The herald., 1897-12-05
OLDEST
STATESMAN
Gladstone to Celebrate His
SSth Birthday
WILL MAKE ONE MORE SPEECH
HE Is GETTING. WEAKER AND
DECLINES TO LEAD
WILL MAKE ONE MORE SPEECH
The Liberal Party any Longer-Mrs.
Gladstone, Five Years His
Junior, Is Still Fresh

LONDON, Nov. 22.-(Special Core
spondence to The Herald.) On the Goth of
December the oldest living statesman
will be eighty-eight years old. William
Ewart Gladstone will stand upon the
threshold of another year, and England
will be forced to think herself one year
nearer the close of her most eventful
private career.
Gladstones greatness will never be
appreciated while he lives, and as John
Stuart Mill said of him: "He towers so
high above us that we must view him
from the vista of history"
For the first time in his life the old
Liberalist has been showing signs of
weakness. In his long career of sixty
five years of public life he has never
known one day of real illness, and would
at this time be premier of England were
1t not for the distressing malady that af-
flicts his eyes. He is dying of old age.
His organs are giving way altogether,
and one will hardly wear out before the
other. All will go at once. Like
house with quicksand beneath it, he is
gradually sinking, and his measurement
today shows him to 5 feet inches, just
one inch shorter than he was last De-
cember, when he stood erect and strong.
In his vigor he stood feet II inches.
The career of this man has been as
threefold as it is possible for any one life
to be. His whole life has been divided
into periods of three. He is great be-
lever in the luck Of three, and he pur-
posely had three steps constructed into
his stone arbor for the luck that three
brings him. He reads three books at one
time to give his mind three channels of
thought and he invariably writes three
letters before laying down his pen. He
reads only three hours at a time, and the
only variation in the rule is in favor of
seven, for he takes seven hours of sleep
day and seven hours of recreation.
HIS LIFE
William Ewart Gladstone was born in
Liverpool, December 20, 1909. He was
the son of a rich merchant of Lanca-
shire. The family was of Scottish de-
scent, with an illustrious pedigree in
Burke's Peerage. In Gladstone's boy
hood George Canning was the control
ling influence, and the years Of his boy
hood was passed during the time that
Wellington won Waterloo and Napoleon
became an exile. He was a student at
Eton in 1921 when Napoleon died, and for
six years he was a pupil under DR..
Turner afterward the famous Bishop of
Calcutta.
In 1929 he entered Christ Church COL
lege and graduated in 1881 with the high
est honors, afterward taking what was
then a tour of the world, namely, a tour
of Europe.
In 1882 his public life began. He was
elected member Of parliament and III
1888 became a force, at the age of "a
years. At 25 he became a junior lord of
the treasury and engaged in controver-
sizes with Disraeli, Newman, Golden,
John Stuart Mill and Peel He and Dis
raeli afterward faced each other as di-
rect rivals and for forty years waged q
political war.
In 1S43 Gladstone succeeded the Earl
of Ripon as president of the board of
trade and did important work for Brit
ish machinery. He continued active in
British politics until 1868, when he
reached the apex of his fame and be-
came premier. Disraeli had resigned.
For the next seventeen years he led the
Liberal party and alternately succeeded
himself and Lord Salisbury in the pre-
other rose.
Upon his resignation in 1895 he favored |
the Earl of Rosebery for premier, and |
in his memorable speech in the house
of commons, bidding farewell to Eng
lish public life and politics, he himself
placed the queens proffer of the premier
ship in Lord Rosebery's possession
placed the scepter of his own power in
Lord Rosebery's right hand.
Since then, although out of public life.
he has been in it, and from time to time
has made stirring speeches in favor of
his old hobbies. Irish home rule has
been the aim Of his life, and for that he
has spoken when he should have been
silent, has warred when the imple-
mentS of strife were forever laid down
by him. He has continued to lead the
Liberal party and has met the leaders
at Hawarden and from that same coun-
try seat has written messages of ad-
vice that have held them together in
time of dismemberment. His has been
the longest political career by fifteen
years of any Englishman and by ten
years of any in the world.
Bismarck is boy beside him in point
Of time of public service, and many of
the prominent members of the house of
commons We're boys at Elton when
Gladstone was an old man about to re-
tire" Seventeen years ago he was re-
ported dying from old age, yet today
he comes out firm in intellect and the
nuthor Of new books of prose and verse.
But at last his physical self is yielding.
and he says that his life work will he
done when he makes one more speech
on home rule
HIS FAMILY LIFE
One of the most remarkable things
about the G. o. M. of England has been
his family life-which has been as de-
lightful as his career has been long
He married Miss Margaret Glynne in
1898, at the age of 30, and immediately
began the raising of a large family
Of children. Miss Glynne was an heiress
rs years old, and her father was the
owner OF Hawarden, the celebrated
country seat that will be forever identi-
fed with the career of Gladstone. This
soon descended to her. Here the fam
ly lived, taking short trips to London
Turing the hottest of the political sea-
son, and going to Invernesshre in the
autumn, but most of the year was spent
1T Hawarden, and here Mr. Gladstone
was surrounded by everything that
could contribute to his comfort
Mrs. Gladstone, from the first humor-