WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE 1809-1898 William Ewart Gladstone happened to be born in Liverpool; but he was a Scot on both sides of his ancestry; and his father came of an ancient line of Gledstanes (Hawk-stones) who had figured with dignity and credit in Scottish history for generations. Born in 1809, he lived all but ninety years, retaining to the last the unimpaired use of his mind, and to the last interested in all that pertained to the welfare and honor of his country. Though he had retired from active political life four or five years before his death, no one could act in the government without explicit or implied reference to him; and his opponents were never free from the apprehension that, if a crisis demanded it, the Grand Old Man would once more take the helm. Often invited to enter the peerage, he steadfastly and wisely declined, and remained to the end the Great Commoner-a title which he shared with the only other English statesman who could stand comparison with him-Lord Chatham previous to 1766. That he made many errors in the course of his long life was inevitable; though many of them were due less to his will than to the tyranny of circumstance; but the longer he lived the more firmly did the mass of the people pin their faith to him; and the worthier of their trust did he prove himself. It was in 1832, when twenty-three years of age, that he took his seat for the first time in Parliament; and with the exception of eighteen months, he sat there till his retirement from public life in 1894. Most of this time he represented the boroughs of Greenwich and Midlothian. But his first constituency was Newark, a pocket-borough" of the Duke of Newcastle, a Tory. When Sir Robert Peel came into power in 1834. Gladstone was appointed a Lord of the Treasury, and then Under Secretary of the Colonies. In 1841 he became Vice-President of the Board of Trade, and made a reputation by his handling of the scheme of tariff revision. Two years later he took his place in the Cabinet, but resigned in 1845 for reasons of political consistency. Between this time and 1852 Gladstone's views underwent a progressive change; and as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the coalition ministry of Aberdeen, he appeared under Liberal colors. Lord Palmerston and Lord Russell both continued him in the Exchequer; and when Palmerston died, in 1865, Gladstone became leader of the House of Commons. The Tories defeated his reform bill, and "dished the Whigs by bringing in one of their own; but in 1868 he was chosen Prime Minister, and so remained till 1874. Nor was he content to fill this august office only; he combined with it those of First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Lord Privy Seal. The more he labored for the public weal, the more strength and ability to work did he seem to evince. The disestablishment of the Irish Church was one of the earliest measures which, as Prime Minister, he introduced and advocated; and from that time the condition of Ireland was one of his leading preoccupations. Gladstone's oratory was always remarkable, even from the first; but it constantly improved as he advanced in age and experience, and his knowledge of men and affairs broadened and deepened. The almost savage earnestness with which he dealt with questions of moment never left him; but he gradually relieved it by a sunny and sympathetic treatment of the body of his subject, by touches or humor and wit, and by the extraordinary perspicacity and ease with which he handled matters which, till then, had been thought unsusceptible of any but formal and tedious treatment. This was especially conspicuous in his speeches on finance. Domestic and Foreign Affairs and "The Established Church in Ireland are typical examples of his Parliamentary speeches. 66 ON DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS MR Delivered at West Calder, November 27, 1879 R. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN: In addressing you today, as in addressing like audiences assembled for a like purpose in other places of the county, I am warmed by the enthusiastic welcome which you have been pleased in every quarter and in every form to accord to me. I am, on the other hand, daunted when I recollect, first of all, what large demands I have to make on your patience; and secondly, how inadequate are my powers, and how inadequate almost any amount of time you can grant me, to set forth worthily the whole of the case which ought to be laid before you in connection with the coming election. To-day, gentlemen, as I know that many among you are interested in the land, and as I feel that what is termed " agricultural distress" is at the present moment a topic too serious to be omitted from our consideration, I shall say some words upon the subject of that agricultural distress, and particularly, because in connection with it there have arisen in some quarters of the country proposals, which have received a countenance far beyond their deserts, to reverse or to compromise the work which it took us one whole generation to achieve, and to revert to the mischievous, obstructive, and impoverishing system of protection. Gentlemen, I speak of agricultural distress as a matter now undoubtedly serious. Let none of us withold our