The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1898-05-23
PASSING OF GLADSTONE
JEROME sAvoNARoLA, MARTYR


Rev. Burt Estes Howard, at the Los An
scles theater yesterday morning, delivered
an able address on 1.-THE Passing of Glad
stone" Mr.. Howard said in part:
Had Mr.. Gladstone been a smaller man,
z man Of grosser moral poise, the charge
of Inconsistency would undoubtedly have
had no foundation in fact. Gladstonewas
inconsistent because he was great-and
because he was honest. Petty men. with
selfish ends to subserve. are always con-
etant to the one mean purpose OF their lives
But larger men, to whom consistency
means no mere stubborn adherence to pol
Icy. but steadfast loyalty to principle, must
be found again and again modifying both
their views and their methods. Had M.
Gladstone been seeking his own personal
advantage, the establishment of a reputa-
ton for himself. for his policy, or for his
party, then some of his acts could be in
terpreted only as evidences of a supreme
folly or a base demagogism.
"But when we see shining through oil
his acts the glory of splendid moral pur-
pose, when we see behind all his efforts
the inspiration of high political ideal,
then even his errors and mistakes are in
vested with a grandeur that trans
figures them and makes them the
symbols of the mans moral earnest
ness, though they be the signs of his in
fallibility of judgment. To Mr.. Gladstone
the very soul of politics was principle. The
integrity of the nation was to be preserved
though 1t cost the sacrifice Of party. Twice
he wrecked his own party where little
politician would have saved 1t by com.
promise, or built it up on shifty and
49, Lott wrvt,x \
wreck it? Because when the conflict
came between his conception of principle
and the party the man in him conquered
the politician. And because Of this
staunchness in moral purpose, because Of
the imperative moral manhood that was
in him. he won the confidence of men in
himself, who, perhaps, did not believe in
his theories or methods.
at is charged that Mr.. Gladstone was an
opportunist that he trimmed his sails to
every passing breeze. Perhaps he did, but
he brought his ship into port-which is
what sails are for. Mr.. Gladstone took ad-
vantage of existing conditions and existing
tendencies, and if 1t be claimed that he
rode upon the popular impulse Of the hour
it must also be admitted that he put bit
in it's mouth and guided 1t always SO far
as was possible toward the high end he was
seeking to secure. His enemies cannot
truthfully maintain that in all his alleged
opportunism he ever perverted his oppor-
tunities to the subservance of private or
merely partisan ends or that he seized the
tendency of the passing hour and made it
grind a grist of personal reputation OF
personal benefit and not grist of public
utility. His policy changed to meet the
changing conditions. and If as the years
passed and the light grew stronger on some
questions, he modified his views. he was
great enough to acknowledge his former
errors, and honest enough to destroy the
work of hts own hands to clear place for
the better and truer. Call it Inconsistency.
If you will, but the right name for 1t Is
manhood. Had he been less honest he
might have been more successful in his
projects, but he would not have been
worthy OF that highest title which a world
has justly conferred on him. The Grand
Old man
when we search for the secret of Glad
stones greatness we go far atield If we seek
for 1t elsewhere than in his soul. With all
his intellectual strength and marvellous
versatility of metnal process, with all his
fund of knowledge and his wonderful men,
ory. the true strength of Gladstone did not
lie in his power of logical analysis or IN
his philosophic insight. He could not dis
sect with the shrewdness of lesser men the
political movements in which he was play
ing a part. non could he see with philo-
sophie intuition into the measures he him.
self most strenuously advocated. He had
sublime faith in the persistence of right
eousness. And If he did not see the moral
forces of his times with O clear vision, or
interpret their movement with a prophetic
instinct that was inerrant. yet he believed
with all the intensity of mighty soul in
the power Of principle, and in its ultimate
victory even In politics.
1.-THE mighty faith of the man in moral
principle as the guide to all life, the life
of nations as well as men, is the secret Of
his power. He has won less by his state
craft than by his honesty of purpose, less
by his diplomacy than by his moral man.
hood. And because he believed in the vic
tory Of Righteousness he could not be shak-
en- by failure Of methods. Politics meant to
him not the success of a party nor Of an
act of legislation, but the dominance Of a
right idea. 1t was his faith in the persist
ence of the idea that anchored him. You
cannot fight against the future he said
in his great speech in the reform debate of
'66. Time is on our side. The great social
forces which move onward in their might
and majesty, and which the tumult of our
debates does not for a moment impede or
disturb-those great social forces are
against you; they are marshalled on our
side, and the banner which we now carry
in this fight. though perhaps at some mo-
ment 1t may droop over your sinking heads,
yet 1t will soon float in the eye of heaven,
and 1t will be borne by the firm hands of
the united people Of the three kingdoms,
perhaps not to an easy. but to certain and
to . not distant victory"
ETERNAL LIFE