The Real Gladstone Part 10

'Trace we the workings of that wondrous brain, Warmed by a bottle of our dry champagne.'

In 1891 the _Literary World_ wrote: 'There have been comments made lately by different writers depreciating Mr. Gladstone's literary judgments.

Whatever else may be said for them, it is certain, we think, that they are not hastily formed, for in his reading, as in all else, he is strictly methodical.' This point is well made by a contributor to the _Young Man_, in a long and interesting article. 'Mr. Gladstone,' he says, 'cannot read hastily, nor has he ever acquired the fine art of skipping. But he is not slow to discover whether the book is worth reading, and if not, after a few pages it is cast on one side, though, as a general rule, his judgment is lenient.' In the 'Autobiography of Sir Henry Taylor' this is further ill.u.s.trated. Mr. Gladstone on one occasion asked him what he thought of two or three volumes of poetry recently published. They were presentation copies sent him by obscure poets, who, if possessed of a grain or two of common-sense, could have had but little expectation that their volumes would be opened by Mr. Gladstone, even if they should pa.s.s beyond the sifting hands of his secretaries. 'He seemed, however, to be prepared to discuss their merits, had not my entire ignorance,' writes Sir Henry, 'stopped the way.'

Another characteristic is mentioned by Sir Henry on the authority of Mrs.

Gladstone-the power he possessed of turning from what was arduous and anxious, and becoming at once intensely occupied with what was neither, and she regarded this as having something of a saving virtue. But she added, nevertheless, it was a frightful life.

'Gladstone's method of impartiality is,' wrote Lord Houghton, 'to be furiously earnest on both sides of a question.' Again, we have another characteristic from Lord Houghton-Gladstone saying 'he felt strongly that the statesman was becoming every day more and more the delegate of the people and less the leader.'

Another characteristic incident is recorded by Mr. Richard Redgrave: 'Mr.

Lowe said that a few days before, dining with Mr. Gladstone, a lady being seated between them, Mr. Gladstone across said to Mr. Lowe: "I cannot think why they called Cobden the Inspired Bagman." "Neither can I," said Mr. Lowe; "for he was neither inspired nor a bagman. In fact, it reminds me of a story told of Madame Maintenon when someone offered to obtain an order for her to gain admission into the _Maison des filles repenties_.

'Nay,' said Madame, 'I am neither a _fille_ nor am I a _repentie_.'" At that the lady between the two politicians burst into a laugh, but Mr.

Gladstone pulled rather a long face,' as he did, I am told by a late Minister, at a dinner where Lord Westbury uttered some rather coa.r.s.e jokes.

The late Mr. R. H. Hutton, of the _Spectator_, in an article in the _Contemporary Review_, smartly hit off one of Mr. Gladstone's characteristics: 'There is a story that one of his most ardent followers said of him that he did not at all object to Mr. Gladstone's always having one ace up his sleeve, but he did object to his always saying that Providence placed it there.' In 1832 a Dean of Peterborough said of Mr.

Gladstone: 'His conscience is too tender ever to run straight.' In 1866 Dr. Lake, of Durham, remarked of Mr. Gladstone that 'his intellect could persuade his conscience of anything.'

'In the course of life,' Mr. Gladstone wrote to Sir Henry Taylor, 'I have found it just as difficult to get out of office as to get in, and I have done more doubtful things to get out than to get in. Furthermore, for more than nine or ten months of the year I am always willing to go, but in the two or three which precede the Budget I begin to feel an itch to have the handling of it. Last summer I should have been delighted [to resign]; now I am indifferent. In February, if I live so long, I shall, I have no doubt, be loath, but in April quite ready again. Such are my signs of the Zodiac.'

