Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1894-03-09
RECORD OF MR.. w. {. GLADSTONE.
The Difference He Has Made to the World
and England Particularly.

Mr.. Gladstone, as a statesman, has
done several notable things at home and
abroad 10 live in history, says w. T.
Stead, late OF the Pail Mall Gazette, Lon
don. He has contributed more than any
single man with pen and voice to create
Italy and 10 destroy the dominion OF the
Turk in Europe. As Prime Minister or
plenipOtentary. he has enlarged Greece
transferred Corfu, and established British
influence In Egypt. He has famiiarizcd
the public with the idea OF European
concert, not merely for debate but for
action, and has maintained in times OF
the greatest stress and storm that Rus
STA was not outside the pale of human
civilization or OF liberal sympathy In
imperial politics he has constantly con-
demned tho strOns creed Of the swash-
buckler. He has annexed New Guinea,
North Borneo, and Bechuanaland. but he
has sedulously condemned every extension
Of the empire that was not forced upon
US by inexorabIc necessity. He.-has clear
ed out OF Afghanstan and retreated from
the Transvaal lie established the great
precedent OF the Alabama arbitration, and
was the first British statesman to fecOs-
niZe that In the future the United States
will supersede Great Britain as the most
powerful OF the English-speaking commu-
mites. If he has not exactly belittled the
colonies be has never cracked them up,
and he has always and everywhere preach
cd the doctrine Of allowing them TO 90
their own way. He Is a housekeeping
Scot, whose sympathies have never really
strayed lar beyond these islands except
in the case OF those nations struggling,
and rightly struggling. to be free.
CHIEF EXPLOITS.
At home his chief exploits have been
the reform Of the tariff, the establishment
OF free trade, and the repeal OF the paper
duty. He was the real author of the eX-
tension Of the franchise To the workm"'
Of the towns, and the actual author OF
the Acknowledgement Of the rural house
holder. He established secret voting. and
agreed TO give effect to the Tory demand
for sngle-member constituencies. 1t was
in his administration that the first educd-
tional act was passed. and that the pur-
chase in the army was abolished. lie has
done his share in the liberation of labor
from the combination laws, in the eman-
cipati0n Of the Jews, and in the repeal
of university tests He first taught the
democracy. by the great object lesson OF
his Irsh-land act, that the so-called cast
iron laws of political economy could he
banished to Saturn. and that the whole
State could be employed 10 set poor men
up in business on their own account lie
was the first to dsestabllsh and disendow
a national church, and to compel the
British public 10 consider the feasibility
Of establishing subordinate and statutory
parliaments within the British Isles. over
and above all else he. the scholar. the
statesman, and the Nestor of parlia-
mentary tradition, was tie frst 10 brlns
the most difficult and delicate questions
Of foreign policy to the rude but decisive
test of the mass-meeting, and transferred
the motive force OF the British state from
Parliament TO the platform
A COMPARATIVE STUDY.
A nobleman. a scholar. and great per-
sonal friend OF Mr.. Gladstone. wrote in
1857 the following comparative study OF
his place in history: Among the great
English statesmen whose figures VIII loom
large through the dusk OF departed CEN
turtles. William Ewart Gladstone will oc-
cupy a leading place. Chatham could IN
spira a nation with his energy, but COM
nared with Gladstone he was poorly FUR
nished both with knowledge and IDEAS
Fox. who probably most resembles MIN
as a debater, had never an opportunity or
proying in office whether he possessed any
talents for administration. Pitt, as the
strongest Minister who probably ever d.
rected the destinies OF his country, has
left no monument OF legislation by which
ne can be remembered. Canning was a
foreign minister, and nothing else. Sir
Robert Peel, whom Gladstone recognizes
as his master, although an estima-
bic administrator. useful debater and
a competent tactician. never showed any
trace OF the divine spark OF genius which
reveals itself at every turn in Mr.. Glad
stones character. 1t would, perhaps, be
too much TO say that posterity will re-
gard him as uniting the highest merits
OF all his predecessors without their draw
backs. But he alone combines the elo-
quence OF Fox, the experience OF Cha
than, the courage OF Pitt, with the fnan-
cial and administrative capacity OF Sir
Robert Peel, and combines all those quail
ties with q many-sided catholicity of
mind TO which none OF the others could
law claim {"