Arizona weekly citizen., 1884-05-24
Mir. GIadstnne

NIT. Gladstone. at the age of seventy.
 three, Pnme Minister of England and
 the chief of English statesmen-no less
 eminent Tor weight of personal charac-
 ter and accomplished scholarship than
 Tor his extraordinary mastery of public
 GiislT5 and hls Parliamentary eloquence
 lis fine illustration oi the English
 genius ID its most characteristic form.
 There Is q certain sturdiness m Nr.
 Giedstones naiure. showing it-ell III
 every way, except his reputed sensitive
 ness to personal criticism. winch k ir
 singular contrast with the Oriental char
 ter Of Lord Besconsield, so long bis chief opponent. It was the want of this ' quality, quite Es much as sn alien ge-
 uius, which u.de the late minister so apparently uE- English No one. indeed.
 cultivated English ways more a-s.u,i-
 0Usiy, or celebrated with more gusto the
 distinctive English life, than Lord Bea- l constield. and he idenlifed himself with the bucOlic party-the squire. the couu- try centleman-and be seemed in every
 maDner resolved, if resolution would
 accomplish 1t, to be an Engiishmau.
 but the contrast betseen him and Mr.
 Gladstone was as apparent in every as-
 pect as It Is m the remarkable carica- lures of Punch, iu which, II Gladstone
 has sometimes the air of a prig. Disraeh has always the air of Cagliostro. When
 DIsraeh was at the head of the ministry, the feeling Eas unavoidable that tt was an accomplished foreign talent that was governing England. But with Glad stone, It IS England governing herself. Much more than m any chief minister English conscience is felt in Gladstone. In Lord Sidmouth and Mir. Perciyal, the two most ordinary and commonplace Ot Prme-ministers, there was tho con- ventiDual English Tespectabilit and morality. But in Gladstone 1t ls the power of rsctitude which IS remarkable
 He believes in honest dealing, and iu subOr,lInating public policy to the moral law. He may not like to be personally criticised, bat he Is not ashamed to ne called sentimental 10 his regard for the moral honor as well as for tie interest Of England.
 Nothing could be more distasteiul to MT. Gladstone than the Egyptian com phcatiOn. Nothing could have been more delightful to Lord BeacOnsfield. The vagueneSs of the object to be at- taine1 by wsrlike operations, the diff culty of s possible protectorate ot the country, the desire to respect the rights of people SO remote from English sym pathy and habits, naturally Oppress Mr. | Gladstone, thus necessarily engaged ID l which his country should never have 1 been involved. But they would have | been exciting chapters of romance to | Lord Beaconsfield, and he would have | endeavored to turn the situation to the l most dazzling account
 Coping at once with the elusive situa- | ton in Egypt, with the franchise in England, and with the dIscontent of Ireland. and goaded by a Tory party | not greatly led, but ofTicered by bril- liant cynic, worthy squire, and non- descript madcap, only a chef of the sturdiest moral and mental quality could hold at seventy-three a position which nobody else could fill. It is, as We said. his character no less than his genius which will give him great place in English history. With the c0nquering Chatham and the accomplished Canninr, with William Pitt and SIr Robert Peel, Gladstone must always be mentioned as an English stateman and minister who showed in bis public and private life. in his masterly grasp of affairs, in his Rscendency over great. intelligent, and progressive party. iH his high moral tone and his immense accomplishment. the power which any intelligent cOun- try would wish Co see conducting its affairs.
 This is the year in which the other great English-speakiBE natlon calls one of its citizens tO the Chief Ex, cutIve Happy that country if It tO that office a statesman SD conscientious, and coUra- geOu~, and a man so spOtless as the English Prime minister Looking at and then across the sea at our Presidential contest, the English. man may be pardonei if he IS not quite ready to abandon a political system which brings SO great a man as Glad stone into the direction of the government, and even the American may wonder whether this system of selecting the Chief MagIstrate is surcr than the English method to bring the real chief ot a party to the executive William Curtis, in Magazine for June.