In the series of sketches of 'Bookworms of Yesterday and To-day,' place in the _Bookworm_ is given to Mr. Gladstone, who has been a book-collector for over three-quarters of a century. 'He kindly informs me,' writes Mr. W. Roberts, 'that he has two books which he acquired in 1815, one of which was a present from Miss H. More. At the present time he estimates his library to contain from 22,000 to 25,000 books, arranged by himself into divisions and sections in a very minute manner. The library is so exceedingly miscellaneous that Mr. Gladstone himself does not venture to state which section preponderates, although he thinks that "theology may be one-fourth." There are about twenty editions of Homer, and from thirty to forty translations, whole or part. He has never sympathized to any considerable extent with the craze for modern first editions, but "I like a tall copy" is Mr. Gladstone's reply, made with all the genuine spirit of the true connoisseur, to an inquiry on the subject. And so far as regards a preference for ancient authors, in old but good editions, to modernized reprints, the verdict is emphatically in favour of the former.'

Lord Shaftesbury seems to have been struck with Mr. Gladstone's inconsistency. In his diary, in 1873, he writes: 'Last year Gladstone, speaking on Female Suffrage, said "the Bill will destroy the very foundation of social life." This year he says: "We had better defer it till we get the ballot; then it will be quite safe."' In 1864 his lordship had written: 'Mr. Gladstone will succ.u.mb to every pressure except the pressure of a const.i.tutional and Conservative party.'

Mr. W. Lucy thus ill.u.s.trates Mr. Gladstone's restlessness: 'Except at the very best, Mr. Gladstone's Parliamentary manner lacked repose. He was always br.i.m.m.i.n.g over with energy, which had much better have been reserved for worthier objects than those that sometimes succeeded in evoking its lavish expenditure. I once followed Mr. Gladstone through the hours of an eventful sitting. . . . The foe opposite was increasing in the persistence of his attack, and nominal friends on the benches were growing weary in their allegiance. The Premier came in from behind the chair with hurried pace; he had been detained in Downing Street up to the last moment. As usual, when contemplating making a great speech, he had a flower in his b.u.t.ton-hole, and was dressed with unusual care. Striding swiftly past his colleagues on the Treasury Bench, he dropped into the seat kept vacant for him, and, hastily taking up a copy of the orders, ascertained what particular question in the long list had been reached.

Then turning with a sudden bound of his whole body, he entered into animated conversation with a colleague, his pale face working with excitement, his eyes glistening, and his right hand vehemently beating the open palm of his left hand, as if he were literally pulverizing an adversary. Tossing himself back with equally rapid gesture, he lay pa.s.sive for the s.p.a.ce of eighty seconds. Then with another swift movement of the body he turned to the colleague on the left, dashed his hand into his side-pocket, as if he had suddenly become conscious of a live coal secreted there, pulled out a letter, opened it with a violent flick of extended forefingers, and earnestly discoursed thereon.'

In acknowledging a copy of a recently published work on 'Clergymen's Sore Throat,' Mr. Gladstone has addressed a letter to the author, Dr. E. B.

Shuldham, on the subject of the management of the voice in public speaking. 'No part of the work,' writes Mr. Gladstone, 'surprised me more than your account of the various expedients resorted to by eminent singers. There, if anywhere, we might have antic.i.p.ated something like a fixed tradition. But it seems we have learned nothing from experience, and I myself can testify that even in this matter fashion prevails.

Within my recollection an orange, or more than one, was alone, as a rule, resorted to by members of Parliament requiring aid. Now it is never used. When I have had very lengthy statements to make I have used what is called egg-flip-a gla.s.s of sherry beaten up with an egg. I think it excellent, but I have much more faith in the egg than in the alcohol. I never think of employing it unless on the rare occasions when I have expected to go much beyond an hour. One strong reason for using something of the kind is the great exhaustion often consequent on protracted expectation and attention before speaking.'

One of the best of the many stories connected with Mr. Gladstone's many residences in the South of France tells how one Sunday he and his wife were seated in the church at Cannes near the pulpit. The Grand Old Man, turning to his wife, said, in an irritable tone: 'I can't hear.' 'Never mind, my dear,' said the lady. 'Go to sleep; it will do you much more good.'

