Life and public services of Hon. Wm. E. Gladstone

Front matter

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Preface

]"^0 other Englishman of the past or the present has f / been more popular in this country than Mr. ^® Gladstone. This feeling in his behalf does not spring altogether from an admiration for his intellectual abilities, or the broad and statesmanlike views entertained by him. Nor has it arisen only from sympathy with the liberality of his opinions. It is rather traceable to a sincere respect for his capacity for growth. We might easily elaborate this proposition by historical references ; but the field is too broad for thorough inspection at the present moment, and a cursory glance would be worse than useless.

Believing that it is this quality which has made him not only respected, but worthy of respect, it has been the aim of the writer to trace the progress, year by year, from the most pronounced Toryism to an equally positive Liberalism. At the same time there has been no effort made to fit the facts to the theory, as is sometimes done under similar circumstances, for the simple reason that nothing of the kind was necessar}'-.

There are a number of biographies of Mr. Gladstone, of more or less value, to which the writer begs leave to express indebtedness. Chief among them is the careful work of Mr. G. B. Smith, in whose two large octavo volumes there is almost everything needful. A "London Journalist " contributes another biography, which has not, however, been brought down later than the second administration of its subject ; the same limitation is applicable to the volume of Mr. G. R. Emerson. Mr. C. W. Jones' little volume is an admirable one as far as

4 Preface.

it goes ; and Mr. Lucy's merit in connection with this subject is too well known for comment to be necessary here. It is to be regretted that his book contains no more matter than an average magazine article.

In addition to these biographies, there has been frequent consultation of w r orks of a less special character. "The Gladstone Government," by a Templar; T. P. O'Connor's " Gladstone's House of Commons," and Justin McCarthy's "England Under Gladstone," will at once suggest themselves. But in addition to these there should be specified the Rev. W. N. Molesworth's " History of England Since 1830," and others of like character. Cooke's " History of Party,'' McCarthy's " Epoch of Reform," and several memoirs of the time, have been used in writing of the Reform Bill of 1832 ; and there has been careful reference to special biographies of Sir Robert Peel and others of similar importance in the narrative.

The tone of these works has been so uniformly kind and admiring that Louis J. Jennings' work, " Mr. Gladstone : a Study," has perhaps been invaluable as giving the extreme view of the other side of the question.

The writer has also studied, in this connection, Mr. Gladstone's own writings, both in the " Gleanings of Past Years " and elsewhere.

Many points of interest have been drawn from the periodicals, — daily, weekly, and monthly. All of the leading American publications have been made to contribute something; while Temple Bar, the Times and other London dailies, and the London illustrated weeklies, may be named in the same connection. Of course the whole thread of the latter portion of the narrative is drawn from the newspapers, since the biography is, complete up to the time of is§ue.

Chapter I. Ancestry And Education

Napoleon and Wellington — Great Public Questions — Family of the Gladstones — ■ Birth of the Subject of the Present Memoir — Scotch Parentage— Early Education — Wealth of the Family — Sketch of Lord Brougham — Mr. Gladstone at Eton— A Culprit Called Up for Correction — Account of Arthur Henry Hallam— Papers Published at Eton — Troubles in Ireland — Canning and His Ministry — Mr. Gladstone Brought Up as a Tory — Characteristic Anecdote — The Future Premier at Oxford — Life as a Student — Early Promise of Great Distinction 19

Chapter II. The Beginning Op Public Life

Interest in Political Questions— Reaction After the War — Destitution of the Colliers — Seats in Parliament Bought and Sold — How Elections were Conducted — Duke of Wellington as Prime Minister — Plan of Reform — Fury of the Tory Peers — Address to the Electors at Newark — Mr. Gladstone Elected to Parliament— The Slavery Question — Eloquent Speeches — Becomes Identified with Great Public Questions — Rising Star in the Political Firmament 44

Chapter III. Early Official Life

Whigs Versus Tories - Trained in Early Life to Speak in Public — Account of Sir Robert Peel — Events Following the Passage of the Reform Act— Mr. Gladstone as Junior Lord of the Treasury — Canadian Troubles of 1837 — Death of King William IV. — Address to His Constituents — Accession of Victoria to the Throne — More Agitation of the Slavery Question — Debate on the War with China— Queen Victoria's Marriage— Popularity of the Prince Consort , . , , , , . . 69

