Sharp County record., 1880-12-09
The Key to GlIdstOne's Character and
Career.

NlF- lIlAIl1lbL4C ID viz H-N""
ble article in = receu5 number OF ScI71-
0sr. bv writer whose name, for polIJ-
| icaI and personal reasons, is withheld.
The ANONYMOUS essayist, while critics.
fng the English premier with fairness,
freedom and even severity, still speaks
of him as i" perhaps, taking him all in
all. the most remarkable man that the
English-speaking race has produced in
tbf, century" The key of Mr.. Glad
stones career is given in the statement;
"He Is Scotchman who has been
called to deal with and govern English
men" We quote as follows:
"Mr. Gladstone is a ScOtchman on
botn his fathers and mothers side, and
half a Highland (that is to say. q Celtic
Scotchman. He Is with the insiguii-
cant exception Of Lord Butte, who was
a mere roraI favorite), the first Prime
lIinisterot England who has come from
the northern half Of the island. He is,
indeed, the first Scotchman, except
Brougham. who has ever played
leading part in England politics. Boiling
broke. WaIpoIe, PuIteney Chatham,
Lord North. Charles James Fox. Will
IAN Pitt, Lord Liverpool Canning, Lord
Grey, Lord Althorp, Lord Melbourne,
Sir Robert Peel, Lord Derby, were all
of them Englishmen by blood. The
Duke of Wellington and Lord PaImers-
ton, though nominaIly Irish, were really
Englishmen. Burke was an Irishman,
and Bur6e's career unlike rs, in many
respects, he is to Mr.. GIadstone) strik-
ingly illustrates some of the featureSOf
the Celtic character. This Scottish
strain in Mr.. Gladstone has had two re-
markabIe effects. 1t has kept him from
ever quite understanding and being in
full sympathy with the ordinary English
character, and ithas prevented the En-
glish from ever quite understanding
him. 1t is not merely because Scotland
is Liberal that he is welcomed there with
such transports Of enthusiasm. 1t is be-
cause, in spite Of the contrast between
his High Cnurchism and their Presbyte-
rianism, the Scotch GnterintO and enjoy
his modes Of thinking and feeling in a
way which Englishmen, and especially
EngIishmen of the upper class, do not
and cannot. He is not 4 typical Scotch
man, but his intellect belongs 90 much
more to the Scottish than to the En-
glish type that the average educated
Englishmau is perpleXed, even fright
ened. by features he cannot account for,
because he finds nothing in them like
himself. Letus see how this comes out.
The distinguishing note of Mr..
Gladstone 5 nature is the combination
in it Of extraordinary intellectual activi-
ty with extraordinary emotional
warmth. For fifty years he has given
himself no rest. When he is not study
inc, he is talking or writing, and that
not merely upon public affairs, but upon
theology, history, scholarship, art, or
social topics. His apprehension is
wonderfully quick. Long training
enables him to seize in a moment the
salient points of q question; his mind
falls to work upon them, spins a web
of argument, clothes the argument
with worIs-words that come fast as
the snow, flakes driven before a storm.
While he is piercing to the heart Of a
subject he is also working around 4,
discovering multitude Of reasons FOR
and against each oil the views which, IN
succession presents itseIf-a string Of
limitations and qualifications under
whicn each Of the propositions he ac-
cepts must be stated. This ingenuity
or fertility Of mind gives his speeches
and writings an air Of compieyjty which
many people find bewiIderinr. They
often call it subtiIty. But he is not un-
duly subtile-that is to say, addicted to
fine distinctions Of thought. In one Of
his pieces of sustained argument each
sentence or paragraph IS sufficiently
clear; it IS the perspective OF the whole
which c0ntuses the mind Of listener
who cannot recOIlect the relation which
all these wnding5 and turnings and by
paths bear to the main direction Of the
track along which he is being led.
Together with this manitoldne7s Of
mind, he has, like most men, whose in
teLlectual interests are keen, q fondness
for abstract principles ard passion for
working them logically out Where
other men see only scattered facts
he dIscerns a principle, enjoys it,
| follows it boldly. In q person with
less wide experience Of the world and a
less complete mastery Of facts, this ten
| dencV would be dangerous. Even he
| il sometimes led BY it to discern a prin-
cipIc where none discernibIe by other
/ ewes exists. to lay upon q minor princi-
/ pie more than it will bear, to travel
| faster and farther toward some mo-
mcntous practical conclusion than his
audience or his party are prepared to
| follow. Still it is splendid faculty,
the sure index of q penetrating intellect
/ a weapon with which, when wisely used
brilliant execution can be done in de-
bate.
Now let us see how these powers Of
| thought are welded bv his semotiOnalnat-
ure. Active, marvelouslyactiv as his in
telligcncc ia, it is not soremarkabe as is
| .he intensity of feeling which he throws
into everything he does. He Is all
aglow, and always aglow. Any one
meeting him in company, or hearing
him speak for the first time, would
think that the subject he might happen
to be descanting on was one which had
been uppermost in his thoughts for
/ years, such is the carnestness OF his
manner When the same person heard
] Il ~, ,r.,ip and oo-oin nuua1lt. fnrvapt