In a chapter of his autobiography Mr. Gladstone wrote: 'In theory, and at least for others, I am a purist with respect to what touches the consistency of statesmen. Change of opinion in those to whom the public look more or less to a.s.sert its own is an evil to the country at large, though a much smaller one than their persistency in a course which they know to be wrong. It is not always to be blamed, but it is to be watched with vigilance-always to be challenged and put upon trial.'

In 1881 Mr. Gladstone told the electors of Leeds he had been a Liberal since 1846. The fact is, as Mr. Jennings has shown, that he held office under a Conservative Premier, that he was returned for Oxford as a Conservative, and that in 1858 he canva.s.sed the county of Flint for Sir Stephen Glynne, who was a strong supporter of Lord Derby's Government.

In 1855, when Lord Aberdeen, who was certainly no Whig, retired, Mr.

Gladstone wrote a most effective letter of regret, which incidentally throws a little light on his correspondent's character. Mr. Gladstone writes: 'You make too much of services I have rendered you. I wish it were in my power to do justice in return for the benefits I have received from you. Your whole demeanour has been a living lesson to me, and I have never gone, with my vulnerable temper and impetuous moods, into your presence without feeling the strong influence of your calm and settled spirit.'

_Pearson's Magazine_ tells some interesting things about the Grand Old Man. Though possessing strict views on Sunday observance, he does not disapprove of Sunday cycling. The bicycle, he says, is no more than a perfect means of locomotion. Hawarden Park, which is closed to ordinary tourists on Sunday, is open to cyclists. He gives the first place among living writers of fiction to Zola, but his favourite English books are the Waverley Novels. Of his once large collection of axes only thirty or forty now remain. 'In bygone days admirers were constantly sending him axes as marks of their esteem, and now other admirers quite as constantly smuggle them away as treasured mementoes of their visits.' A silver pencil, axe-shaped, presented by the Princess of Wales 'for axing questions,' is among the treasures of the G.O.M. Fifty or sixty walking-sticks, part of a once unique collection, adorn a rack outside Mr. Gladstone's study, but the number of these also 'is being diminished by visitors whose enthusiasm is in advance of their scruples.' Alluding to Mr. Gladstone's fondness for fresh air, the writer (Mr. W. A.

Woodward) says: 'I have seen him, with Mrs. Gladstone at his side, a ridiculously small umbrella held between them, set forth for a pleasure drive in such torrents of rain as no ordinary mortal would have faced save on some vital purpose.' Books on divorce and marriage-judging by the number of annotations in his neat, distinct handwriting in such volumes in his library-receive his closest attention, but he has no very great interest in the modern a.n.a.lytical novel. 'It is natural,' says the writer, 'that the subject of marriage, in its middle relation to politics and religion, should have exercised a large fascination over so ardent a student of theology and sociology.'

Mr. Gladstone planted a young tree at Studley Royal, and the Studley and Oldfield children were specially summoned to the place to witness the ceremonial. As they were standing in review order-there being in all about one hundred and twenty youngsters-Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone pa.s.sed down the lines, and some remarks by the right hon. gentleman were addressed to Lord Ripon. The point mainly dwelt upon was the large size of the heads of Yorkshire children. Mr. Gladstone suggested that it was indicative of independence. He added that his experience was that the farther north he went, the larger he found the human head, and he told an anecdote about a man who went to a hatter's, but failed to get a hat large enough, until the tradesman, driven to desperation, called for an Aberdeen hat.

It is well known that Mr. Gladstone is an authority in the ceramic art, and he never loses an opportunity of inspecting rare and beautiful specimens. When he lately visited Manchester he spent an early hour at the exhibition among the beautiful collection placed there by Messrs.

