The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-07-18
GLADSTONE THE BOY.

An Intresting Collection of His Letters
 From School--His Precocious and
 Absorbed Interest in National Poli-
 tics-Characteristics Early Devel-
 oped.
 By the kindness of MT. Hodge, of the famous firm of Sothby, I was allowed to glance through twenty-two letters written by MT. Gladstone when he was at Eton, Oxford and soon after leav- ing the university dating from 1926 to 1882. Most of them are dated from Eton, when he was boy of sixteen or seventeen, and these are certainly the most interesting and remarkable. They are all addressed to his friend Farr, and are pasted neatly in hand some album, together with a number of Arthur Hallam's, and others whose names can scarcely be known to the public. We call them letters, but they are none of your roundhand, school boy effusions, hastily done on the small notepaper which this busy age uses for its communications Each is compo- sition, an essay in miniature, occupy ing four pages Oess the little parallel ogram for the address) each measur- ing about nine by seven inches-the figures will convey a better idea to the public than paper-makers' jargon, Faded is that paper now, slightly em- Drowned by time, but clear as print to read and the ink still fairly strong, strange to say. Those who are famiI- jar with MT. Gladstone's later writings will easily trace the remarkable fami- ly likeness which exists between them and the boys epistles. But there is no need to enter into experts details. A full life and an enormous correspond ence, never ceasng, had made him rather difficult to decipher; in these early days he had time to form his let ters, and, as we have said they are as clear as type, though, for economy's sake the pages are often overfowing and cramped. Postage was more than a penny in the year 1926 A. D. By the way, one of them is written after his election for Newark, and he says, evil dently with pride, that he let his friend Farr receive the first news from the newspapers in order to have the pleas ure of framing his own letter, which is a day or two late The envelope must have come in by that time, for here it is, with the famous ''W. E. Gladstone" on the left-hand lower corner We mo- tice only one or two, for most of the letters are just neatly folded up, sealed and stamped with a thumb, apparent ly Gas Sydney Smith said he did when asked for his coat-of-arms), and the address written on the patch left for the purpose.
 If ever the child was father to the man, Gladstone at sixteen was the undoubted parent of the Gladstone at the end of the century. Whoever un- dertakes the herculean task of writing the great biography will certainly have to peruse these letters, and assuredly will bear out this statement. They probably form the only first-hand rec ord of MT. Gladstone's schooldays. Even he was quite unaware of their existence. The story, as Mir. Hodge told 1t to me, was that they had come into his hands for sale from some de- scendant of Mir Farr The matter was referred to MT. Gladstone, who early one morning walked into Mir. Hodges room and begged to be allowed to see them. He was at once accommodated with Mir Hodges chair, and the vol ume was placed upon Mir. Hodges desk, which has supported so many precious records.
 This was some four years ago. There he sat, and read them all again, often,