The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-12-31
OF THE FEELING
Toward the Greatest English
Statesman.
GATHERING OF THE WAR CLOUDS
Forebodings of Those Who Have
Studied the Preparations of
Europe for the Struggle.

NEW YORK. Dec. 3o.-Harold Frederic
cables to the Times from London: Eng
land has grown quite acc usiomed now to
fill in the gap between Christmas and
New Years by talk about the Gladstone
accident. His birthday coming on De-
cember 90 associates him naturally with
the New Year. and his enormous, almost
unspeakable, superiority in interest over
all other living Englshmen is coming now
to be pivot upon which the whole cpl
sode of getting out of one year into
another turns in the British mind.
There has been observa BILE during the
past twelve months a marked softening
of the feeling toward him on the part of
the Tory classes. You no longer hear in
strictly Tory circles those savage denunci-
ations of him, those heartless wishes for
his speedy. death, which used to shock
American visitors to what are called
good houses. This change of feeling
was we'll Illustrated In the Commons yes
terday. when the opposition benches,
under Balfour's leadership. joined the
Governments following in Justify cheer
ing his birthday appearance in the House
dppcuCG UCtOlcs
Such bitterness toward him as still exists
is principally confined to the gray sore
heads who call themselves UniOnists and
take their cue from Cham berlain and the
Times. These envenomed influences have
captured the House of Lords. and it will
be able to use its majority as bweapon
aimed directly at Gladstone's staying
powers, but the Grand Old Man fairly
conquered the House Of Commons when
he came in yesterday with his fine, spare,
erects figure, sprightly step and wise.
kindly. beaming cOunteDance, and resplen-
dent with a bouquet in his buttonhole.
No. one could help shouting. Even
Jimmy" Lowther lifted his hat
All the same. Gladstone is visibly older
than at. the beginning of the year. BE
either cannot or does not sit up al nights
as he did, and it is obvious that since the
Irish question was temporarily shelved
Parliament exerts no such sustaining and
inYsgorGtIng eHScs OIL him hs IL Gil. His,
tieutenants are keenly conscious of this,
and ] am not alone in regarding that as a
very geod guarantee that home rule will
not be allowed to remain up q day longer
thanis absolutely necessary. This annual
Concentration of interest on Gladstone's
birthday involves a taking Of account of
the lesser grand old men. Almost his only
Surviving school fellow at Eton, Lord
Arthur Hervey, who is also Bishop of
Bath ana Wells, and nearly two years his
senior, has been recently giving lots of rem
iniscenees. When Wellington opened
Waterloo bridge and distributed commem-
Orative medals to the select invited specta-
tors this future Bishop put his hand in the
bag and sternly was admoDished by the
Duke to take only one.
Tie House of Commons contains one
member six years older than Gladstone,
Hon. Charles Viiliers. who has sat now
ffty-eight years for a single constituency.
But when: on rare occasions he visits The
club. ne can only go as far as the hall,
owing to the stairs, and friends cluster
around with ears close to his mouth to-
catch his whispered mHmblings.- Even
older, still is Admiral Jones of the Green
Wich Hospital. who actually bore part in
the stupid and crimin Walcheren expe-
diti0Ii of 1909. Surely there is no. other
country where men live like. this.
la: the Daily News list of deaths for
Christmas day there are forty entries. and
Of these twenty-five are of an aggregate
age yielding an average of over 81 years:
Europe, as" was said week ago. will
enter on the new year with quite a gen.
eraI conviction that 1t must bring war. lin
looking over an expert diagnosis of the
military situation for the past five or six
years il Is curious to note the number of
reasons they give, connected with the
changing of; weapons, completing for
tresses and so on, for the belief that no.
body would be ready to fight until 1894.
Every body Studying Europe's vast prepa-
rations for struggle seems To- pitch upon
this as. the date when they will come
naturally to- head. Now that we are on
the threshold of this year of prophecy we
thatitis also ayear of abundant
menaces and provocation on Its own ac-
count, -.
But not the wisest pro phets can foresav
the most characteristic feature of all which
II is the mission of 1894 to develop. That
1t Is undoubtedly the fierce anglophobia
which has now taken such powerful hold
on the French mind. EnClishmen who
habituahy visit France at midwinter re-
turn shaking their heads. While there
has been 40 overt discourtesy. they have
been conscious this time of an almost uni |
veTsal antipathy surrounding them as by a |
wall. They say that even in the years i'm
mediately following 1871 the Germans in
France never: experienced such an ap- |
parent and general hostility as English |
now encounter. know of my own knowl->t
edge that Americans in Paris find it to |
their advantage to take pains to make |
every body understand that they have |
nothing whatever but language in CON- |
mon with the detested Anglais. /
THE VENEZUELA DIFFICULTY.