The San Francisco call., 1898-05-19
WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE.

| HILE the war with Spain is not only making \Nl history, but is rapidly crystalzing the nations
 and the races of the globe into new combina-
 ons which threaten bring about general war; ana which will certainly affect international potlcs as to make the conditions of the political world hereafter widely different from what has prevailed in times past, there is lying dead in England man who has made more history and done to mold pop ular sentiment than any other of this generation
 No man, however great, is ever really necessary to the advancing development of nations. Never theess at this juncture there will be a wide regret on both, sides of the ocean that fate did not allot 1t to Gladstone to conduct the affairs of Great Britain and to speak the voice of her Parliament, her people and her throne in declaring sympathy with the United States in the struggle for free Cuba, and hurling defiance at the banded despotisms of the world.
 Gladstones political career dates back to 1892 He took part in the whole of that movement which in the last sixty years has widely broadened the bounds of liberty and freedom He stood forth the champion of humanity, not only in his own country, but in Italy, in Greece, in Ireland, and lit orally throughout the world. No heart more earnest than his espoused the cause, of man, and few statesmen ever more eoquently supported it with tongue and pen in Parliament, on the hustngs in the council chamber or in the study.
 
 that which gave him almost unique place among statesmen was its openness to the light its capacity for growth and it's candid willingness accept the suits of light and growth Nearly every other great man has continued throughout political life to hold to the doctrines accepted at the beginning. It was not with Gladstone. In his early years he devout a conservative that Lord Macauay wrote of him the rising hope of the stern and unbending Tories His sympathies were not prim- arily on the side of the people His liberalism was the result of increasing wisdom and not of ar dent enthusiasm, and yet in his old age hardly any young man enthusiastic himself in the cause of Greece or of Ireland.
 Among the great social reforms in Great Britain with which his is inseparably associated the repeal of the corn laws the abolition of property qualification for members of Parliament the exten- sion of the franchise the disestabsmcnt of the Irish church and the admission of dissenters the univer stes. He did not succeed in doing much for Ire land owing to the unfortunate divisions in the ranks of the Irish party caused by the Parne scandal but he staked his political fortunes home rule bill and went out of office when it defeated.
 Throughout Europe his voice almost potent as at home He helped every advance of free dom on the Continent from the days when in his youth he pleaded not vain the of the patriots of Italy, down to the time when in his old age, his voice trembling but still eloquent, rang over the world in denunciaton of the powers that left Greece prey to Turkey
 The lesson of such life needs preacher to plain it Here was statesman who followed truth even when it led him against the inclnations of his sympathies and compelled him to surrender office
 The memory of such is inspiration to the world and his death will be mourned as loss on both sides of the Atlantic