Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1886-01-30

How ft Controls His Wife. His Family
and Friends-Queen Victoria q True
Woman.

LONDON, Jan. 2.-The guard had shut and
locked all the carriages of the train Friends
left behind had gathered their handkerchiefs,
and servants were turning back Suddenly a
furred voice from the train called out "John,"
and the head and bust of an elderly but agile
lady, whom recognized as Mrs. Gladstone,
filled the frame of the window of first-class
car. John, a footman, did not hear, but a little
German boy hard by, evidently gentleman's
son, had caught the call, and turned the man
back to his mistress.
what good little boy You are to be sure"
SAID said the gratified dame to the lad. 81 must
give you something. Here is a shilling to buy
Mr. Gladstone's photograph"
This occurred last week. Mrs. Gladstone is
an intellectual. benevolent, and emotional
woman, who worships her husband. She
thinks and speaks of nothing else and she
lmagines that the country-nay, the worlds
circle and not few friends have long been in
Inc same tdOlatrOus transports, and no one who
has breathed the air SO laden with incense of
Hawarden castle or of Al Berekely square can
honestly dispute the existence of the Gladston-
ian schism. The god is sensible OF the worship
he receives. Less alteration would anger him.
lie Is neither an arrogant nor a cruel god, but
he Is decidedly an intolerant one He destroys
tyrants with his thunderbolts. He himself is
unutterably domineering and dictatOrial Yet
Is he most humane. He would do good to all.
Some years ago, being out of office, Mr.. Glad
the Haymarkets sirens and with the thorough
ness and sincerity which typify all his actions,
he set about doing the right missionary's work.
AT that time, one night, a friend of mine saw
him apparently engaged In the most COM
promising collOquy with two Babylonian girls,
at the corner of Tichborne street, Leicester
square. He was preaching remorse and purity,
whether or no he regenerated them made no
difference. He went to others. He is charged
with incOnSeQuence and inconsistency. This
charge rests on superficial views.
The ex-prIme minister haseuly one defect
a rather serious one in a ruler people. He is
no statesman. Not long ago One of the keenest
foreign diplomatists accredited to this court
said to me: "ShouId Mr.. Gladstone be con-
WINGED that it would be better for India and her
races TO be independent, he would at once use
British empire"
forseen that one OF the greatest Engiishmen
alive, If not the greatest, would one day be
home ruler; for sure enough Gladstone seems
now to have come to the conclusion that what
England is forever p .eaching for distant parts,
she can no longer taboo at her own DOORS He
eXhausts his magnificent Oratory in favor of a
measure, and subsequently he SURPRISES him
self in speaking against it, No doubt it seems
Inconsistent, but it is only SO in appearance.
cases he has spoken with the utmost sincerity.
In his eyes circumstances alone have altered in
the interval. What would be said OF the pilot
who should follow the same course after the
wind had changed? The only question is, shall
the incoherent classical comparison be main
tanned. which likens the cOckswain who must
guide himself as If he had a weathercock, to
The statesman who would be unworthy of the
name should he do the same?
Mr.. Gladstone is no cOurtier. He would never
tell the queen, as did Lord BeacOnsfield, that
there are only three boOks-the Bible, Shake
speare, and Leaves from the Highlands He
is not theatrical, as was his great antagonist,
but the clamor oil popular ovatons rings sweetly
in his ears and he wants the world to listen to
the echo of IL.
