Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1882-04-26
VOL. 77.-3941. NO. 20.

on the day / visited Hawarden castle, stood
an ax--not one Of the costly and ornamental
gifts which from time TO time the people
have pressed upon the acceptance of the
great statesman, but plain and exceeding
ing handy instrument, bearing evidence Of
being much used. II was not there for
show, or even for the feeling which prompts
hunting men TO decorate their walls with
stags' heads or foxes brushes. Doubtless
Mr.. Gladstone entering after hard half.
days work, had dropped 1t there, as being
the nearest place at hand. Probably it had
been there since the Saturday preceding,
which was, for reasons at the time greatly
agitating the country, the last opportunity
he had had of indulging in his favorite ex-
ercise. A great gale, memorable in the
annals of shipwreck, had swept over the
country IL had played sad havoc with trees
everywhere, and some Of the lords of the
ancient forest which skirts Hawarden park
had fallen. The next day the premier, 60
ing out ak in hand, had spent some hours
in clearing the timber, and shortly after
coming back had found himself attacked
with serious cold. He had been confined
TO his room for some days, and though now
convalescent, was still a prisoner in his
library. The attack had been serious, as
one could see, looking on his pale face, and
touching the still feverish hand. But no
doctor had been called in. Everything is
homely at Hawarden castle-always, of
course, excepting the plaster battlements and
turrets, with which the present proprietors
bave had no more TO do than had Edward l.
It is an old-fashioned English notion that
wife or mother can nurse man through
cold, and Mrs. Gladstone, who has had some
experience in womans work, had assiduously
set herself to the task, and was now re-
warded by final triumph. Her patient, she
confded to the visitor, left nothing to be
desired in the way Of patience and docility
when once avowedly on the sick list. The
difficulty was TO keep him off the sick list
when in health. He had no capacity for
for measuring the limit of his powers, which
long series of great achievements had led
him TO believe were invincible and mex
haustible. This is an old story, which finds
many illustrations in the House of Commons.
One night last session Mr. Parnell was with
something more than usual success obstruct-
ing the passage of the land bill and the in
dignation of the majority Of the house had
crystallized into determination to sit if nec-
essary, all night. Mr.. Gladstone was in his
place in the treasury bench, in condition
of exhaustion that was evident to every one
but himself. 1t was close upon midnight,
and he had an hour earlier famed forth in
a magnificent outburst of righteous wrath,
which played round the heads of the OBJ
structionists with the greater intenseness
since it had been so long restrained. jesse
Collins, long a faithful ally of the Irish
members in their policy now rose, and for
mally dissociating himself with their tactics,
concluded, amid loud cheers, by declaring
that all they wanted was that Mr.. Glad.
stone should go home to bed, and let the
house settle down for the night, or till
whatever hour might be necessary in order
to dispose of the question Immediately be-
fore it." In Difference TO this unanimous
and hearty desire, the premier presently
withdrew. But that was concession he
is not ordinarily inclined TO make to the
frailty of the human frame. He will sit
for hours, frequently far into the morn
| ing when he might as well, and even
much better be in bed. But whether at
home or abroad at Hawarden or in the
house of commons, as long as he can bear
the weight of his harness he will stand up
and carry on the work begun more than fifty
years ago. The woodman's craft is the only
exercise, except walking, which Mr.. Glad
stone indulges in. 1t is many years since
he was astride a horse, and he never much
cared for the exercise. He very rarely
drives, and neither shoots, hunts, nor fishes
But he is great hand with the ak, estab-
fishing fresh claims upon the filial respect
| Of w. H. Gladstone, himself no mean crafts
man. In the recess, weather permitting,
and sometimes whether or not, scarcely a
day passes that he does not stroll out with
his seventy-three years on his head and his
ak on his shoulder, not returning till, if his
labor were paid at the current wage, he
L., Eo.1,
portunity for treefelling he takes a turn for
an hour or 80 on the terrace in front of the
house, where the flower garden is, and
whence may be seen a far-reaching stretch
of meadow land bounded by trees. During
the session his hour for retiring to rest is
usually contemporaneous with that of the
adjournment of the house of commons. 1t
is oftener two than any other hour on the
dial that he gets to bed, with the conscious
ness that he must be up betimes to carry on
the business of an empire on which the sun
never sets. AT home, in the piping days of
the recess, he does not follow the wholesome
| habit Of some tired legislators, who, being in
| country quarters, have been known to go to
| bed at ten o'clock, by way of striking an
| average with the patriotic dissipation of the
session. He is rarely in bed before half
past eleven, and sometimes hears the chimes
at midnight before turning in. But at
whatever hour he retires to rest he is down
at quarter to eight, and before breakfast
walks off to the little church in the village,
where the service is conducted by his son,
the rector. There is private footway con-
Meeting the castle with the gateway leading
into the road, and here, very soon after eight
o'clock every morning, fair weather or foul,
snow or wintry sunshine, the English pre-
mier may be seen walking with light and
active footsteps toward the village church.
H. W. Lucy, in Harper's Magazine.