundings such as we have indicated that W. E. Gladstone began life. The father's active participation in parliamentary contests opened wide the door for the buzz of political questions at his house. It also created the conditions for the familiar association and intercourse with men of high quality and large caliber. It is easy to understand how the teaching and influence of a man of genius like George Canning should remain a permanent factor in the intellectual development of a young lad. It became then, as it has remained since, an important influence in the evolution of a great career."

Speaking of Mr. Gladstone's ancestors, who were entirely Scotch, being proprietors of a moderate property near the town of Biggar, in Lanarkshire, Mr. George W. E. Kussell says : ' ' The title of the estate from which they took their name was Gledstane, afterward modernized to Gladstone. This patrimony dates back some six hundred years, but during the last century or two the family history runs on different lines. The grandfather of William Ewart Gladstone was a corn merchant at Leith, and in the course of his business had a shipload of corn consigned to him. The vessel conveying the grain arrived in due course at Liverpool, and his eldest son, John, was dispatched to that town to carry out the sale. The skill and aptitude exhibited by the young Scotchman in carrying through the business attracted the attention of one of the leading corn merchants, on whose advice he settled there. He commenced his business career as a clerk in his friend and patron's house, and lived to become a principal partner in the firm, and one of the leading merchants of Liverpool. His career was successful throughout ; he was at once a keen and active politician, a generous philanthropist, and a splendid man of business. He was always in earnest, and had built up his position in life by shrewd sense, great activity and unsullied honor. These great qualities, combined with a restless energy, naturally brought him to the front in all matters connected with the town of Liverpool. In politics he was to all intents and purposes a Liberal-Conservative of those days. In 1812 he presided over a meeting called for the purpose of inviting Canning to become a candidate for the borough. The contest which ensued laid the foundation of a life-long friendship between John Gladstone and George Canning. The influence of his great friend converted Mr. Gladstone to Conservative principles, and in 1819 he entered the House of Commons, representing in succession Lancaster, Woodstock and Berwick. Mr. John Gladstone was, by Sir Robert Peel, created a baronet in 1845, and died in 1851 at the ripe age of eighty-eight.

The England on which Mr. Gladstone opened his eyes had made very little material progress since the days of Queen Elizabeth. Travel and means of transportation were at the tedious rate common to the days of the Patriarch Job, when ' ' the camel was for safety and the horse for speed. " There were '-''fast stage coaches," as men then counted fastness. But the omnipotence of the monarch we call "Steam" was only "a dream of hair-brained fanatics." It was nevertheless a dream destined to become wonderfully true. There was no system of public government education; but the rate-payers were compelled to support paupers. Almost everything was taxed from the cradle to the grave. There were church taxes, vf indow taxes, cart-wheel taxes, horse taxes, taxes on malt, taxes on hair-powder and taxes on silver plate. More than seventeen hundred articles were subject to taxation. There were taxes on the ribbon of the bride, and on the brass nails of the coffin. The man who indulged in horse riding in those days had to ride a taxed horse with a taxed bridle along a taxed road. It was a land of beautiful liberty and abounding taxation. And, as Sydney Smith said, the great hope of the Englishman was that when at last life's pilgrimage was ended he would ' ' be gathered to his fathers, and enter a land of rest and peace where he would be taxed no more."

But England was nursing noble souls when this century was young. The temple of literature was thronged with such men as Scott and Byron, Wordsworth and Coleridge, Southey and Shelley and Keats, Campbell and Lamb ; and by the sluggish tides of the Mersey a cradle was being rocked in which lay a smiling boy destined to be the glory of his country, the honor of his age.