New-York tribune., 1909-12-29
GLADSTONE.

The centenary which Is marked to-day
is the latest but by no means the least
interesting of those which have made
1909 notable, nor the least significant or
influence upon the welfare of humanity.
To those who for many years knew
Gladstone as not only a living but also
an exceptionally and peculiarly vital
figure in current history there is Ger
tain shock in the reminder that 1t was
n hundred years ago that he was born.
To few men is It given to become clas-
sizes within the period of their contem-
poraries But he was classic within MS
own lifetime The issues which he put
forward and the passions which he
aroused are not yet disposed of, yet he
himself stands among the Pitts and Can
nings and Burkes and Foxes and other
great British statesmen OF the past.
1t was eminently fitting that there
should be a celebration OF his centenary
in America, and that it should be dis
tinguished by an address from that am
basSador who was one Of his close
friends and who Is one of the most dis
tingIlished survivors of that notable
group of statesmen and scholars with
whom he surrounded himself. Yet to
the detached and reflective mind the
incident will appear another item in the
long roll of strange contradictions which
the career of that great man involved.
For there was no other eminent British
statesman of his time who was on oc-
casion more censoriOus Of America and
American institutions, and yet there
was none who on occasion expressed
more admiration of and love for Amer
lea, and there was almost certainly
none who so much commanded Ameri-
can admiration, confidence and SYM
pathy.
The note OF contradiction ran through
all his long and great career. AS an I'M
dergraduate he attracted attention by
his hostility to the reform bill: yet he
became the foremost Parliamentary re-
former Of his age. and he himself en-
tered Parliament under the very bill
which he had so passionately de-
nounced. Macaulay's phrase The ris-
ling hope of the stern. unbending
Tories was literally iustifable: vet he
became of all men most inimical to
every form of political TOryism. His
first speech in Parliament was a con-
domination Of the law for emancipating
slaves, yet he became the champion of
human freedom. The author of the CO.
erciOn policy and of the 'buckshot
campaign in Ireland, he was in time
the chief champion OF Irish Home Rule.
To the end of his days he remained Il
conservative of conservatives In re-
ligion, philosophy and literature. yet in
other things he was the foremost icOno-
clast of his age
1t is too early. or else too late. to pass
confident judgment upon Gladstone's
place in British history and statesman
ship. But at least it is assured that
that place will always he eminent aud
honorable for the intellectual force and
the mora! elevation with which he
filed ii. As the great prOtagoniSt of
free trade, of equal taxation. of pOpu-
lar education. of manhood suffrage. AMI
of allied causes. he commands the ad-
miratiOn even Of those who disagreed
with him. We might wish that he had
had a keener sense of humOr and that
he had been less constantly in a white
glow of passion. But in whom else in
the ilustrious line of British statesmen
are, on the whole, so few amendments
to be desired? There is scarcely name
Of the nineteenth century written larger
in the history of the British Empire
and of the human race than that of the
man who was born hundred years ago
to-day.