The Portland daily press., 1885-02-05
Letter from Gladstone.
What He Thinks bout the Future Of the
AnglOSHxon BRces

The following letter written by Mr.. Glad
stone to the London correspondent of the
New York Tribune, shows In a striking man
ner the liberality of the English statesman's
spirit and the breadth of his views:
BEAR Mr.. SMALLEY: was unwilling to
answer your letter hastily, and 1 therefore
postponed writing for two or three days, but
fad this does not in any degree relieve me
FROM my dilemma.
The first point raised by you Is indeed one
that can be briefly disposed of. When first
read in detail the life of Washington was
profoundly impressed with the moral eleva-
ton and greatness of his character, and
found myself at loss to name among the
statesmen OF any age or country many, or
possibly any, who could be his rival In say
ing this mean no disparagement to the class
of politicians, the men of my own craft and
cloth, whom, In my own land and my own
experience, 1 have found no less worthy
than other men of love and of admiration.
l could name among them those who
seem to me to come near even to him. But
/ will shut o9t the last half century from the
comparison. will then say that H., among
all the pedestals supplied by history for
public characters of extraordinary nobility
and purity, 1 saw one higher than ali Tho
rest, and II we're required at moments
IL,
think my choice at any time during the last
forty-five years would have lighted, and il
would ncw light, upon Washington.
The other subject Is one on which hardly
like to touch in a few lines, for the prospect
it opens TO me is as vast as 1t is diversified,
and it is so interesting as to be almost over
wheming.
Or. Barham Zincke, no incompetent calcu-
lator, reckons that the English-speaklng
- IL. l.
will probably count a thousand millions.
Some French author, whose name unfor-
tunately forget, In recent estimate places
them somewhat lower; at what precise figure
do not reeollect, but il is like 800 or 500
millions. A century back l suppose they
were not much, il at all, beyond $4,000 900;
L also suppose we may now take them at an
hundred.
These calculations are not so visionary as
they may seem to some; they rest upon a
rather wide induction, while the best they
can pretend to is rough approximation.
But, as 1 recollect, it was either Inlay, or
one of those with whom the name of that
creature is associated, that computed, a CEN
tury back, the probable population Of the
American Union at this date; and placed 1t
very nearly at the point where it now stands.
What a prospect is that Of very many
hundreds of millions Of people, certainly
the world, occupying one great continent
1 may also say two-and other islands and
territories not easy to be counted, with these
islands at their head, the most historic in
the world. In contact, by vast commerce,
with all mankind, and perhaps still united
in kindly political association with some
more hundreds of millions fitted for no mean
destiny. United almost absolutely in blood
and language, and very largely in religion,
laws, and institutions.
If anticipatioDs such as these are TO be re-
allied in any considerable degree, the pros
pect is at once majestic, inspiring and con-
solatory. The subject is full of meaning,
and Of power; of so much meaning that the
pupil of the eye requires time to let In such
a food Of light. | shall not attempt, after
thus sketching It, to expound it. 1t would
be as absurd as II box-keeper at a theatre
when letting in party should attempt 10
expound the piece.
hope that some person more competent
and less engaged than myself will give this
subject the study it deserves; taking his
stand on the facts of the last century, and
the promise, valeGt Quantum, Of the coming
one. cannot but think, as well as hope,
that good understanding, In the future
near aud far, among English-speaking peo-
Piles, though it may not be matter Of GER
tainty, yet is beyond the necessity OF going
a-begging, so to speak, for recommendations
from any individual, earnestly and with my
whole heart as /, for one, should recon-
mend It.
Clearly, if the English speaking people
shall then be anything like what We have
now been supposlng, and if there shall be
good understanding among them, there will
have been base desertien of an easy duty,
gran rifuto, such as might stir another
Dante to denOunce it, remuneration of the
mobiles, the most beneficial, the most peace
full primacy ever presented to the heart and
understanding of man.s
On the other hand, great as it would be, it
would demand no Propaganda, no Euperla-
tive ingenuity or effort; 1t ought to be an
orderly growth, requiring only that you
should be reasonably true and loyal to ysur
traditions, and we TO ours, To gain it will
need no preterhuman strength or wisdom;
to miss it will require some portentous de-
generacy. Even were it day dream it
would be an improving one, loftier and bet
ter than that which prompted the verse
super ct Garamantas ct Indos
Proferet imperium; jacet extra sidera tellus,
Extra ami solisqle Was,
because II implies no strife or bloodshed,
and is full only of the moral elements Of
atr