The Irish standard., 1897-01-30
He is One of the Most Striking
Figures of the Time in
+ Various Ways. t*:..e.s
Gladstone. is Still a Commanding
Parsonage in the Worlds
Affairs,
But the Pope has Continued to
rlaintain the Prestige
of the World.

Eighteen ninety-six has been a year
testing and trying the regulations OF
men, writes editor Stead in the Eng
lish Review of Reviews, and although
this process may be occasionally dis
agreeable to individuals, it is one OF
the most useful forms Of national and
f, imperial stOcktaking. After all, the
strength of nations lies not merely In
the character of their ordinary men
Z: but also in the greatness Of their great
ones. A nation which has lost the ca
pacisy of begetting great men is@a ma
ton in it's decadence. But to know the
greatness of the truly great it is neces-
sary to pass them time and again
through the ordeal of adverse circum-
stance, to smelt away their dross In the
crucible of trial and temptation. 1t is
only after long continued series OF
these processes, which, indeed, never
cease while it lasts, that mankind is
able to ascertain beyond all doubt who
are really worthy of supreme homage
as the heroes of the race.
Eighteen ninety-six has not been de-
void of the tests supplied by trial and
temptation to the great ones of the
earth. Bismarck, for instance, who for
many years lowered like some magnifi-
cent column above the waste of Euro
pean diplomacy, has afforded only too
painful demonstration of the faults and
failings which assail the statesman III
retreat Eighteen ninetysix
has also revealed Mr.. Gladstone as one
who, if he has not worsened in his best
qualities, has not improved in those
which have always been the despair Of
his friends. Mr.. Gladstone, who in
1876 sent around the fiery cross On be-
half of Bulgaria and the Southern
Slavs, whose cause Russia had made
her own, was also the Mr.. Gladstone
who, in 1885, came perilously near 60
ing to war with Russia in one of the
worst causes that any nation could have
made it's own. In 1896 we see the same
two currents of good and evil blended.
There is the same enthusiasm against
the atrocities of the Turk, but there is
also the same unsympathetic incapac-
ity to recognize the difficulties of Rus
sia's position, which, in 1885, so nearly
brought the two empires into collision.
Among the great established reputa-
tions to which 1896 applied the touch
stone of life, that of the Pope must be
mum bered as those which have survived
Leo XIII has continued to maintain the
prestige which has compelled even the
non-C Catholic world to hail him as one
of the greatest Of Pontiffs. This year he
showed that his passion for Christian
kind within the fold of what he regards
as the Catholic faith did not lure him in
to taking any liberties with what he con-
sidered the well-established boundaries
of his church. His decision regarding
Anglican orders, although it has been
somewhat fiercely resented by those who
deluded themselves into the belief that
the Pope would try to convert the steel
wire of the Roman fold into an elastic
band, was only one more proof that the
Pope is too logical, consistent and vera
cious to snatch at an apparent advan-
tage by any straining of the well-estab-
lished law of the communion over
which he presides. His intervention on
behalf Of the Italian prisoners in Abys-
sinia showed his desire to play the part
of general mediator and intercessor,
even on behalf of those whom he be-
lieyes have usurped his patrimony and
despoiled the inheritance of the
Church. And his utteraces on behalf
of international arbitration have
shown once more how keenly alive he
is to the movements which tend to-
wards the realization of the Christian
ideal.