The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-01-30

one of the active great men of his lime
 at ninety years of age; MT. Gladstone is
 still busily at work in literature at
 eighty-siX and has only recently left
 the political arena; Pope Leo Xlll Is
 bearing the heavy burdens of his great
 office at eighty-five; Sir Henry Parkes
 is in the thick of Australian politics at
 eighty; Bismarck counts the same num-
 Der of years, while Justice Field re-
 mains on the Supreme bench of this
 country at seventy-nine, and senator
 John M Palmer of Illinois, is sturdy
 and active at seventy eight; Queen Vic
 toria still rules Britannia and Prime
 Minister Crispi sways the destinies of
 Italy, though both of them are more
 than half way on the journey from sev-
 enty to eighty; Chancellor Prince Ho-
 henlohe is at the helm in Germany at
 seventy-two, and ex-Speaker Gulusha
 Grow is busily engaged in the daily
 work of our House of Representatives
 at the same age, and the list might be
 made very much longer. The post of
 prime minister of Great Britain is prob
 ably as laborious as that of the presi-
 dent of the United States, and, besides
 MT. Gladstone's example, it may be re-
 called that the late Lord John Russell filled that office at seventy-four and
 Lord Palmerston held it at eighty.
 The records furnish a great deal of evidence on both sides of the argument
 as to whether young men or old men
 are best fitted for important and stren-
 uous public duty. It is undeniable that
 many of the greatest careers have been
 made by young men. Washington was
 but forty-three when he was called to
 the command of the American revolu- tionary army. Henry Clay was speak CT of the House of Representatives at
 thirty-four. stephen A. Douglas was
 but thirty when he first became
 candidate for the presidency. John Jay was Chief Justice of the United
 States at forty-fve. James G. Blaine
 was only thirty-nine when he became
 speaker of the House of Representa- tives Alexander Hamilton took charge of the treasury at thirty-tWo years of age. Martin Van Buren at thirty-six organized the famous Albany regency
 and was governor of New York at for ty. John C. Calhoun in his forty-sec-
 ond year was vice-president of the United States. John c. Breckenridge, of Kentucky was vice-president at thirty-two and candidate for the pres idency at thfrty-five. George B. Me Clellan was only thirty-eight when nominated for the presidency. In ,ni!i- tary life especially young men have
 been most conspicuous. General Grant was but forty years of age when he be- gan winning name for himself in our civil war, and was only forty-three
 when the war closed. The great Napo- leon was master of France and Europe before his thirtieth birthday. Alexan-
 der the Great had conquered the world
 and Rft it before he was thirty-three years old Fremont. the Pathfinder" had explored the Rocky mountains be- fore he was thirty and was running for the presidency at forty-three. Colum- bus was in the thirties when he ex- plained his ideas of the western passage and enlisted the Spanish sovereigns fiji the project that led to the discovery of America. Richard Cobden was but thirty-four when he founded the Anti Corn Law League, which revolutionized the commercial policy of Great Britain. William Pitt, ranked by some histori- 'ans as the greatest of modern British premiers, was practically ruler of Eng land at twenty-four. The list of youth ful great men might easily be extended, and still it would be difficult to draw any hard-and-fast conclusion as be- tween the merits of youth and age in re- lation to the discharge of high public duties. The old adage, Young men for war, old men for counsel" has much lpith in it, and the presidential duties certainly pertain more to the counsels of peace than to the perils of war--that is, in ordinary times, when the jingoes cease from troubling and the nation is at rest.
 Emerson has said that America Is the country of young men," and we think it true that there are more young
 men in our public life than in that of