The times., 1898-07-03
TALKS WITH MR.. GLADSTONE.
The Many-sided Character of the
Great EngIishman.

(FIom the New York Evening Post.1
A cloud of witnesses could be sum-
moned to prove the extraordinary charm
OF Mr.. Gladstone's conversation. His
bitterest political foes acknowledged its
fascination, and exposed themselves to
it with mixture of dread and delight.
They knew they could never hate him as
heartily as they felt they should, after
once submitting TO the spell With vast
stores of knowledge at instant command.
ranging easily over all subjects from the
grayest that man can think about 70 the
most unconsidered trifies. ever deferen-
tial and courteous. and far more willing
than monopolizer of conversation like
Macaulay TO please the company with
brilliant flashes of silence. he had a re-
markable equipment for the social tri-
umphs which he so frequently won On
hats he could discourse as volubiy as
upon Homer. and even more entertain
ingly. Some French economists were
once at a table with him only 10 hear
him talk an hour about chiropodists, their
methods and charges. They pricked up
their ear al the word corn" hoping 70
hear something at last about the corn
laws and their beloved finance. but soon
gave il up. One could never tell where
Mr.. Gladstone would strike; a chance
word would set him off; but he was GER
tain to amuse and instruct, whatever the
theme upon which he poured his aston
ishing mental resources.
His great fame as talker will lead
many TO turn eagerly TO Mr.. TOllemache's
Talks with Nr Gladstone" just pub
ished in this country by the Longmans
4 int h01 ~
haps excites expeditions which IL does
not satisfy. Mr.. Tollemache, we'll known
from his former writings as a man OF
large learning and good literary tastes
sets out professedIy 10 'BosweIlize'
Gladstone. But Mr. Gladstone was no
Johnson. and Mr. ToIlemache is far from
being a Boswell. He has not the extra
ordinary realistic power OF that reaiist
before the realists. neither is he so viii
ling 10 appear as a fool as that uneon-
scious Scot. He leaves the reader in no
doubt that Mr.. ToIIemache's share in
the conversation was well sustained and
that he had many another apt classical
quotation TO adduce. if he had thought
of ii in time Yet he gives US great
deal Of information about Mr.. Gladstone's 5
manner in conversation. and recalls the
substance of his talk, not a little which
is of much value.
Mr. Gladstone's gracious Differences to
interiors, especially TO young men. is GER
| tilted to anew by Mr.. Tollemache. CHe
himeslf first met Gladstone when young.) }
This was an unusual quality in a great
conyerseT. Darwin records meeting
Buckle, who flooded the rising young
naturalist with his own copiOus dis
course, and afterward remarked that
Darwin appeared TO much better advan-
| tage in his books than in converse ton,
Mr.. Gladstone could listen. Nor did he
| regard conversation. as Johnson did as
a struggle for mastery. He valued il for
| the light struck out by the clash of diff
| fering minds. Some of the limitations OF
| his own conversation are very shrewdly
| pointed out by Mr.. Tollemache They
| lay mainly in his overwhelming ora
| torical instinct. Ii was not that he was
| one of those insufferabIe men who
| harangue the table and who pose and
| strut and puff out their shirt-fronts in
| private with their resOunding, Sir. let
| me tell you" but that this orators
| habit, his rhetorical turn of mind made
| him more verbose and less epigram-
| matte than a good talker should be, and
inclined him to be intense almost eX-
asgerated in his desire to make a
point" His absorbed and eager air
even when talking OF trivial matters.
| led one observes to say that he will
| talk about piece of old china as if
| he were standing before the Judgment
seat Of God" Mr.. Tollemache's illus