Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-08-26
Chara cterEstics OF 1Ir. Gladstone

Chara cterEstics OF TIr. Gladstone.
Subtracting what we may from the sum of
Mr.. GladstOne's greatness, enough, and more
than enough remains to constitute him one of
the most eminent men that ever held Office in
this or in any ether country. Frail and pallid as
he looked when. fifty year since he first entered
parliament; frail and worn as he often looks at
present when deeply moved or profoundly agi-
tated. what irrepressible vgor and vitality there
is in him. even now that the span of life allotted
to man by the Psalmist has long been over
stepped! ..'DOnttalk to me, said Sidney Herbert
to a friend some thirty years since. ''abOut
Gladstone's mnd-it is nothing to his body.'
The serious working portion Of Mr.. Gladstone's
life began when he was an Elton boy and may
therefore safely be said to have extended now
over some sixty years. In the opinion of those
who know him best, it Is doubtful whether any
man ever yet lived who during so long time
has allowed fewer minutes to run unprOftably
to waste. The truth is that, fragile and eX-
hausted as he often looks, Mr.. Gladstone. like
many other light and sinewy men, hardly knows
the meaning of the word idleness. His capacity
for work equals that of Lord Bacon, who, ac-
cOrdingtO late Lord Campbell, ''alowed no seq
ment of time to pass without employment;' nor
is he undeserving of the encomum bestowed
by Cecil upon Sir Walter Raleigh: 81 know that
he can toll terribly"
1t is understood that every hour, we might
almost say every minute. of Mr.. Gladst0ne's
working time is SO methOdical and disciplined
that he gets the most out of it: and the results
Of this vast industry, it is said, are turned to
account by system and regularity which have
been brought to absolute perfection. and which,
as we know from their memoirs, are most I'M
usual among public men. If you would but
buy few yards OF red tape and tie up your pa
pers," said Grattan to Sir James Macintosh,
'you would be the greatest man in England
Having paid visit to BeacOnsfeld William
Wilberforce returned to London, exclaiming,
Burkes papers are in greater confusion than
my own" 1t is notorious that Napoleon par
ticular as he was in military details, rarely an
swered letters, and left piles of them unopened
when he evacuated the Tuileries Mr.. Glad
stone, on the other hand. it is stated. never re-
ceived a letter of the smallest Importance dur
ing his half century of public life upon which he
cannot, if necessary, lay his hand His libraries.
both at Hawarden castle and in his London
house. are said to contain no book of which he
Is not cOgnizant and to which he cannot readily
turn.
In short, he has carried to perfection that recu-
lated and systematized industry of which the
late Sir Robert Peel his Gamaliel in public life.
was his first exemplar. Nobly indeed has that
1.-THE and flexible body served the imperious and
restless mind which, 80 far from ''fretting it to
decay" has found in it an apt and ever-ready
minister. at Is the 'vivida Wis anim,'" wrote
one of Mr.. Gladstone's warmest admirers after
watching him spring to his feet at the end Of
hong debate, that cOnquers or nerves his ply
steal fragility, dealing harshly with it at times,
as is betrayed only too clearly at intervals In an
aspect and manner indicative of profound ex-
haustion." 1t is not many years since Mr.. Glad
stone took for the first time to spectacles or
magnifying glasses of any kind, and he was able
to read the smallest print-even to puzzle out
the figures of "Bradshaw's Railway Guide'-with
the naked eye, long after his sixtieth birthday
had passed. H-as some assert, while others
deny it-there is In his pronunciation, while
speaking, ''the ineradicable provincial twang of
VnyS nC1,f wnO h ~ 80
four or five hours long. rings out ''clear as q
clarion with a silver sound" There are few
men, in short, of whom with more justice it
might be recorded, as Liyy says of Hannibal,
that sby no amount Of labor could his body be
wearied or his mind subdued. London Daily
Telegraph.