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[The Right Hon. WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE is the fourth son of Sir John Gladstone, a merchant of Liverpool, and is of Scotch extraction. He was born at Liverpool, 1809; married, 1839, Catherine, daughter of Sir Stephen Richard Glynne, Bart., of Hawarden Castle, Flintshire. Educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, where he obtained a 'double first' in 1831. Entered Parliament as member for Newark in 1832, which he continued to represent till 1847, when he was returned for the University of Oxford. Represented the University till July 1865, when he was elected for South-West Lancashire. Defeated at the General Election in 1868, but returned by the borough of Greenwich. In 1834 Mr. Gladstone was appointed a Junior Lord of the Treasury. From January till April 1835 was Under-Secretary for the Colonies. In September 1841 became Vice-President of the Board of Trade and Master of the Mint; resigned these offices in February 1845; was Secretary of State for the Colonies from December 1845 till July 1846; Chancellor of the Exchequer from December 1852 till February 1855, and from June 1859 till July 1866. In November 1858 was sent as Lord High Commissioner Extraordinary to the Ionian Islands. In December 1868 he became First Lord of the Treasury, and held that office till February 1874. Mr. Gladstone is the author of numerous works, chiefly on ecclesiastical and classical subjects, and of late years has been a frequent contributor to the leading periodicals of the day.]

MR. GLADSTONE.

NE day in the year 1839 a party of

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guests were assembled at Sir Robert Peel's house at Drayton Manor, when a servant brought into the room a new book which had just been received. The great statesman took it up, turned over its pages for a few moments with a somewhat contemptuous air, and then flung it into the fire, saying as he did so, 'Confound that young fellow; if he goes on writing stuff of this sort he'll ruin his future. Why can't he stick to politics?' The book in question was called 'The State considered in its

Relations with the Church,' and the 'young fellow' who roused the irritation of Sir Robert Peel, was the eminent man whose name I have placed at the head of this chapter.

This little anecdote, which I repeat on the authority of an eye-witness of the scene, is worth recalling, because it shows that just forty years ago Mr. Gladstone's illustrious political friend and patron was making the same complaint regarding him as that which one hears to-day from many of his professed admirers. The great charge now brought against the man who is, by universal confession, the ablest of living English statesmen, is that he will not stick to the prescribed routine of his position.

When he was a youth, just beginning public life, and with a hard battle for recognition before him, he annoyed his friends and patrons by not applying himself solely to the duties which custom imposes upon

the sucking statesman. He wrote books, and serious books too, on grave constitutional problems, at a time when he ought to have been content to hold his tongue and cheer his leader' from a modest place on the back benches.

And now, when a great life is mellowing and ripening in the autumn sunshine-a sunshine not unchequered by clouds and storms-Mr. Gladstone puzzles and irritates the world by his resolute refusal to accept the place assigned from time immemorial to the retired statesman or party leader. He ought, says the world, speaking after its own fashion, to be satisfied with what he has done, and to leave the field in the occupation of younger men. Instead of taking this course, however, he is more active in his retirement than any officeholder or office-seeker among his contemporaries. He fills up the mere leisure

moments of his life by a voluminous correspondence, so varied and extensive, that it alone would tax the energies of an ordinary man; he finds time to study his favourite subjects, which lie far apart from the current of politics, and to keep himself abreast of the general culture of the day; he is a constant contributor to some of the leading reviews and magazines; he is ready when required to give an address on Thrift or a lecture on Dean Hook to his neighbours at Hawarden; but over and above all this, he is at the same time the ablest, the most searching, and the most powerful critic of the intricate and complicated foreign policy of the Government, and the foremost champion, recognised as such by all the world, of some of the cardinal principles of Justice and Freedom.

A man who through all his life has been distinguished by these characteristics is

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