The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-08-28

drinks in public as well as in private. The
tender care she has bestowed on the part
ner OF her old age has aroused the interest
and the afiectionate admiration of two
continents. But this is not OF recent be-
ginning. 1t is more necessary of late. but
1t was as constant, If not as conspicuous,
years ago.
At dinner at Lord Haiifax's IN 1871.
at which Earl Russell and the Gladstones
were present, and to which / had been
particularly invlted in order to receive q
message from Mr.. Gladstone for President
Grant in regard to the treaty of Washing
ton. then negotiating, had the honor Of
taxing Mrs. Gladstone TO table. We sat
opposite the premier, for there were dukes
and earls in the company, and according
TO English etiquette the prime minister
when commoner is placed lower than
peer. and ali through the dinner Mrs.
Gladstone could talk of nothing but her
husband. She watched his talk and his
looks. his plate and his glass; she spoke of
him constantly as he" for there was no
other he for her; she told me of his labors
and his successes, his peculiarities,
his studies and his trials; and I
conceived not only higher admiration
for the statesman who could evoke such
warmth of devotion in an elderly woman.
but sincere and touching respect for the
lady who preserved in her exalted life the
homely simplicity of a wife, and in adj
vancing years the beautiful freshness of
her youthful feeling. She talked with such
freedom that l felt it was not indelicate in
foreigner to express nv surprise that the
head OF her majesty's government should
not be placed nearer the head of the table,
but she remarked with what seemed TO me
touch of acerbity: "Oh in England the
prime minister has no precedence"
remember another occasion when her
own place seemed to me extraordinary. 1t
was at a breakfast given to the shah of
Persia at Greenwich park, some seven or
eight miles below London. Several thous-
and of the grandest people in England had
driven down and were waiting the arrival
OF the royal guest, who came at last in the
company of the Prince and Princess of
Wales, and followed by the court and
members of the government. Mr. Glad
stone, then premier, and Sir Henry Raw
linson. who had been envoy to the shah
and was now especially appointed to at
tend him. were of course in the brilliant
group. The shah wore his fez and was
blazing with diamonds; the Prince
of Wales and the men of his suite
were in uniform or court dress; and
as they advanced the great crowd
opened and formed lane under the trees.
1t was nearly q quarter of n mile to the
place where a collation. had been arranged,
and there, as is usual when royalty is
present, an apartment was reserved for the
shah and the prince and the most i'm
portant dignitarieS, among them the prime
minister and Sir Henry Rawlinson. But
in the crowd outside, looking at their hus-
bands as they passed, stood Mrs. Gladstone
and Lady Rawlinson, entirely without at
tendance. They were not invited To the
special collation., for the dignity of their
husbands was purely official, and official
rank In England does not extend to wives.
l stood in the lane near these ladies, and
watched them after the royal procession
passed and the crowd broke up and fol-
lowed. Not lord-in-waiting or out of
waiting looked after them as they
stumbled along in the aristocratic mob.
Mrs. Gladstone was no longer young, and
after a while I went up to her and said a
secretary of legation had hardly rank
enough to escort the premier's wife, but as
there seemed no one more important
gratefully, and led her up to the second
rate table. while her husband was placed
beside princes. She mildly remarked in
nearly the same words as before: 1.-THE
premier's wife has no precedence, you
know" But it seemed to me that she
ought to have had attention if not pre-
cedence on an occasion of this kind.
Still it was according to English custom.
Mrs. Grant was treated precisely in the
same fashion. When General Grant dined
at Windsor he went to table with one of
the queens daughters and next after her
majesty, but Mrs Grant followed far be-
hind with only an earl. At a court bail
General Grant was invited to join the royal
quadrille. from which Mrs. Grant was ex-
cluded, and at a dinner at Marlborough
House. the Princess of Wales addressed
not one word to Mrs. Grant until after she
had left the reception rooms and was
cloaked in the vestibule, though the prince
had conversed frequently with the general.
This is the English idea of courtesy to the
wives of illustrious men who happen not
to be noble or royal.
Mrs. Gladstone's admirable qualities as
q woman may be guessed from the charac-
ter of her children; they are all excellent
people; her daughters have married clergy.
men or head masters in the great schools,
a position ofimportance III England, often
leading to the episcopacy; one of her sons
is n clergyman and another a~member of
parliament; all are we'll trained and highly
educated, of agreeable, unaffected man
ners and quiet bearing; men and women
worthy to be called ladies and gentlemen
in the American sense of the word-that
is, people of breeding and character; all
fit to be children of their illustr1ous father;
while the steadfaSt devotion, the touching
tenderness, the anxious care. the beautiful
pride and interest which she cannot con.
ceal in her husbands career and success.
makes Mrs. Gladstone worthy mate to
the greatest of living Englishmen.
ADAM BApEAu.