Chapter IV

GLADSTONE VS. DISRAELI

Repeal of the Corn Laws — Disraeli in Parliament — His Extravagant Rhetoric — Pithy Sayings and Merciless Satire — Free Traders and Protectionists - Division Among the Tories — Gladstone's Speech on the Navigation Laws — His Growing Liberalism — The Condition of Canada — Colonial Governments — Remonstrance of France and Russia— Some Account of Lord Palmerston — The Celebrated John Bright— Mr. Gladstone Defends His Action — Ecclesiastical Titles Bill — Mr. Disraeli in the Cabinet — Gladstone's Eulogy on the Duke of Wellington— Overthrow of the Ministry. . . lOb"

Chapter V. The Ministry Of All The Talents

Mr. Gladstone's Early Political Faith— His Act of Self-denial— First Step Toward Leaving the Conservative Party — House of Commons and the New Chancellor of the Exchequer — Grows Eloquent Over a Dry Subject — Debate on the Income Tax— Impending War — Will of the People Must be Obeyed — Measures for Raising Revenue— Bitter Taunts from Disraeli — Views of the Prince Consort — Miss Florence Nightingale The Crimean War— Impressive Scene in the House of Commons -New Ministry by Lord Palmerston— Lord John Russell — Great Speech by Mr. Gladstone- Continuance of the War Debates 132

Chapter VI. Progressing Towards Liberalism

Treaty Following the Crimean War — Peace Concluded at Paris — Agitation Concerning the Continental Press — National Education — Bill Providing fur the Enlistment of Foreigners — 111 Feeling Between Eng'and and America — Criticism Upon the Government's Foreign Policy — Mr. Gladstonp's Alliance with His Rival — -Government Losing Strength in the House of Commons — Majority Against the Government — Attempt to Assassinate the Emperor of the French — Remarkable Peroration by Mr. Gladstone — Formation of a New Cabinet — Lord Derby at the Front — Financial Outlook Depressing. . 157

Chapter VII. The Palmerston Ministry

Lord Macaulay — Eminent Men in Parliament -The Ionian Islands — Agitation in Greece — Parliamentary Reform— Foreign Relations of England — Mr. Bright's Return to Parliament — A Man Ahead of His Time — Controversy

Over the Eeform Bill — Mr. Gladstone's Speech on the Pending Question — Defeat of the Ministry— Appeal to the Country — Palmerston in Office — Fear of Invasion by France— Tax on Paper— Proceedings in the House of Lords — Liberals and Tories— Lord Russell Withdraws His Reform Bill — Cross Purposes in Parliament— Rivalry Among Opposing Factions. . 179

Chapter VIII. Emancipation From Toryism

Wet Weather and Poor Harvests — Dull Session in Parliament — Post Office Savings Banks— Garibaldi and His Red Shirt — Mr. Gladstone Defends the Liberator of Italy — Improvement in the Nation's Finances— Protest of the Opposition— Bitter Attack on Gladstone— Repeal of the Paper Duty — The Ionian Islands again — English Opinion and the American Civil War — Reduction of the Income Tax — Surplus in the Revenues for 1864 — The Working Classes — Osborne's Amusing Speech — The Question of Church and State— Mr. Gladstone Declares Himself Unmuzzled 207

Chapter IX. Representing South Lancashire

Love for the University — Address to the Electors of Liverpool — Popularity in the Large Towns Death of Lord Palmerston — Grave Concern Over the Irish Troubles— Old Question of Church Rates— Criticism of the Reform Bill — "Cave of Adullam" — Extension of the Franchise — Gladstone's Victory- Speeches in Scotland — Ministry Formed by Earl Derby — A New Reform Bill — Raising Income for the Government — Public Comment on Mr. Gladstone— Scotch and Irish Affairs — The Irish Church — Majority for the Liberals — Various Bills in the Commons 234

Chapter X. The First Gladstone Ministry

Prime Minister of England— Disestablishment of the Irish Church— Disraeli's Sarcasm— Eloquent Defense by John Bright— Opposition Among the Peers — Irish Land System — Bill for the Relief of Ireland— System of Education —English Tourists Seized by Greek Brigands— War Between France and Prussia — Russia's Control of the Black Sea— Marriage of the Princess Louise - Army Regulation Bill — Tory Abuse of Mr. Gladstone — Ballot Bill — Proposal to Admit Women to the Franchise— Much Opposition to the Government— Able Speeches by the Premier 265

Chapter XI. The First Gladstone Ministry

(Continued.)

