Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-03-12
Gladstone Again a Leader.

A great change has come over the re-
lations of the English people to Mr..
Gladstone. Tt is little more than
year and a half since a huge pao-Tur-
kish mob booted and groaned in front
of his house in London, and was only
restrained by a strong force of police
from assaulting it. 1t is shorter time
since Lord Beaconsfield contemptuous-
ly referred to his rival at great public
gathering as "a sophlstical rhetorician
inebriated with the exuberance of his
own verbosity and egotistical lmagiua-
ton ) and III the stale of public feel
ing at that time there was more disgust
with the vulgarity of the attack than
resentment in behalf of the man at
tackled. 1t is not long since the Queen
Intentionally and conspicuously exclu-
ded Mr.. Gladstone, the only ex Premier
now living, from the list of invitations
to royal wedding. 1t was wedding
in her family, and she proposed to in
vite only her +" friends - this
was the royal dictum which So
ciety whispered about. These things
by no means prove that Mr..
Gladstone was at any time without
his hundreds of thousands of friends,
personal and political, but they show
what things the enemies even of most
distinguished man dare to do when
they know that his influence is eclipsad
by the shadow of unpopularity. That
Mr.. Gladstone has been unpopular
while the British nation has been
passing through the several stages of
the Beaconsfeld delirium there is over
whelmlng proof. Probably other
causes have been ut work also. Popu-
lar caprice is beyond all other cap
rices, and great usefulness will not
count, sometimes, against the fact that
a man has been long time in the pub.
lie eye, and newspaper readers have had
the chance to grow tired of him. Some
of Mr.. Gladstone's peculiarities have
helped in this direction. BY great men
tai fertility and almost too great huency.
whether in writing or speaking, he has
left upon the public mind something
of the same impression which the man
who talks too much makes in the draw
ing-room. This may be ungenerous.
but it is human. A statesman from
whom may be elected postal.card
opinion on any known subject by re-
turn mail must expect to be regarded,
now and then, as amusing.
But the remarkable letter and cable
dispatch from our London correspond
ent which we print ELSEWHERE, show
that there has been something like
revolution in the public sentiment of
Great Britain. The outburst of pop.
ular enthusiasm that has greeted every
step of the ex-Premier's progress
through the north of England and in
Scotland, and hailed his powerful
speeches with delight, was all the more
significant because it was wholly unor-
gained. All through England there
has been quick response, and by one
Of the electric changes of politics Mr..
Gladstone seems now virtually restored
to his old place as the leader of the
Liberal party, from which he volun-
tarily retired several years ago. His
willingness to lead an active canvass
against the government of Lord Bea
consfield is based on patriotic grounds,
and there can be little doubt of his
readiness to take his post again. even
if the task carries with it the duty of
resuming the cares of Office at three
score and-ten. The dissolution of Par
lament cannot be postponed very long.
1t must come next year, at the latest,
in order to allow ap election to be had
before the present Parliament expires.
1t may come in few months. And if
the extraordinary demonstrations which
our correspondent describes represent
the drift of the general sentiment, we
may soon see again as Premier of Eng
land the great statesman who has been
for close on half u century conspicuous
in public life, and has never sought to
glorify himself at the expense of his
country's honor an: prosperity.-N. Y.
Tribune.