GLADSTONE'S NATIONALITY.

Evening Star, Issue 6819, 5 February 1886, Page 4

GLADSTONE'S NATIONALITY.

TO THU EDITOR.

Sm,—“Air Charles R. Chapman,” of Dunedin, lias completely bewildered mo and befogged the whole question of Gladstone’s nationality. Ho makes Air Gladstone “ distinctly state that his blood alone belongs to Scotland.” I don’t believe Air Gladstone, the most polished speaker in England, ever said snob a thing. Does not Air Chapman observe that lie makes tho “Grand Old Alan ” keep silence on the equally vital part of the question —Where on earth did he get his llesh from I am, etc., Leith, Dunedin, February

TO TUB KDITOU. Sm,—“ Dicky Sam” is very careful in his answers to my simple questions, and well ho might, as both he and “ Liverpudlian” know as well as I do it is only to his Scotch parents Gladstone is indebted to bis great abilities. He says (Jladstoni is a sample of what can be made of a Scotchman when early extracted. Well, England made as great a mess even of Gladstone as it was possible to do. She, by her education, made turn a Tory (and you have only to road one of his late Edinburgh speeches to sec how this term slinks in Ids nostrils still), and it was only when Ids Scotch common sense, inherited from his Scotch parents, came into play that he saw the error of Ids ways. Not only this, but if there is a Slaw in his character, it is a want of firmness in dealing with other nations, which his best friends, I fo.ir, at times are forced to admit, though it may only he to themselves, and this can he as aibed only to his being brought up amongst a more (dl’endnate, more luxurious, and less patriotic people than his own. Emm this yon can easily see that he is what ho is oidy in spite of his birthplace ; as had he been born and brought up amongst I’rco and independent hard-headed Scotchmen, in educated Scotland, lie would have been a Saul amongst tho people, even though these people had been a people of Gladstones.—l am, etc., Gi.excko.ss. Dunedin, February o.