Dangerous Illness of the Prince of Wales — Trouble on the Liquor Question- Gladstone's Sharp Retort on Disraeli — Army of Titmouses — Ballot Bill Again Introduced — Third Attempt to Settle the Irish Question — Justice to Ireland — Gladstone Determines to Resign— Important Changes iu the Ministry — Disraeli's Manifesto— Circular to the Liberal Members of Parliament — Bill for the Regulation of Public Worship— Endowed Schools — Gladstone's Retirement from the Leadership of the Liberal Party — Preparing for New Legislation — Active Interest in Public Affairs. . . . 300

Chapter XII. Gladstone In Opposition

Eastern Question— Turkey Does Nothing but Promise — Suicide of the Turkish Sultan — Oriental Races — Explanations by Disraeli — Raised to the Peerage — Bulgarian Horrors — Lord Salisbury in the East — Earl of Shaftesbury — Duke of Argyle — Lord George Hamilton — Gladstone's Pamphlet on the Turkish Question — Action in Parliament on the Turkish Situation — Protracted Debate — Vote of Credit— " Peace with Honor" — Sir Stafford Northcote — Gladstone Arraigns the Government — Triumphal March Through Scotland — "Grand Old Man " — Great Ovations Every where. 318

Chapter XIII. The Second Gladstone Ministry

Great Liberal Majority — Importance of the Irish Question — Mr. Bradlaugh in Parliament — Lord Randolph Churchill — Great Expectations from the Gladstone Ministry — Treaty of Berlin Concerning Montenegro— Claims of Greece — Trying to Adjust Domestic Taxes — Game Laws — Post-office Department — Illness of Mr. Gladstone — Irish Land Law not Satisfactory — Peace Preservation Act — Irish Evictions — Home Rulers — Land League — Long Debate —Coercion Bills— Eloquent Speech of John Bright — Memorable Scene in the House of Commons — Ludicrous Incidents — Mr. Parnell and Dish Legislation— Final Passage of the Irish Bill 359

Chapter XIV. The Second Gladstone Ministry

(Continued.)

Mr. Bradlaugh Once More — Home Rule — The Lords and the Land Act — Amendment of the Rules — Arrears Bill— Concessions to the Irish — Phoenix Park

Murders — Crimes Bill — Obstruction— Friends Failing— The Egyptian Question— Bombardment of Alexandria — Autumn Session — Forster's Attack on Gladstone— The Reply— Explosives Bill— And Still, Mr. Bradlaugh— Minor Legislation— The Soudan Difficulties— Irrepressible Mr. Bradlaugh— The Egyptian Trouble Continues— The Afghan Boundary- Failure of the Soudan War— The Budget- A Sleepy Time— Waking Up— , A Great Speech— A Great Surprise— Fall of the Ministry 387 i'

Chapter XV. Third And Fourth Administrations

Mr. Gladstone Again in Scotland— Lord Salisbury on Public Questions— Result of the Elections— Third Gladstone Ministry— Advocates Giving Ireland the Right to Make Her Own Laws— Irish Land Purchase Bill— Second Reading of Irish Home Rule Bill— Eloquent Appeal on Behalf of Ireland —Irish Bills Condemned by John Bright— Rupture Between the Two Great Leaders— General Election of 1886— Defeat of the Liberals— Policy of Coercion— Action of the Tory Government— The Premier's Retirement —Lord Rosebery, Successor to Mr. Gladstone 416

Chapter XVI. Personal Characteristics, Domestic Rela- Tions, And Literary Career

Estimates of Mr. Gladstone's Ability— General Appearance— Not a Narrow Man

Marriage and Home Life — Hawarden Estate — Mannerisms — Speeches

and Literary Style— Spontaneous Eloquence- Great Party Leader— Student and Man of Letters— Private Library— Scholar and Writer— Religious Character . . 43 °

Chapter XVII

MR. GLADSTONE'S DEATH AND OBSEQUIES.

Mr. Gladstone in the South of France— Return from Cannes— Signs of Growing Weakness — Peaceful Death — Universal Demonstrations of Grief— Telegrams ol Sympathy— Adjournment of the House of Commons -The Queen and Prince of Wales Express Their Sympathy— Tributes from the Newspaper Press — Telegrams from the Government of the United States — Estimate of Mr. Gladstone by Prominent Americans— Lying in State at Westminster— Great Throngs of People View the Remains— Remarkable Demonstration at Mr. Gladstone's Public Funeral— Burial in Westminster

Abbey ,

Chapter XVIII

MR. GLADSTONE ON THE ARMENIAN QUESTION.

