The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-03-24
A Daniel Come to Judgment.

AS IL one Ot tne Olu pT0pnete uau
stepped forth from his tomb, Gladstone
faces the powers of Europe and tells
their sovereigns truths, rebukes their
sins and warns them OF the wrath OF
Heaven, as faithfully and fearlessly,
as eloquently and impressively, as Mo-
ses spake to Pharaoh or Daniel to the
Kings of Babylon.
From his retreat in southern France
he sends remarkable letter to the
Duke of Westminster, but through his
friend he addresses all the English peo-
pie and the friends of freedom and hu-
mainly throughout the civilized world.
The venerable writer is in the eighty
eighth year of his age, but he writes and
reasons with all the force and clear
ness of the greatest of human intel
lects in its prime, and denounces kings
and emperors for their crimes against
humanity in their dealing with Turkey
and Armenia, Greece and Crete, with
an impetuosity that is suggestive of
the warm blood of youth rather than
the tempered speech of man on the
verge of ninety years. But it is the
kind of deliverance the ears of mil
lions have been aching to hear.
Gladstone has earned the right to
summon the powers of Europe to a
reckoning. Behind him are fifty years
of active participation in the compli-
Gated politics of Europe. Every fact
of history, every intrigue of diplomacy,
is known to him. He is himself an in
tegral part of the history of Europe for
the last half century. His times may
have produced more cunning diplomats,
or men of greater astuteness in state
craft; his judgment sometimes may
have been at fault, and his administra-
ton of England's affairs marked by
failures, but he has furnished his coun-
try and all Europe that which they
most needed, heart and conscience.
His heart has been always with the peo-
pie, and his conscience has impelled
him ever to place their interests above
personal ambition or personal success.
He has been offered peerage on more
than one occasion, but has declined,
preferring the rarer title of The Great
Commoner. With his long record of
eminent public service, his unfaltering
loyalty to the people and steadfast
championship of their cause, he speaks
to Europe with voice that must be
heard and needed. Tarrying on the
border line between time and eternity,
all his powers of mind unimpaired,
with no selfish purpose-if he ever had
one-to serve, the clouds of war gath
ering over Europe, he stands amid its
lightnings and its thunders addressing
the crowned heads and the people of
his times as Moses stood amid Sinai's
demonstrations, laying down the law
to the children of Israel. The address
is magnificent climax to career al
ready pre-eminent. Alone it would
make its author immortal.
The present concert of Europe"
Gladstone says, "means the conceal
ment of dissents, the lapse into gener-
alities, and the settling down upon neg
atoms at junctures when duty loudly
calls for positive action" The worst
feature of "this pretended and inef-
fectual cooperation of Governments"
he says, is that it "shuts out the peo-
PIES" To Greece's splendid courage,
is attributed the interference of the
powers in the case of Crete, not "to a
recrudescence of spirit and courage in
counsels that had hitherto resulted in a
concert of miserable poltroonery." cat
the heels of this concert we have
plodded on patiently for two years." he
says of England, and declares that cit
is time to shake off the incubus and IL
remember, as in days of old, that We
have an existence, character and 6
duty of our own"
To "two young men who rule en-