The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-02-15 00:00:00

SATURDAY, FEB. 15, 1879.

MR. GLANSTONE ON DR. HOOK.

en Monday Mr. Gladstone delivered a lecture ia the Boys'
School, awarden, on the life of Dr. Nook. There was a
very large attendance, and the proceeds of the lec.ure will
be devoted to the school funds Mr,, Gladstone was acoom-
panted by Mrs. Gladstone, Mr. W. H. Gladstone, MT., the
Rev. S. B. Gladstone, and Canon Hillyard.—The following
report-of Mr. Gladstone's lecture is from The Times of
Tuesday-i
Mr. Gladstone said that to many of those present,
who were parishioners, the name of Dr. Hook was not
altogether strange. He was greatly loved by Sir
Stephen Glynne and his brother, the elate rector, and
frequently gave them his assistance, and he (Mr. Glad-
stone) had always understood that no man had ever left
behind him a more pleasant or more respected memory.
He did not intend to say one word with regard to Dr.
Hook's religious opinions, although he was a promi-
nent man in the controversies of his day, beyond
this—that he was in the strictest sense what was
now termed an Anglican. He proved his religious
stability by holding his ground without change of
any kind, except that as his mind became more
matured he became more Liberal. He held rigidly
by the laws and constitution of the Church of England,
and all must feel that that Church and the particular
form of religion had a very great ornament in Dr. Hook.
Ile was a man of extraordinary natural mental abili-
ties, which were largely cultivated and improved by
his marvellous assiduity. He was eminently what was
smiled a "John Bull." He inherited from his ances-
tors and imbibed from the time in which he lived par-
ticular prejudices. In those times 60 years ago, it
was part of the duty of every Englishman to hate the
Trench, and Dr. Hook, wishing to do his duty as an
Englishman, hated the French. (Laughter.) As it
was part of every Englishman's creed then to hate the
Pope, Dr. Hook hated him also. He had prejudices
of that kind, but they were all upon the surface, and
his character was such that had either a Frenchman
or the Pope ever stood in any need and Dr. Hook could
have helped them, he would have done it with all his
heart and soul. (Applause.) But it was not of this
that he wished to speak. These were on the sur-
face of his character. What he wanted to point out
them was the character of the man. it was the quali-
ties of the man's heart, it was the feature which
marked his conduct, which, in his opinion, rendered
him an admirable pattern to us, and one that was
nothing less than delightful to contemplate. The Pall
Mall Gazette was not a jotirnal likely to lean with any
undue prejudice towards a clergyman,, yet in a review
[Dr. Hook's biography in that paper the reviewer
said, "This is one of the most interesting biographies
We have met with for a long time. The character of
the man himself, so strong, fresh, and original, lends a
charm to every page, which is often wanting in the bio-
. graphics of most eminent men." It was that character
which he (the lecturer) desired, in a very imperfect and
hasty manner, to set before his hearers, and the qualities
• which he set before them were those which they would
all readily appreciate—his intense reality, sincerity,
transparency, truthfulness, an directness, from which
he never deviated. They might sometimes find bits of
temper to which a minute critic might make objection,
but they never found him going one inch to the right
or left froth the straightforward line of sincerity,
truthfulness, and true manhood; and these were, after
all, the qualities that most of all required to be held
Up to admiration, to be studied and to be imitated.
(Cheers.) These were not his only great qualities,
although if they had been they would have gone
far to make him A model deserving of careful
observation; but along with these he had an immense
fund of sympathy, an extraordinary power of loving,
desire to love and be loved, And to these he added
Indefatigable diligence; and in the rear of his cha-
raseter, he was a great lover of geniality and what is
cal2eci fun. All these qualities combined in Dr. Hoek
in or harmonious whole, which gave to his life qualities
which he would call nobleness. In a passage which
occurred in a sermon which Dr. Hook had preached
when he became Dean of Chichester he had shown
where he fcrund the secret of this nobleness, and that
was in doing his duty thoroughly, however exalted or
however lowly, in that sphere of life in which it had
pleased God to place him.
Mr. Gladstone then proceeded to trace Dr. Hook's
life from his school days at Winchester, when he
fought and" demolished and smashed" the soldier for
the possession of a bathing-place, which the Win-
chester boys enjoyed to this day, through his college
studies, to his curscy in the Isle of Wight, his subse-
quent removal to the neighbourhood of Birmingham,
his appointment by the trustees to the parish of Leeds;
to his subsequent appointment as Dean of .Chichester
and his death, by frequent and voluminous extracts from
the biography of Dr. Hook, Mr. Gladstone illustrated
the enormous labour which, for a period of 33 years, he
performed in the parish of Leeds, his self-denying zeal,
and how by his ready tact he managed to win, at a
time of great excitement and agitation not only be-
tween the Church and Nonconformist, but in the
Church itself, the love and esteem of all parties, and
especially of the working classes, among whom he
laboured. This had been evidenced by the circum-
stance that, although there had been three vicars of
Leeds since his time, he even now went by the name of
t'owd Vicar' or " t'owd Vicar and t' wife."
Mr. Gladstone, after speaking of Dr. llook's retire-
ment to the Deanery of Chichester, spoke of his
literary labours, and said that his "Lives of the Arch-
bishops" was substantially a history of the Church of
England, and .entitled him, if not to a foreme§t, at
least to a high rank among the historians of this
country. The pure unselfishness of his character,
and his ardent friendship for Lord Hatherley,
which extended over ale whole of his life, were
illustrated by extracts, Mr. Gladstone said, if he,
were asked what he thought Dr. Hook to have been, he
should answer that he thought him to have been ihero,
and a hero was no less a hero because he was a Chris-
tian hero, or because he was a clerical hero. As he
had conceived the idea that Dr. Hook was a hero, he
felt himself bound to ascertain what people said were
the qualities of heroism. In Dr. Nathan's dictionary
a hero was described as a man eminent for bravery;
but he was not quite satisfied with that definition,
because some men were eminent for bravery whose
bravery was simply animal bravery, and there were
• many other kinds of excellence besides bravery.
He then turned to Dr. Johnson's dictionary and found
there two definitions of heroism, one a man eminent
for bravery, and the second a man of the highest class
In any respect. That seemed to be, coming nearer to
the mark; but even there he must make a further
limitation. There were many means of developing
greatness, which did not seem to him to constitute
heroism. Mr. Carlyle had written a book of extra-
ordinary ability, called "Lectures on Heroes," and in
this he named, among others. Napoleon. Now, he was
not prepared to admit that Napoleon was a hero. He
was certainly one of the most extraordinary men ever
born. There 1:96/1 more power concentrated in that
brain than in any brain probably born for centuries.
That he was a great man in the sense of being a man of
transcendent power there was no doubt, but his life
was tainted with selfishness from beginning to end,
and he was not ready to asmit a man whose life was
fundamentally tainted with selfishness was a hero.
A greater hero than Napoleon was the captain of a
iihip which was run down in the Channel three or four
years ago, who, when his ship was quivering and the
water was gurgling round her, and the boats had been
lowered to save ouch persons as could be saved, stood
by the bulwarks with a pistol in his hand and threat-
ened to shoot dead the first man who endeavoured to get
Into the boat until every woman and child was provided
for, (Cheers) His true idea of a hero was tbs. A
hero was a man who must have ends beyond himself,
in casting himself, as it'wern, out of himself, and must
pursue these ends by means which were honourable
utid lawful, otherwise he might degenerate into a wild
enthusiasm. Ile must do this without distortion or
disturbance of his nature as a man, because there
were cases of men who were heroes in a great
part, but who were so excessively given to
certain ideas and objects of their own that they lost
all the proportion of their nature. There were
other ecclesiastical heroes, who, by giving undue pro-
itraseaass... Ininence to one idea, lost the just proportion of things
41e_ess41,--74` pud iwcame simply men of one idea. A man to be a
loftifesse hero must prone ends beyond himself by legitimate
aml.ise means, He must pursne them as a man not as a
%lase dreamer. He must not give to Dome one idea a dis-
ooleissetst.Proportionate weight which it did not deserve, and
totesairt forget everything else which belonged to the per-
'''. liatrk feetion and excellence of human nature. If he did
tat all this he was a hero, even if he had not very great
e a' powers, and if he bad great powers, then be was a
consummate hero. Such a man, he contended, was
leas Dr. Hook, and he certainly deserved the best title
which he had given him. He was a man who made
heroic sacrifices, which had earned for him a secure
and lofty place as a soldier in the annals of the
bloodless watfare of the Gospel, and he was held as a
benefactor in the fond recollection of tens of thou-
sands of his fellow countrymen. (Cheers.)

