The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1901-11-23
Panegyric Delivered at the Unveiling
of Bronze Statue of the
Dead Englishman.
His Old Pupil Declares That Gladstone
Hated Moral Cowardice and
the Faint Heart.

The following pancgyric OH Glad
stone was recently delivered by John
of the unveiling OF Il bronze statue tc
the illuStrious Englishman:
Any dctraction from the greatness OF
Mr.. Gladstone is Il slur upon our coun.
trymen, because, surely, for Il whole
generation or more he sailed on the full
flood tide Of popularity in this country
which feel pretty sure has never been
cquallcd for so long Il period by any
great leader of either party (chccrs)
Mr. Gladstone was one of the mel
who rise from time to time in the
world, Il rare class of mcn-sometimcs
Il great ruler, sometimes a heroic sol
dier, sometimes a revolutionary poet
sometimes Il mighty chlrchmall-
whether you call him a Bossuct
or a Luther who sweep like
some new planet into the skies, and
Weakening, faScinatc and absorb the at
tention of their age That was what
MIR. Gladstone was. There are some
heroes who sacrifice themselves to
other people; there are others, great o.,
the page of history, who sacrifice other
people to themselves (hcar, hear. Mr..
Gladstone was, blcsscdly for us, of the
former class; but mark this, his popu-
lnrity was not limited to his own co,ml-
try (lcar. hear. In the year 1897 he
was brought forward MS Il most pro-
Using young statesman of W.
party. lie was then 2S years old. Tie
Liberals of the day denounced him rs
Il bigot, and don't know whnt-what-
ever tile Conservatives or Liberals say
of one another 1aughtcr). You who in
Manchester today, | gather, after i'm
mcnsr acclanation, have set up Il stat
llc of him, then sent him to tie bottom,
of the poll with Il majority Of hlnny
hundreds against him. only men
ton that as showing what changes and
chances there are in our mortal life.
! think you are very fortunate, if
may say SO, in the statue (hcAr, hear.
or course You know very well that
| neither bronze nor marble can repro
ducc in the statue of Mr. Gladstone
the rnrllantmcmt Of periods, exquisite
in their balance and their undulation
1t can hardly reproduce the energy OF
attitude and gesture, Of swift blaze
of the flashing glance, the stern wrath
Of the prophet, the irony. the mockcry
| the ease Of the finished orator. That
cannot all be reproduced. Still less
can any statue reproduce what those
Of us who had the honor and privilege
| Of knowing him and Of working will
| him were aware Of the consideration
and the affection, the recognition
which he always extended to those
| who. as he thought, served great caus
/ cS. Those, however, are consideration:
which in this place and today W.
should not dwell upon. | will not ar
que The place Of Mr.. Gladstone us IN
orator You have there a very noble
stat,Ic-I think one Of the noblrSt stat
urs have ever seen (hcar, hcar)-Ol
II great orator and Of n great man.
am not going to waste your time today
in comparing Mr.. Gladstone with his
comrades. They talk of G]adStont
compared with Burke. / am the las
man in the world to dctract from tina
immortal man; but Burke made two
great speeches upon the war in Ameri
ca He made those two great speech
cs-Orc of them against the coercion
Of willing colonies. Those two speech
cs together make Il perfect manual o
civil wisdom. I was looking at then
the other day, and 1 think each on
Of those speeches would have take
more than between four and five hour
to deliver. Gentlemen, l will say this
l doubt whether in our whole parlia
mentary history there has ever bee