A few days ago, having received many con-
CALCULATIONS on the occasion OF his seventy-sixth
birthday, he had them all printed in the papers,
as hard-up Spectator with unexpected testi-
monials would have done. He is simple in his
manners, careless about his clothes, aud rather
f,r6p Hold nlx
able and somewhat munificent. The first is
better friend OF the people; the second was
greater loGer Oh tne naaion; In ,he mouse OF
liam Gladstone. / never saw the latter succeed
in rutiiing the former Both, after losing power,
lost much of their prestige. Mr.. Gladstone Is
very sensible of the change. Disraeli showed
the greatest indifference to it,
remember meeting Mr.. Gladstone few
days after the last triumph of Disraeli over
him. 1t was in buckingham Palace at II draw
ing room. He was coming up the great stair
look at him. bowed and would have passed
OF, our acquaintance being slight, but he stop
ped me and began to talk in most friendly
manner, as if he had deeply felt the general
neglect and the isolated act of civility. In the
same palace have seen at concerts and balls
Benjamin Disraeli, and later on Lord Beacons-
field, as Indifferent to the apparent, if real,
slight of English Torydom as ii he had been it's
lampooner and not its leader There was a
saloon leading into the top OF the ball room, re-
served tor the royal dancers and the court. He
would sit alone with his wife on seat in that
saloon, speaking to nobody but her, as much
passed over as il he had been an obscure alder
man. The sight was painful, yet cheering, as it
set forth a picture of love as tender and regard
full, in fast declining years, as 1T had been in
the days of youth. Lord and Lady Beacons-
fields cOnjugal life was one of the happiest.
The queen has to overcome her feelings to see
Mr.. Gladstone, but she had great considera-
ton and affection for Benjamin Disraei. Her
majesty, though living as ii she no longer cared
Tor woridlymatters, watches from her silent and
distant castles over the welfare, prestige, and
greatness OF the empire the proudest con-
querOr watches his cOnquests, and she trusted
the PRIDE the public spirit and the answering
policy OF the conservative minister. She trusts
not as a sovereign the changing views, the I'M
persistent action, and the versatile sentiment
tally OF the radical leader. Besides, Disraeli
resuscitated the most medieval forms OF re-
spect in approaching her majesty, while Mr..
Gladstone has lnaugurated democratic ones.
Moreover, with strange and regretful preoccu-
patton in a man of such mettle, Mr.. Gladstone,
10 avoid tine remotest suspicion OF funkeyism,
frequently forces the note, and he, the most po-
lite OF men, vergeS on rudeness in his relations
with the sovereign.
The queen takes much more direct interest
and part in the affairs of the country than is
generally known. She expresses her views on
all important measures, and even most insig-
attention.: but it is especially in the manage
ment of the foreign policy of the empire that
she inanfests the greatest concern, often dis
playing rare instinct and much Judgment.
Alien archives contain more than one momeu-
tOus dispatch in which paramount passages
have been accumulated or sof:ened at the queens
fel1cltous suggestion. Sometimes, however,
her near advisers deprecaIe it, because her per-
sOnal feelings get the better of her reason, as,
for instance, when her hatred of Russia makes
her see the hands OF Russians in every maneu-
yer, war, alliance, or rebellion against the en-
pire, and has long since satisfied her of the
existence of g secret understanding between
them and the Irish. Could those advisers be
wrong?
Her majesty is not changeable in her affec-
ton. She likes her friends well and to the end
She was terribly upset by Lord Beaconsfield's
death. She was also much grieved by the de-
mise of Van de Weyer, whose Flemish common
sense, readywit, and respectful reverence and
devotion she had long appreciated. I was
often at the Belgian minister's house, and was
aware of the estimation in which the stranger
was held by the English queen. When the conn
plicated and painful disease which was to carry
him off laid him physically PROSTATE, though
morally full OF life in his beautiful house at u
stantly brought there from Windsor. All hopes
having at last vanished, the queen drove to Lon
don on purpose TO see him once more and to say
the supreme farewell. 1t was a warm sum-
mer afternoon. The house was as still as il
death had already taken posession'Of 1t. Sud-
denly royal carriage entered the yard, and
the queen assembled the steps. The fearful
already projected his shadow did not deter her
majesty. She had not come to be reported by
the newspapers as having paid q visit to Arling-
ton street, but to see u man who, though
stranger, had been as true TO her as her most
faithful subject, and she wanted to be true to
him, too. She asked Mime. Van de Weyer to
conduct her to the dark alcove where the dying
man was lying. She took his hand, talked TO
him most aftectionately, and, tenderly taking
leave of him, kissed him.
The queen is safe friend.