MINING ACCIDENTS.

The Queen has approved of the appointment of Mr.
Warrington W. Smyth, F.R.S., Sir George Elliot
Bart, M.P., Mr. F. A. Abel, F.R.S., C. 8., Mr
Thoraaa Burt, M.P. Mr. Robert Bellamy Clifton
F.R.S., Professor Tyndall, F.ri, 5., Mr. Lindsay Wood
and Mr. William Thomas Lewis, as. her Majesty's
Commissioners for the purpose of inquiring and re-
porting whether with respect to the influence of
fiuctuations of atmospheric pressure upon the issue
of fire-damp from coal; to thp adoption and efficient
application of trustworthy indicators of the presence
of fire-damp, and generally to systematic observation
of the air in mines; to improved methods of ventila-
tion and illumination; to the employment of explosive
Piants i he getting of minerals: and to other
particulars relatufg to .ines qnd mining ciperatians,
the resources of science furnish any piacticable
expedients that are not now in use and are calculated
to prevent the occcnrrence of accidents or limit their
disastrous consequences.

THE SUNDAY OPENING OF MUSEIIMS,
FREE LIBRARIES, (ico.
. Sir Ctutrles Reed, LL.D., Chairman of the London Schoo
th!ird. writing on February 6to Charles Dill, secretary
of e'Workiog Men's Lord's Day Rest Association, says
, ~•
'4lho dT of the Sabbath is a patriotic duty.
It is We workiWg m&a,e 0f47 c. 14;" of rest, and he is in
anger of losing it. Thos e vvAo"wouici rcitovp ;Al?
ancient landmarks are not the Workin man s
true friends. Tlaei UUC'ciiiss means a loss and
not a gain to the labonriK; man: Open museums
and libraries on Sundays, and you must open
"- ',lam of public amusement, and doing this
oeuear .
AAk down the only, barrier set up in
man's *righ.t. Short-sighted
e ence oi the vv.. "-^ but man's
people will triumph, aS over a -
day of rest will have gone' his week or labour
will be lengthened. The crowd will shout over their
'Sunday holiday,' but their holiday will become but
another day of labour. Truly, men wanted recrea-
tion, and they have ensured severer toil. Even now
. i.know men who are compelled to do seven days work
for six days' pay, and children who get no rest at all.
While French mechanics are clamouring to get back
their 'one day free,' o-ar English workers are invited
to surrender it. What I say is, let the people and the
• friends of the people stand by the people's right, let
them resist any attempt, however speoious,' to
- defraud them of a liberty which belongs notto them
. Only, but to their children."
• Paper table napkins are much used in Berlin, and
are not expensive ; they are adverLieed at nine marks, or as
many shttllngs.the thousand. - . ,
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