Not a Party Question — The Resolutions — Dreadful Words to Speak — Witnesses to the Massacres — Report of Dr. Dillon — Plunder, Murder, Rape, and Torture — Responsibility of the Turkish Government — The Turk Ought to March Out of Armenia — What is to Become of Christians in the Turkish Empire?— Sad and Terrible Story 462

Chapter XIX. Gladstone On The Beaconsfield Ministry

Dissolution of Parliament — Reply to Opponents — A Serious Position — Policy of the Government — Responsible for Other Countries — Turkey a Scandal to the World— Derby and Beaconsfield — Turkey Encouraged to Go to War — Treaties With European Nations — Policy of Austria — Worshippers of Success — Treatment of the Sultan — Tory Government to be Tried by its Principles 473

Chapter XX. The Irish Question

Personal Explanation — Domestic Government for Ireland— Six Conditions for Home Rule — Repelling Attacks -Trivial Disputes — All Great Movements Small in the Beginning — Failure of Parliament to Legislate for Ireland — Attempt to do Justice to the Irish — Union of the Kingdoms to be Maintained — Irish Affairs to Be Settled in Ireland — Movement Against Rent — Mr. Parn ell's Party — Central Authority — Home Rule to Be Safeguarded — Urgency of the Question — Charge of Being in Haste 489

LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES

OF

WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE.

Chapter I. Ancestry And Education

Napoleon and Wellington — Great Public Questions — Family of the Gladstones — Birth of the Subject of the Present Memoir — Scotch Parentage — Early Education — Wealth of the Family — Sketch of Lord Brougham — Mr. Gladstone at Eton— A Culprit Called Up for Correction — Account of Arthur Henry Hallam— Papers Published at Eton — Troubles in Ireland — Canning and His Ministry — Mr. Gladstone Brought Up as a Tory — Characteristic Anecdote — The Future Premier at Oxford — Life as a Student — Early Promise of Great Distinction.

aT the close of the year 1809 Napoleon was at the very summit of his glory. Austria and Russia were in terror of his name; Italy and Spain were his submissive dependents; his own France looked at him with adoring eyes ; Prussia had been crushed to the earth ; Sweden had chosen one of his generals as the heir to her crown ; Greece had no separate existence, but was merely a province of Turkey; England alone preserved her independence of thought, feeling and action.

But though England sturdily held her own, she was not unimpressed by the power of the conqueror. She had felt the weight of his iron hand, but had shaken it off. The council of Berlin had endeavored to cripple her resources by shutting the ports of Europe to her ships. Had the measure been carried out, the effect would indeed have been ruinous to England ; but the thing was impracticable; and, one after another, the various countries found that they must connive at the violation of this article of the treaty. Meanwhile, the English armies were in the field, headed by that very Duke of Wellington, then simple Sir Arthur Wellesley, who was to be the final victor in the great struggle.

George III. was king of England, and in possession of as much mind as nature had chosen to give him ; he had been insane at more than one time before this, but had recovered ; and had not yet sunk into that long period of imbecility from which only

Ancestry and Education.

death delivered him. The Duke of Portland was Prime Minister; the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, so important a minister in this time of war, was George Canning, the fame of whose eloquence had gone through the land ten years before. Besides the measures relating to the war, which of course occupied the thoughts of all men to the exclusion of much which would otherwise have claimed their attention, there were two questions of importance that at this date were continually forcing themselves into prominence; these were the slave-trade, of which we shall have more to say hereafter, and Catholic Emancipation — a sub-division of that great Irish Question which has

been a cause of perplexity to English rulers and their advisers since the days of Henry II. The most ardent and best known advocate of this latter measure was no other than the disciple of Pitt, who had been so active an assistant to the government which had passed the Irish Act of Union in 1800; and the name of Canning is indissolubly linked with the memory of this act of long-delayed justice. We hardly realize the severity of the laws against the communicants of the Church of Eome, as they existed at this period, in what we are accustomed to regard as the most enlightened and liberal country of Europe ; excluded from every office of trust, civil or military, they could not make their grievances known to the legislature, for every member of that body, whether of the Lords or the Commons, must, before taking his seat, take such oaths as were impossible to a Catholic. Their only hope was in the generosity of their enemies; and of these, Canning was the first, after Pitt had been obliged to break his promises to them, to urge their claims.

