Transcribed from the 1898 T. Fisher Unwin edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org THE REAL GLADSTONE. * * * * * An Anecdotal Biography. * * * * * BY J. EWING RITCHIE (CHRISTOPHER CRAYON), AUTHOR OF ‘CITIES OF THE DAWN,’ ‘CRYING FOR THE LIGHT,’ ETC. * * * * * LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN, PATERNOSTER SQUARE. NEW YORK: G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS. 1898. PREFACE. In this little work I have aimed to write, not a history or a biography, not a criticism or a eulogy, but merely to give a few scattered notes, gathered from many quarters, for the general public, rather than for the professional politician. Lord Rosebery is reported to have said that it will require many writers to give a complete biography of Mr. Gladstone. He may be right; but the evil of it will be, the work, if exhaustive, will be exhausting. Especially will it be so in these busy times, when yesterday’s biographies become stale to a public forgetful of the past, caring only for the present, oblivious of the morrow. It is almost an impertinence to speak of the many claims Mr. Gladstone has on a people whom he has served so long. All I claim to do is to give a few data which may help them to estimate the ‘Heroic mind Expressed in action, in endurance proved’— in short, more or less imperfectly, ‘The Real Gladstone.’ Clacton, _May_, 1898. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. BIRTH AND SCHOOLDAYS 1 II. GLADSTONE AT OXFORD 9 III. ENTERS PARLIAMENT 16 IV. M.P. FOR OXFORD UNIVERSITY 38 V. MR. GLADSTONE’S ECCLESIASTICAL OPINIONS 47 VI. MR. GLADSTONE AND THE DIVORCE BILL 67 VII. POLITICS AGAIN 75 VIII. POLITICS AND THE IRISH CHURCH 92 IX. EDUCATION AND IRELAND 116 X. IRELAND UNDER MR. FORSTER 126 XI. HOME RULE 140 XII. MR. GLADSTONE’S SPEECHES 154 XIII. MR. GLADSTONE’S PUBLICATIONS 170 XIV. ANECDOTAL AND CHARACTERISTIC 191 XV. MR. GLADSTONE’S LETTERS 213 XVI. MR. GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES 235 XVII. AT HOME 273 CHAPTER I. BIRTH AND SCHOOLDAYS.