The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-01-23 00:00:00

Exactly twelve months have passed since a
great surprise fell upon the country. On the
morning of Saturday the 24th of January 1874,
just as both political parties were preparing for
what was understood to be the last Session of
an expiring Parliament, the nation was startled
to hear that the Parliament itself had practically
ceased to exist. An address to the electors of
Greenwich, three columns in length, and signed
by Mr. Gladstone, appeared in the London
papers, announcing that the then Prime Minis-
ter had advised the Queen immediately to dig.
solve the Legislative Chambers, and setting
forth the measures which Mr. Gladstone would
be prepared to introduce should a majority en-
able him to continue at the head af the Govern-
ment. We all know the result of that appeal to
the constitntencies. Not within the history of
the country had the Liberal Party sustained
such a disasterous defeat. They suffered a net
loss of 56 seats, counting 112 vote& upon a divi-
sion. The previous majority was turned into a
minority; public opinion had been tested, and
bad been found adverse ; and there was no alter-
native but resignation. Accordingly, on the 17th
of February, Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues
went to Windsor, and placed the seals of office
in the hands of her Majesty, who handed them
over to the Conservative statesmen, and Mr.
Disraeli became for the second time Prime Min-
ister of Great Britain.

Within a few days of a year after the general
election a surprise almost equally great fell up-
on the land. The central figure in English coil.
tics during more than twenty years had decided
to withdraw from the scene of so much strife
and turmoil. At sixty-five years of age, and
after forty two years of a laborous public life,
Mr. Gladstone considers himself entitled to re-
pose. These forty two years of a Parliamentary
career cover the most progressive period in the
history of our state and constitution. When Mr.
Gladstone first entered the House of Commons,
he was a young man of three-and-twenty, fresh
from Christ Church, Oxford. The demand for
representative reform bad swept like a whirlwind
through the shires, and had filled the greq
towns with a dangerous emotion. Mr. Wed
stone was returned for Newark at the first gen-
eral election succeeding the passage of the re-
form Act, and took his scat at the opening of
1833. One of the most prominent Acts of Earl
Grey's Ministery, then supported by an enor-
mous majority, was the abolition of the Slave
Trade throughout the British Dominions. It
was carried through the Commons of the late
Earl of Derby, -who was then Secretary of State
for the Colonies. It is a curious fact as illus-
trating the changes which pass over the minds
of our public men, that the Mr. Stanley of that
day afterwards (as Lord Derby) became the lead-
er of the Conservative party, and that Mr. Glad-
stone, who subsequently headed the Liberals,
then sat upon tho conservative benches. In the
autumn of 1834 Sir Robert Peel, upin the com-
mand of King William, formed an administration
in which Mr. Gladstone was appoiuted a Lord of
the Treestirv, and thus commenced an °facie'
life which was continued at intervals unlil tw. lve
months ago. lie filled one or two cabinet offi-
ces in the Peel Ministry between 1841 and 1846,
but it was not until the Aberdeen Government
ruled in Downing-street that he obtain:nl that
extraordinary prominence amongst our public
tnen which has since distinguished him. He
was then Chancellor of the Exchequer, and as
such, was called upon to find the funds for carry-
ing on the Hussi in War. When Lord Aberdeen
gave way to Lori P.thiers'ol, M Gladstone
deciined to ciintinue in the Cabinet, but resumed
his pest in the second Palmerston Adminiitra-
don formed in 1859. While holding Mitt office
his trinutpbs in the domain of tinauce will be
well remembered by the present generation.
•‘ Midget ni,441, Wns the great event of the 3-ear
P,ople gathered in St. Steplit n's Hall at tight
o'clock in 111.1 morning ia the hope of s 'curing
aduliusiin t the stranger's g illery.:He renamed
at the Exchange seven years, resigning with his
colleagues in July, 186(j, and returning to power
as Fir,t Lord of the Treasury in Diseenaber.
Is6B. With the deeds of that admilistration
both its friends and its fits arc well acquainted.
The latest public act of Mr. G;ati,toaein
withdrawil:g Lull the leadership of the Liberal
party has been v iriously criticised. On the one
side it is cliiteutled that twelve niontis
had the gene-al election gone in his favour, he
was perlectly prepared to continue in public life
that the preeilitate dissolution was solely his
own work, it: d Oat, being responsible for the
disastrous consfquences, Mr. Ghidst ,no was in
duty hound Le do Ids be 4 to rehabilitate his
party. On the other hand, the aduiirt rs of the
right hon. gentlemen point to his repeated de-
chiratious of a desire for rest; they maintain
that the leader of a party is not bound to be its
slave ; and contend that he is fairly entitled to
spend the remainder of his days in the manner
best suited to his own tastes. This is a point
upon which future generations may perhaps be
enabled to feral a calmer verdict than we can
arrive at now. It is true that Lord Palmerston
was Prime Minister at 81, and that Earl Russell
at 83, is still as vigorous in authorship as ever.
But Sir Robert Peel, Mr. Gladstone's great mas-
ter, always held that no man who had passed
the age of sixty ought to be either Prime Minis-
ter or leader of the House of Commons. Sir
Robert Peel retired from public life at 58, and
was three years younger than Mr. Gladstone
now is, when, one summer afternoon a quarter
of a century ago, a yelping cur barking at the
heels of his horse laid him in the dust. Accord-
ing to present appearances Mr. Gladstone will
in future occupy a position similiar to that held
by Sir Robert Peel after his resignation in 1846.
He will sit below the gangway, taking only an
occasional part in the debates, and ceasing to act
as a great political power. How will the House
of Commons seem with a Napoleon serving in
the ranks as a private soldier? At all events,
strange or not, reconcileable or not, Mr. Glad.
stone's withdrawal from party leadership is a
fact which must he recognised and provided for,
and that, too, quickly. Parliament meets on the
sth of Feb:uary, the legislative machine, after
six months of rest, will be once more in motion,
and whether Mr. Gladstone be present or not,
Mr. Disraeli will be in his place, and in the
seventieth year of his age will be busily engaged
in directing the policy of a vast einpire.