The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-05-19
Death of William E. Gladstone.

Mr.. Gladstones phenomenal consti-
tuition has been slowly waning for
some months, but until within the
last few weeks no acute crisis in his
illness had arrived. A generation
which had grown to regard Mr. Glad
stone still youthful at eighty could
scarcely realize that in his eighty
ninth year the greatest statesman Of
his age and country, the greatest par
Humanitarian of any age, and the most
remarkable man and scholar of the
nineteenth century, was about to die.
Death brought Mr.. Gladstone much
physical suffering. He bore it re-
signedly. He loved life for the good he
could do to his fellow men i'm the
world, he loved not the world for the
enjoyment he could snatch from it. He
was as happy in his domestic life as
he was unique, magnificent, and ma
Jestic in his public career. Few men
Of any generation will stand so prom
inently forth in the history of the
nineteenth century as William Ewart
Gladstone. No man has been SO de-
and so maliCiously and vindictively
eXecrated by his cOuntrymen at the
same time. He was the peoples Will
liam" the Grand Old Man" the only
possible leader oS the British Del
mocracy," and the old parliamentary
hand whose readiness in debate, popu-
larity at the hustings, and magnetic
attractiveness carried everything be-
fore him in the minds and affections
of the masses; while to the classes he
was the incarnation of discrimination,
hypocrisy and tergiVersation; the
iconoclast of the church and the be-
trayer of the state and the author Of
the disintegration of the empire.
Mr.. Gladstone was neither a demigod
nor an anarchist, although he was
reVered as the one and reViled as the
other, He was a man of commanding
genius, of almost superhuman origin
ality Of mind and of unparalleled
oratorical gifts. He combined the pro-
found learning of the scholar the
versatility of the politician, the con-
structive powers of the statesman, and.
above all, he had an abiding and un-
shaRable faith in the people. He be-
lieved in his countrymen and the per-
Vading and permeating dominance of
the Anglo-Saxon race in the affairs
of the world. He was a man of great
religious fervOr, His religion he
based, as he himself wrote, on the i'm
pregnable rock of the Holy Scripture.
There ii rested until the end. He was
satisfied that the Church Of England
bore within the ark of its covenant all
the truths necessary for the salvation
Of all born within its pale: he did not
believe it contained a monopoly of
them.
In reviewing Mr.. Gladstones first
contribution to the literature of his
country, The State in Relation to the
Church" Lord Macauley in 1895 wrote
this remarkable criticism; Mr. Glad
stone is young man, of unblemished
character, the rising hope of the stern
and unbending Tory party" This esti-
mate has been so often quoted in the
life time Of the illustrious man whose
character and CAREER they SO SEN
tentiously and perspicuously summar-
lied sixty years ago that 1t is almost
ineXcusable 10 quote 1t again. 1t is
opposite, however, since it SO accu-
rately presents the mental, political
and moral altitude from which Mr.
Gladstone took his first flight into the
world of politics. Mr., Gladstone was
born at Liverpool on the 29th OF De-
cember, 1909, He was the fourth son
of Sir John Gladstone, a wealthy mer-
chant of that city and slave-owner
while Englishmen still owned slaves in
their colonial plantations. After receiv-
ing his education at Eton college and
oxford University, he entered the
house of commons for the borough of
Newark in 1882. 1t was characteristic
OF the times that Mr.. Gladstone repre-
sented the Duke of Newcastle and not