Mr. Gladstone.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIV, Issue 94, 22 April 1893, Page 11

Mr. Gladstone.

I am often asked what is the secret of Mr Gladstone's extraordinary length of days and of the perfection of his unvarying health. The answer no doubb is largely to be found in bhe remarkabe longeviby of bhe Gladsbone family, a hardy Scottish Btock with fewer weak shoots and branches than perhaps any of the ruling families of England. But ib has depended mainly on Mr Gladsbone himself and on the undeviating regularity of bis .habits. Most English statesmen have been either free livers or with a touch of the bon vivant in them. Pitt and Fox were men of the first character; Melbourne, Palmerston, and Lord Beaconsfield were of the last. Bub Mr Gladstone is a man who has been guilby of no excesses, save perhaps in work. He rises ab the same hour every day, uses the same fairly generous, but always carefully regulated, diet, goes to bed aboub the same hour, pursues the same round of work, and intellectual, and social pleasure. An extraordinarily varied life ia accompanied by a certain rigidity of personal habit I have never seen surpassed. TJbe only change old age has wibneseed has been bhab the House of Commons work hag been curbailed, and that Mr Gladsbone has nob of labe years been seen in the House, excepb on nights when crucial divisions are expected, afber the dinner hour, which lasts from 8 bill 10. With the approach of winter and its accompanying chills, bo which he is extremely liable, he geeks the blue ekies and dry air of the Mediterranean coasbs and of his beloved Italy. With this exception, hia life goes on in ita pleasant monotony. Ab Hawarden, cf course, ib is simpler and more private than in London, In town to-day Mr Gladstone avoids all large parties and greab crushes and gatherings where he may be expected bo be either mobbed or: bored or detained beyond hie usual bed ; time. »

Personally Mr Gladstone is an example of bhe mosb winning, the most delicate and the mosb minute courbosy. He is a genbleman of bhe elder English school and hia manners are grand and urbane, always stately, never condescending, and genuinely modest. He affects even tho dress of the old school, and I have seen him in the morning wearing an old black evening coat, such as Professor Jowett still affects. The humblesb passer-by in Piccadilly raising hia hat to Mr Gladstone in sure to sreb a sweeping salute in return. This courtliness is all the more remarkable because ib accompanies and adorns a very strong temper, a will of iron and a habit of being regarded for the greater part of his lifetime as a personal force of unequalled magnitude. Yet the mo3b foolish, and perhaps one may add the mosb impertinent, of Mr Gladstone's dinner table questioners is sure of an elaborate reply delivered with the air of a student in differential talk with his master. To the cloth Mr Gladstone shows a reverence that occasionally woos the observer to a smile. The callowest curate is sure of a respectful listener in the foremost Englishman of the day. On the obher hand, in private conversation the premier does nob often brook contradiction. His temper is high and though, as George Russell has said, ib is under vigilanb control, bhere are subjects on which ib ia easy to arouse the old Hon. Then bhe grand eyes flash, the torrent of brilliant monologue flows with more rapid sweep, and the dinner table is breathless ab bhe specbacle of Mr Gladstone angry. As to his relations with his family, bhey are very charming. Ib is a pleasure to hear Herberb Gladstone •—his youngest and possibly his favourite son —speak of 'my father.' All ot them, sons and daughters, are absolutely devobed to his cause, wrappod up in hia personality and onthusiastic as to every side of his character. Of children Mr Gladebone has always been fond, and he has more than one favourite among his grandchildren.

I remember that at a small dinner ab which I recenbly met him, bhe conversabion ran almost enbirelyon the two subjects of old English hymns and young English poets. His favourite religious poeb is, I should say, Cardinal Newman, and his favourite hymn Toplady's ' Rock of Ages,' of which his Latin rendering is to my mind far stronger and purer than the original English. W Then ho is in town fie dines oub almost overy day, though, as I have said, he eschews formal and mixed gabherings and effects the _ small and early dinner parby ab which he can meet an old friend or two and see a young face which be may bo intereebed in seeing. One habib of his is quite unvarying. Ho likes bo walk home, and to walk home alone. He declines escorb and slips away for his quieb sbroll under the stars or even through the fog and misb on a London winter's nighb. Midnight usually brings his busy, happy day to a close. Sleeplessness never has and never does trouble him, and ab S3 hia nighbs are as dreamless and untroubled as bhoee of a boy of 10.

I have before mo two or throe examples of notes of Mr Gladsbono's spoeches ; one of bhem refers to one of tho most imporbanb of his addresses on tho custom question, Ib was a long speoch, extending, if I reitoember rightly, bo considerably pver an hour. Yet the memoranda consists purely of four or-five senbences of two or three words apiece, written on a single sheeb of notepaper and no hinb of bhe course of bhe orabion is given. Occasionally, no doubb, especially in bhe case of the speech on the inbroduction or the Homo Rulo Bill, which was to my mind the firab Mr Gladstone has ever delivered, the notes wore rather more extensive than this, bub as a rule they are extremely brief. When Mr Gladsbone addresses a great public meeting, the mosb elaborate paina are taken to insure his comfort. He can now only read bhe very largest print, and careful and delicate arrangements are made to provide him with lamps throwing the light on the desk or bable near which he 3l:ands, Practically the only sipn of physical failure which is apparent in recent speeches hag been that tho voice tends to break and die away after about an hour's exercise, and for a moment the sound of the curiously veiled notes and a glance at the marble pallor of the face gives one the impression that after all Mr Gladstone is a very, very old man. But there is nevpr anything like a total break down. And no one is aware of tho enormous storeß of physical energy on which the Prime Minister can draw, who has nob Bab quito close to him a,nd measured the wonderful breadth of his shoulders, and heard his voice coming straighb from hia chest in greab bovMen pf sound, Then you forget all about the heavy wrinkles in tho white fape, bha eoanby silver hair, and the patriarchal look of the figure beforij you.^ H. W. Massingium.