sympathy from the farmer, the cultivator of the soil, in the struggle he has to undergo. His struggle is a struggle of competition with the United States. But I do not fully explain the case when I say the United States. It is not with the entire United States, it is with the western portion of these States-that portion remote from the sea-board; and I wish in the first place, gentlemen, to state to you all a fact of very great interest and importance, as it seems to me, relating to and defining the point at which the competition of the western States of America is most severely felt. I have in my hand a letter received recently from one well known, and honorably known, in Scotland-Mr. Lyon Playfair, who has recently been a traveller in the United States, and who, as you well know, is as well qualified as any man upon earth for accurate and careful investigation. The point, gentlemen, at which the competition of the western States of America is most severely felt is in the eastern States of America. Whatever be agricultural distress in Scotland, whatever it be, where undoubtedly it is more felt, in England, it is greater by much in the eastern States of America. In the States of New England the soil has been to some extent exhausted by careless methods of agriculture, and these, gentlemen, are the greatest of all the enemies with which the farmer has to contend. But the foundation of the statement I make, that the eastern States of America are those that most feel the competition of the West, is to be found in facts-in this fact above all, that not only they are not in America, as we are here, talking about the shortness of the annual returns, and in some places having much said on the subject of rents, and of temporary remission or of permanent reduction. That is not the state of things; they have actually got to this point, that the capital values of land, as tested by sales in the market, have undergone an enormous diminution. Now I will tell you something that actually happened, on the authority of my friend Mr. Playfair. I will tell you something that has happened in one of the New England States-not, recollect, in a desert or a remote country-in an old cultivated country, and near one of the towns of these States, a town that has the honorable name of Wellesley. Mr. Playfair tells me this: Three weeks ago—that is to say, about the first of this month, so you will see my information is tolerably recent-three weeks ago a friend of Mr. Playfair bought a farm near Wellesley for $33 an acre, for £6 12s. an acre-agricultural land, remember, in an old settled country. That is the present condition of agricultural property in the old States of New England. I think by the simple recital of that fact I have tolerably well established my case, for you have not come in England, and you have not come in Scotland, to the point at which agricultural land is to be had-not wild land, but improved and old cultivated land-is to be had for the price of £6 125. an acre. He mentions that this is by no means a strange case, an isolated case, that it fairly represented the average transactions that have been going on; and he says that in that region the ordinary price of agricultural land at the present time is from $20 to $50 an acre, or from £4 to £10. In New York the soil is better, and the population is greater; but even in the State of New York land ranges for agricultural purposes from $50 to $100, that is to say, from £10 to £20 an acre. I think those of you, gentlemen, who are farmers will perhaps derive some comfort from perceiving that if the pressure here is heavy the pressure elsewhere and the pressure nearer to the seat of this very abundant production is greater and far greater still. It is most interesting to consider, however, what this pressure is. There has been developed in the astonishing progressive power of the United States-there has been developed a faculty of producing corn for the subsistence of man, with a rapidity and to an extent unknown in the experience of mankind. There is nothing like it in history. Do not let us conceal, gentlemen, from ourselves the fact; I shall not stand the worse with any of you who are farmers if I at once avow that this greater and comparatively immense abundance of the prime article of subsistence for mankind is a great blessing vouchsafed by Providence to mankind. In part I believe that the cheapness has been increased by special causes. The lands from which the great abundance of American wheat comes are very thinly peopled as yet. They will become more thickly peopled, and as they become more thickly peopled a larger proportion of their produce will be wanted for home consumption and less of it will come to you, and at a higher price. Again, if we are rightly informed, the price of American wheat has been unnaturally reduced by the extraordinary depression, in recent times, of trade in America, and especially of the mineral trades, upon which many railroads are dependent in America, and with which these railroads are connected in America in a degree and manner that in this country we know but little of. With a revival of trade in America it is to be expected that the freights of corn will increase, and all other freights, because the employment of the railroads will be VOL. II.-21 |