Doulton. And there he received an unexpected pleasure. More than a dozen years ago, when speaking at a dinner of the Turners' Company, he alluded to a visit he had made to the works of Messrs. Doulton. He had been taken into the room of a young man, who happened to be absent at the time, to see the quality of his workmanship. He was delighted with what he saw, the more when he learned that the young artist had not heard a sound since his fourth year. He spoke so kindly of him and his work that it almost seemed as if Mr. Gladstone envied the isolation which seemed to favour abstraction and study in the midst of bustle and din. It was this gentleman, Mr. Frank Butler, whom Mr. Gladstone found in charge of the Doulton art treasures at Manchester. He at once remembered him, and, before leaving, he had Mr. Butler to seat himself at the potter's wheel, and fashion before him a vase as a specimen of his skill. Upon this Mr.

Gladstone inscribed his name in the wet clay, and another was turned for Mrs. Gladstone.

From a little volume-'Mr. Gladstone in the Evening of his Days'-I take the following:

'Another reason why Mr. Gladstone gets through such an astounding amount of work is his extraordinary habit of using up odds and ends of time.

One day not long ago he was driving into Chester after luncheon; his pudding was very hot, so he went away from table, changed his clothes, got ready for his drive, and came back and finished the meal, thus saving the ten minutes during which his pudding cooled. It may here be mentioned, in connection with the drives to Chester, that on the day a few months ago when he drove in for the purpose of making his powerful Armenian speech, Mr. Gladstone had been absorbed in Butler all the morning, and the speech was made without any special preparation.' Even at the great age of eighty-five it was evident that Mr. Gladstone worked more hours a day than many men in the prime of life would like.

Sir Francis Doyle once asked Mr. Gladstone whether, after his long years of practice, he ever felt nervous on rising to speak. 'Not on political questions,' was his answer; 'but if I am called upon to deliver what the Greeks used to call an "epideictic oration," as at the Literary Fund dinner, or the like, I am often somewhat troubled at first.'

'I have just heard,' wrote on one occasion a correspondent of the _Manchester Guardian_, 'a highly characteristic anecdote of Mr.

Gladstone's versatility. I suppress the name and place. After an interesting interview with a prominent author, whose acquaintance he had newly made, in reply to a courteous hope that his health and strength might long be spared, Mr. Gladstone said: "Yes, I confess I wish to live for two great objects. You can guess one of them: it is to settle the Irish question. The other is, to convince my countrymen of the substantial ident.i.ty between the theology of Homer and that of the Old Testament."'

Under this heading we give a few items from Bishop Wilberforce's notes.

In 1868 he writes: 'Gladstone n.o.ble as ever.' Again: 'Gladstone, as ever, just, earnest, and honest, as unlike the tricky Disraeli as ever.'

Again the Bishop writes, after staying with him at Hatfield: 'I have very much enjoyed meeting Gladstone. He is so delightfully true-just as full of interest in every good thing of every kind, and exactly the reverse of the mystery man. When people talk of Gladstone going mad, they do not take into account the wonderful elasticity of his mind and the variety of his interests. Now, this morning after breakfast he and I and Salisbury went a walk round the beautiful park, and he was just as much interested in the size of the oaks, their probable age, etc., as if no care of State ever pressed upon him. This is his safeguard, joined to rect.i.tude of purpose and clearness of view.'

No reference to Mr. Gladstone would be complete without a word about his collars. In a paper on the subject in the _New Century_, Mr. Harry Furniss writes: 'I believe I am generally supposed to have invented Mr.

Gladstone's collars; but, as a matter of fact, I merely sketched them.

Many men wear collars quite as large, and even larger, than his, but they are not so prominent in appearance, for the simple reason that when Mr.