George Canning.

GATEWAY FROM HAWARDEN RECTORY TO THE CHURCH

In times of peace, the thoughts of the wise statesman and the prudent citizen turn to the improvements which it is possible to make in the condition of the country or the race ; in times of war, the same men are only anxious to preserve the advantages which have already been obtained. To apply this axiom to English politics and political parties, men incline to Conservatism in war and Liberalism in peace. Those who are Conservatives in quiet times will naturally have this feeling strengthened at a period of doubt and anxiety, and become Tories. Such, at any rate, was the case with a great merchant of Liverpool, at the date of which we write; but his ancestry, his education, his success in life, and his Toryism, are all of such importance to the pages which follow, that we are not ready to begin his history in the year 1809.

The family of the Gledstanes or Gladstanesw&s settled in Clydesdale at an early day. In the beginning of the sixteenth century they were landed proprietors in that county, and some of the name are known to have been in business at Biggar for more than fifty years before the middle of the last century. They were uniformly successful in their efforts to make a living, if we may judge from the record of those who retired from active business life to the calm and quiet of the estates which they had themselves acquired; for this seems to have been a younger branch of the family, who .derived no share of the estates of Arthurshiel and Gladstanes, the first-mentioned as possessed by those bearing this now widely honored name.

Some differences in the spelling of the family cognomen will be noted. The orthography above given seems to have prevailed until the middle of the last century ; for it is Thomas Gladstones, who was born in 1732, who first writes it with an " o" in the last syllable. This was the grandfather of the great statesman. He left his father's house and settled in Leith, where he married. A numerous family grew up around him, the eldest of whom was a son called John. His business in the corn trade was so well managed and successful that he was able to make generous provision for each of the twelve children who grew to manhood and womanhood.

John Gladstones had scarcely attained his majority when he was sent by his father to Liverpool, to sell a cargo of grain which had arrived at that port. The young Scotchman had dealings with a leading corn merchant of that place, the head of the house of Corrie & Co.; aud displayed such capabilities for business that Mr. Corrie wrote to the elder Gladstones, requesting him to allow his son to remain in Liverpool. So well did the young man fulfill the promise of his first acquaintance, that before very long we find the firm of Corrie & Co. merged into a new house, with the name of Corrie, Gladstones & Bradshaw above its doors. The new member of the firm soon made hi& name a synonym for push and energy; and at least one occasion is recorded, when, by his activity, perseverence and indomitable pluck, he saved the house from utter ruin.

After being a member of this firm for sixteen years, John Gladstones, upon the retirement of his partners, associated his brother with him in the business, and largely extended the range of his transactions. With these, however, we have little to do; it is enough to have seen something of the success with which he met, and know what was his standing among men. He had made his name well known in the country of his adoption, even before it was made illustrious by his famous son. That name, it will again be observed, still differed slightly from the form which is so familiar to us ; the final " s" was retained until the year 1834, when an act of Parliament sanctioned the disuse of it; though the name seems practically to have had its present form for some years before that date.

Mr. John Gladstone's first wife died, leaving no children ; and after a due interval, the merchant, who seems still to have had frequent communication with his Scotch home, though all his six brothers had settled in Liverpool, married Ann, the daughter of Mr. Andrew Eobertson, of Stornoway. One who knew the second Mrs. Gladstone intimately says of her that she was " a lady of very great accomplishments, of fascinating manners, commanding presence, and high intellect; one to grace any home and en. dear any heart." Of the six children of this marriage, th 3 second was born Dec. 29, 1809, and was named WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE.

In addition to the personal qualities of the statesman's mother, to which we have just heard such glowing tribute paid, she was descended, genealogists claim, from a stock held in high honor. No less an authority than Sir Bernard Burke, perhaps the highest that could be quoted in such a connection, gives a royal ancestry to him who might well be called, like a statesman of an older day, the Great Commoner. The editor of the Peerage traces the

Ancestry and Education.

descent of Ann Eoberlson Gladstone, step by step, back to that James of Scotland, who, in his captivity, fell in love with Lady Jane Beaufort, a descendant of Henry III. of England. Other authorties add, that besides this claim to the blood of the Bruce, the Robertsons were akin to the ancient kings of Man and some other notable nobles of the far past. Burke is too excellent an authority to be met on his own ground ; his assertions in such a case, made confidently as they are in this, are not to be lightly set aside ; and no one has had the temerity to do so. But if the

