The San Francisco call., 1898-05-19
GLADSTONE WITH THE
 MAJORITY
Continued From First Page.

to have arisen until this century. There were men who ruled before Gladstone $ time. Walpole and Chatham Kept com mand of Parliament and directed the affairs of the British empire with the firm grasp of power. Smaller men than they have also had this ruling quality But statesmanship now re- ouires, in addition to administrative, the legislative gift, the capacity 10 shape measures which the expanding requirements of the country dictate as necessary Supplementary to thls the gift of luminous exposition is almost essential not necessarily eloquence' put convincing explanatory lucldity OH coh- crete propositions, in Wnlch the sraceS of rhetoric are less evidences or WIS dom than of culture. To lead the House of Commons to-day, to be leader Ill English politics, a man should nave the quality of originating measures shaping a policy and inspiring conn- dence among the masses ana those who represent them. It IS states manship altogether different m 1nauy respects from that which yet prevails In the rest of Europe, where the heao of a Cabinet Is still very much the mouthpiece of the monarch, and IS helo continually under restraint II ne mas broad aims of his own. An Englsh Ministry cannot hold office without the confidence of the House of Commons. :.
 In the capacity to lead the House or Commons on every concelVable SupJecl of statesmanship MT. Gladstone nas never been eXcelled. No one has traIlS- cended him in inspiring enthusiasm either in the House of Commons or Ill the country His is not the 1ane o1 the dextrous juggler Of policies WAo confutes and triumphs by mere clever ness, which is afterward laueheo at as shallow and tricky. Disraen was oI this type. So different was Glaoslone that he almost gave rise to the peileI that in everything he did he had con yiction to solemnify his proposals whereas in reality much Of hls actloh could only have been expedlency' ac cording to his opportunity, ana Hol strictly an expression or his 1ull Pur- pose or conception Of what was oe- sirable. He was wisely content to at tempt the achievement of the posslpie' to gain a bit at time, and to walt TOT more No one has had a better gauge of the pulse of the nation and the House of Commons, or knew With truer instinct when to act and when 10 Walt The country as aWhole regarded nm as a high-fninded man Of pure motives ana pure in all aspects of personal lfe. Even in the heat of party strife the most yirulent aspersiens cast on ms policy cannot be said to have aSsalled his personal character. The most fah- corous of opponents during the frenzy of the home rule struggle would aoihlt that in ability he had no match Tn Far liament. and would take pride in him as head and shoulders the most brilliant man in the House of Commons. Com pliments of the most eulogistic as well as sincere character were in lS93 passed upon the venerable Liberal leader, four times Prime Minister of England, by his often venomous opponents MT. Bal four and MT. Chamberlain. A states man of the scoffing, fiippant, laissez faire school, such as Palmerston, as- sertive and meddling in foreign but dormant in domestic policy, is no longer possible as a successful leader in Eng land. A Prime Minister must work IT he is to command respect. MT Glad stone toiled as never statesman before has done. and probably the naJorlty ol his countrymen adored him because his oratory was not fine words alone, but a guide to deeds.
 A more healthy physique than MT. Gladstone's was perhaps never seen in man. He can scarcely be said to have had ailments in youth, middle age or senility, Senility hardly applies to his old age. He was youthful in feeling and even in physical activity almost to the last. Sir Andrew Clark, his physician for twenty years, declared that there was no reason he should not see five score. Up to within year his body was sound from head to foot; his eyesight only dimmed and his hearing impaired. He could walk with as vigorous a stride as young man, erect in gait, the head carried well and the arms swinging. His eyes, always deep and expressive, retained much of their fire. and although the It. p011 ;,,%1 f,,, ,y,6 pallor took the place of the former ruddy glow, there never was any in dication of dotard feebleness. He con- tinued to fell trees at Hawarden when past 80. and walking was delightful to him both as exercise and as a whet- stone to his thinking. As a young man he must have been strikingly hand some. AS an old man his figure and mien distinguished him notably from all others. 1t was impossible to think this man commonplace, wherever he was. During at least thirty years he was the dominating personality of the House of Commons, the foremost statesman of his day, compared with whom all others were as pigmies, at the most only eminent in departments or speciaIties and not invested with his many-sided characteristics and endow ments.
 MT. Gladstone's career was remark ably progressive. Just as soon as he left Oxford in 1881, taking a double first degree, he entered Parliament, be- ing returned for Newark in 1892, one of those pocket family burroughs in the practical possession of the Duke of Newcastle. He was Tory, but mod crate in his party feeling sand prone to serious views of utility in admins tration and legislation. With such a temperament, education in poli- tics toward the popular side was a process inevitable, but 1t took time to step across the di- viding border line. As a devout church. man, he had very strong views on the relationship of church and state, and gave them literary form in we'll known work, torn to tatters as unten- able by Lord Macaulay The progress he made in thought on this subject is shown in his legislative achievement whereby the Irish church was discs tablished, with the inevitable corollary that all other forms of state church establishments are doomed as soon as the facts and the argument are strong enough to convince the electorate The logic of maintaining religions endowed out of taxes or grants by the state has vanished.