The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1869-09-02
The Prime Minister Of Great
.'1 f'-- TR-Ff-Ev,


] ... Britain.
! The foremost man of England a
this momenti is, undeniably, the Righ
1 Hon. w E. Gladstone, the Prime
i Minister OF. the realm.
A writer in Putnam's Magazine
gives a pen-and-ink sketch of Mr.
I'GladstOne, which carries with it sucl
an assurance Of fidelity, and presents
him SO wildly to the mind, that We
feel confident it, will be acceptable
to- our readers.o Every outline il
j Istrengly drawn. The writer says:
"a brow broad, yet not pos
sessing Websterian massiveness,
swarthy complexion, well Harmonic
ling with earnest, deep black eyes,
his face almost grim in its sternness
and deep cutoMith the burrows oi
care, thought7-possibly with the in
describable anxieties of ambition; a
face proclaiming earnestness and pro
found feeling above all other traits; Of
middle height, the upper part of the
body broad built; thin gray hair and
whiskers, the large brain discovered
through the meagre lock; a fxedness
of features which, as he sits there 81
lent, seems undisturbed Yet in the
high midnight storm of forensic bat
tie, when stung by the sparkling,
cold -blooded thrust of Disraeli's irony
that stern face becomes the yisi-
BILE betrayer of grand and deep and
fast-changing emotion. The features
are illumin6d by burning expression
of spirit and mental greatness. The
stone-like grimness has given place to
fre-ike, infectious animation. Ma
ture has endowed Gladstone with a
voice, in sweetness, strength and
fexibility far surprising that of any
| living Englishman; and be wields it
| like a giant, overpowering with its
moving and passionate tremor tho
moro phlegmatic smoothness and
keenness. of his rival. His readiness
and huency make it not difficult to in
vest the driest subjects with a certain
charm. He is perhaps the first Of or
ators who has succeeded in command
ing the breathless attention of q usu-
ally restless body, while for four NOR
tai hours developing a financial
scheme T---z7-rf On
Going on to speak more particular
ly of Mr.. Gladstone's Oratory, the wri-
ter, with much discrimination, tells
US:
"The secret, aboveall, of Gladstone's
forensic power is perhaps best express
ed by an English writer 1t is 'the be-
lief that his eloquence is animated by
principle and conscience as we'll as
high intellect, which, though it may
seem to belong to the debatable ground
of politics, is undoubtedly held by mis-
party. His forensic powers extend,
apparently, through the whole list of
the various arts which go to make up
the model orator. He is never at a
loss for words (; he debates on a sud-
denly-raised issue with as much fiuen-
cy as he delivers a prepared speech /;
with even more, for in an extempore
harangue he is far more diffuse and
elaborate than in his labored address
es. His aptness and exuberanee- of
simile and illustration, derived alike
from the experience Of every day, the
homely topics Of the street, and from
the choicest descriptions and epigrams
of classical lore, amaze you, as he pas
ses from one branch of his subject to
another, now staying to indulge in a
choice flight of rhetoric, now hurrying
impetuously to his climax. The in
exhaustible wealth of his language is
equally notable the vast stores of
his information scarcely less so. His
elocution is unmatched in England !;
his delivery is of so genuine, earnest,
natural a ring, as to tenfold enhance
the power which is won by his other
qualities. The additional grace of a
keen wit and a genial humor seems,
however, to be wanting. He cannot
cope with DisraeIi in the dry brillian-
cy of his retOrts, nor Cnn he equal far
inferior men-Bernard Osborne, for
example-in a continuous stream Of
airy and ludicrous humor. He is too
earnest a man evidently to stOp'and
daily by the wayside. He has. no
time, no room in his thoughts for med
itating lively sallies, or provoking the
cachinnatory powers of the House.
When he rises to speak, the House
knows that the treat is to be of no
laughable sort-it is to be grand and
dramatic, perhaps, but never farcical.
Earnestnessris the keynote of the man.
He lives in sober, reflective, tOiling
world; misery is to be done away
with, men are to have their rights, adj
ministration is to be reformed; the
awful responsibility for the prosperity
or misfortune of great people weighs
upon him, and there can be no light
headed holidays in the midst of it"