Birth-place of Gladstone, Rodney Street, Liverpool. statement that Gladstone is descended from Eobert Bruce and the Plantagenets has never been contradicted, it is treated with the most sovereign contempt by the one most interested. Gladstone has spoken of his ancestors, indeed 3 but if he is proud of any, it is of those who, by their own energy and honorable enterprise, have carved their own fortunes, and risen to positions of public esteem and eminence. When, in November, 1865, the Parliamentary Reform Union presented an address to him in the Glasgow Trade Hall, he thanked those who had signed the address for reminding him of his connection with Scotland ; and added : "If Scotland is not ashamed of her sons, her sons are not ashamed of Scotland; and the memory of the parents to whom I owe my being combines with various other considerations to make me glad and thankful to remember that the blood which runs in my veins is exclusively Scottish."

A little later than this, he had occasion to deliver an address at the Liverpool Collegiate Institute, in which, in frank and manly words, the Prime Minister of Great Britain recounted his obligations to commerce. Standing in his native city, before Ihose to whose fathers and grandfathers his father had been known as one of the most eminent merchants and shipowners in Lancashire, he said :

" I know not why commerce in England should not have its old families, rejoicing to be connected with commerce from generation to generation. It has been so in other countries ; I trust it will be so in this country. I think it a subject of sorrow, and almost of scandal, when those families who have either acquired or recovered wealth or station through commerce, turn their backs upon it, and seemed to be ashamed of it. It certainly is not so with my brother or me. His sons are treading in his steps, and one of my sons, I rejoice to say, is treading in the steps of my father and my brother."

Whatever illustrious names, then, may bo ranked among his mother's ancestors in the fifteenth century, it is clear that the statesman himself makes no claim to a connection with any but the middle class, as it is ranked in England. But it will be remembered that, with all the advantages which are the perquisites of birth and wealth, the aristocracy has produced fewer really great men than this same middle class ; and it will be found, upon careful consideration, that the majority of these few that we concede to them, are sprung, not of the old houses, but of those recently ennobled. The Grand Old Man has reason to be proud that he sprang from the middle class ; and, to use an antithesis similar to his own when he spoke of Scotland and her sons, we may add that the middle class is proud of him.

When we have once fairly begun upon the story of the statesman's life, we shall turn aside only to notice those of his contemporaries who, in any respect, approach to the plane upon which he stands ; let us, then, in this place, trace out something further of his family, as we shall not again return to the subject.

Mr. John Gladstone had already been chairman of the West India Association when, in 1814, his name was closely associated with the trading carried on with the East Indies. The old monopoly was broken in that year ? and his firm was the first to

Ancestry and Education.

send a private vessel to the ports so long under the control of the East India Company. Nor was ho progressive and enterprising in matters relating to his business alone. It is interesting to trace in the father the liberal public spirit, the breadth of view, and the desire for the amelioration of the condition of

Gladstone and His Sister (From a picture painted in 1811).

every class, that have so long been manifested in the son. The fact that he addressed, with no mean eloquence, a meeting which was called in 1818 "to consider the propriety of petitioning Parliament to take into consideration the progressive and alarmingincrease in the crimes of forging and uttering forged notes of the Bank of England," may be thought only proper to the prudent and prominent business man, anxious to check the spread of an offence peculiarly troublesome to him and his associates. His activity in another matter, however, shows him to be warm-hearted as well as keen-sighted. It was by his efforts that, in 1823, the Steamboat Act included a provision that each vessel should be obliged to carry a sufficient number of boats to accommodate the passengers, in case of any accident j a simple enough precaution it seems to us, but so neglected previous to this time that, in one case, a public packet-boat which was wrecked with nearly one hundred and fifty souls on board, had only one small shallop, twelve feet long, to convey the passengers and seamen to shore. It was also due to him that means were taken to enlist the general sympathy for the Greeks, when they were struggling for their independence; and he spoke most impressively at the meeting which was held for that purpose.

These are but a few actions which show the character of the man. That he did not lack appreciation, is shown by the fact that a magnificent service of plate, consisting of twenty-eight pieces, was formally presented to him in the name of his fellow-townsmen in 1824 ; the inscription ran: " To John Gladstone, Esq., M. P., this service of plate was presented MDCCCXXIV, by his fellow-townsmen and friends, to mark their high sense of his successful exertions for trade and commerce, and in acknowledgment of his most important services rendered to the town of Liverpool."