Gladstone sits down it is his custom to sit well forward; his body collapsed, so to speak, and his head sunk into his seat. The inevitable result was that his collar rose, and owing to this circ.u.mstance I have frequently seen it looking quite as conspicuous as it is depicted in my caricatures. When Mr. Gladstone upon one occasion met the artists of _Punch_ at dinner, I was chagrined to find when he walked into the dining-room that he had discarded his usual large collar for one of the masher type. I felt that my reputation for accuracy was blighted, and sought consolation from the editor of a Gladstonian organ who happened to be present. "Yes," he said; "he is evidently dressed up to meet the _Punch_ artists. He is the pink of fashion and neatness now; but last night when I met him at dinner his shirt was frayed at the edges, and his collar was pinned down behind, but the pin gave way during the evening, and the collar nearly came over his head."'

Mr. Justin McCarthy has much to say of Mr. Gladstone's eyes: 'I am myself strongly of opinion that Mr. Gladstone strongly improved in appearance as his life went on deepening into years. I cannot, of course, remember him as he was in 1833. I think I saw him for the first time some twenty years later. But although he was a decidedly handsome man at that time, I did not think his appearance was nearly so striking or so commanding as it became in the closing years of his career. I do not believe that I ever saw a more magnificent human face than that of Mr. Gladstone after he had grown old. Of course, the eyes were always superb. Many a stranger looking at Mr. Gladstone for the first time saw the eyes, and only the eyes, and could think for a moment of nothing else. Age never dimmed the fire of these eyes.'

A few characteristics are given by Mr. McCarthy: 'I have mixed,' he writes, 'with most of Mr. Gladstone's contemporaries, his political opponents as well as his political followers, and I have never heard a hint of any serious defect in his nature, or of any unworthy motive influencing his private or public career. Defects of temperament, and of manner, and of tact have no doubt been ascribed to him over and over again. He was not, people tell me, always successful in playing up to or conciliating the weaknesses of inferior men. He was not good, I am told, at remembering faces or names. . . . Such defects, however, in Mr.

Gladstone's nature or temperament count indeed for little or nothing in the survey of his career.' Another characteristic of Mr. Gladstone, remarks Mr. McCarthy, is his North-country accent.

Sir Andrew Clark, who was Mr. Gladstone's physician for years, said he never had a more docile patient than Mr. Gladstone. The moment he is really laid up he goes to bed, and there remains till he recovers. He is a firm believer in the doctrine of lying in bed when you are ill. You keep yourself in an equable temperature, avoid the worries and drudgery of everyday life, and being in bed is a good pretext for avoiding the visits of the mult.i.tude of people whose room is better than their company.

Mr. Gladstone's admirers are very angry when it is intimated that his character is not perfection. It may be there are spots in the sun, but the idol of the party must be spotless.

The following anecdote ill.u.s.trates Mr. Gladstone's love of music. On the eve of one of his great budgets, Mr. Gladstone found time to go to the theatre to see Sarah Bernhardt act in 'Phedre.' The great statesman was so delighted with the acting, that he wrote to mademoiselle a letter expressing his great gratification. The divine Sarah always had a great influence on the impressionable Premier. When she held a reception, the first to come and the last to go was Mr. Gladstone, and none who witnessed it were likely to forget the spectacle of the great statesman bending low almost till he kissed the hand of the actress when she advanced to welcome him.

According to all accounts, Mr. Gladstone is on the most friendly terms with his tenantry. To some of them he has been specially kind. On the occasion of the marriage of his son and heir he feasted 550 of his cottage tenants on the first day, and upwards of 400 on the second. On one occasion, while Mr. Gladstone was pointing out to a large party of excursionists the beauties of the trees, he added: 'We are very proud of our trees.' 'Why, then, do you cut them down as you do?' said a man in the crowd. Said the Grand Old Man in reply: 'We cut down that we may improve. We remove rottenness that we may restore health by letting in air and light. As a good Liberal, you ought to understand that.'

Again I give an anecdote of his kindness as landlord. When Mr. Gladstone was engaged in one of his Midlothian campaigns, his princ.i.p.al tenant, an energetic and capable practical farmer, was suffering from severe illness. Every day during the campaign came a letter from Mr. and Mrs.

