The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1898-08-28
smal,ey ON Gladstone

In the current number of Harper'6
Magazine appears the third of George
w. Smalley's papers on Gladstone. The
first two installments of the series
have been devoted to expiana tons of
the extraordinary esteem in which
Smalley was held by Mr.. Gladstone,
and the confidence which the great
man reposed in the little one. 1t ap-
pears from these accounts that Mr.
Gladstone had before he died selected
the writer, who was to be his Boswell.
and that he was determined that this
Boswell should have the fullest oppor-
tunities for observation. He seems not
to have thought of going anywhere,
whether to queens drawing-room or
TO chop down a tree, without taking
Smalley along, and a large part of his
very voluminous correspondence ap-
pears to have been with Smalley The
consequence of all this is that in the
"reminiscences by Smalley, the first
personal pronoun, singular, is to be
found somewhat oftener than the name
of Gladstone
DtyOnu dii uOuDt
the theory that he was the support
Of Gladstone's old age, Smalley now
proceeds TO blackguard the great Eng
lishman with zeal and equanimity
totally unparalleled in the history of
literature. 1t is an old proverb that
no man is a hero TO his valet, but that
the valet should parade his unheroic
discoveries before the public, simply
for the purpose of showing that he has
been permitted TO make them, is some
thing rather new.
Smalley begins by remarkng that he
does not think Mr.. Gladstone was ever
really friendly to the American people,
that the opinions he thought it di Greet
to express in public are one thing, and
those which he was known by his
friends to hold privately are another.
Unless Smalley listened at keyholes, it
is to be supposed that he discovered
these private opinions of Mr.. Gladstone
through being admitted to the circle
Of that statesman's friendship. His
behavior in alternately assuring us of
his intimacy with Gladstone. and re-
yealing opinions which Mr.. Gladstone
expressed only in the privacy of init
mate conversation is sufficiently re-
markable in itself to warrant putting
Smalley on a platform for exhibition.
This new-fashioned Boswell proceeds
to explain that Gladstone, while known
as the Great Commoner, was in private
life a most incorrigible snob and toady
He mentions various occasions on
which Mr.. Gladstone refused TO take
precedence of men whose social posi-
ton he considered as above his own.
though strongly urged to do so by the
men themselves. Having first Great
ed his peer" says Smalley, he then
bowed down before him The heather
who fashions his idol out of wood or
stone could do no more
Finally, after apologizing for the
mention of Mr. Gladstone's private
affairs" Smalley tells of certain finan-
ciai straits which afflicted Gladstone
while prime minister. Speaking of the
statesmans wealthy friends he says:
When his need became known to them
and they offered help he accepted it, as
he had accepted much else through
long series of years.
Altogether, Smalley's paper on the
career of Gladstone is a most extraor-
binary compilation. One feels a certain
sympathy with a man whose private
life is rified of its characteristics for
the amusement of the public, even
while he is alive, and able to defend
himself. In this case he is dead and
helpless. The impression which one
gets in reading this gossip is that Mr.
Smalley would not be a pleasant man
to have about if one did not wish to
have ones private and off-hand con-
versations reported TO the public. |
There is a good-natured gossip which
can give no offense even to its subject. |
But this is a deliberate effort to be- !
little the character of man whom the |
world recognizes as great, by using
facts and impressions CLEANED in ante
rooms and the buttery