Gladstone inquiring after his health. On their return from Scotland, having travelled all night, they drove from Chester straight to the tenant's house, and were both in his bedroom at half-past eight in the morning.

Another Hawarden anecdote may be recorded here. In Mr. Gladstone's household was an old woman-servant, who had a son inclined to go wrong.

The mother remonstrated, but all to no purpose. At last she thought if the Premier would take the prodigal in hand, at last he might be reclaimed. She appealed to Mr. Gladstone, and he responded at once to her appeal. He had the lad sent to his study, spoke to him words of tender advice and remonstrance, and eventually knelt down with him and prayed to a higher Power to help in the work of reformation.

In May, 1885, Mr. Lucy writes: 'In making a statement to-night on the course of public business, the Premier spoke, as has been a matter of custom of late, amid continuous noisy interruptions from a section of the Conservative party. To-night this method of Parliamentary procedure, novel, as directed against the leader of the House, reached a climax which had the desired effect of temporarily silencing the Premier. After a painful pause, he observed that this new kind of Parliamentary warfare was of little matter to him, whose personal interposition in political strife was a question of weeks rather than of months, certainly of months more than of years. But he had a deep conviction that within the last three years a blow had been struck at the liberty and dignity of the House of Commons by these intrusions upon debate.'

No notice can be held to be complete which does not give one an idea of the splendid physical const.i.tution which has enabled Mr. Gladstone to lead the life he has led and to do the work he has done. On one occasion he told his Welsh admirers that it was due to the air of that part of the Princ.i.p.ality near which he resided. But his vitality is undoubtedly an ill.u.s.tration of the principle of heredity. The medical journals had always much to say of Mr. Gladstone's health. We quote one. At the end of the session in which Mr. Gladstone carried his Irish Land Bill, the _Lancet_ wrote: 'Apart from all party and political considerations, it is but proper to express our satisfaction at seeing Mr. Gladstone, at the end of a session almost unprecedented for length and for those influences which hara.s.s and exhaust, in a state of admirable health and spirits. It was a physiological and psychological marvel last week to see him rise and show reasons for disagreeing with the Lords' Amendments, not in any hasty or excited mood, but with perfect serenity of intellect and temper, with absolute mastery of details, and appealing to all that was best in his opponents. This is a feat which exceeds, in our judgment, the felling of many trees, and almost crowns Mr. Gladstone's many claims to distinction. The last straw breaks the camel's back, and it would have been excusable if the obstructions of August had elicited peevishness and intelligible if they had produced exhaustion. But both strength and temper are intact, and Mr. Gladstone goes to his holiday with a stock of energy which many younger men would be glad to return with, and which is no mean guarantee for future service to his Queen and country.'

Archbishop Magee used to tell a good story of Father Healy and Mr.

Gladstone. The latter asked him upon what principle the Roman Church offered soul indulgences, saying when he was in Rome he was offered an indulgence for fifty francs. Father Healy replied: 'Well, Mr. Gladstone, I do not want to go into theology with you; but all I can say is, that if my Church offered you an indulgence for fifty francs, she let you off very cheap!'

A correspondent, a well-known London minister, who got crushed in the crowd at the opening of St. Martin's Free Library, in 1891, by Mr.

Gladstone, tells an anecdote of the ex-Premier's kindness of heart, on the authority of a former vicar. When Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr.

Gladstone regularly attended this church. A crossing-sweeper in the parish, who had been some time ill, when asked by the vicar if anybody had been to see him, said, 'Yes, sir; Mr. Gladstone.' 'Which Mr.

Gladstone?' he was asked. 'Why,' was the answer, 'Mr. Gladstone himself.

He often speaks to me, and gives me something at my crossing. Not seeing me, he asked my mate, who was keeping it for me, why I was not there. He told him I was ill, and then he asked where I lived. So he came to see me, and talked and read to me.'