GLADSTONE'S WONDERFUL YEAR.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 3439, 21 May 1898, Page 2

GLADSTONE'S WONDERFUL YEAR.

Thi death of Mr Gladstone, fall if years and honours at a ripe old age, serves as a reminder that there has been in this century at least one year famous for the number of great men it saw come into the world. This was 1809, a year whish could scarcely have been more prolific in mighty men if it had boon ordained for such a purpose. The list of notable men born in 1809 is a glory roll. It includes (among many) Gladstone, Darwin, Tmuyson, Oliver "Wendell Holmes, John Stuart Blackie, Marshal Canrobart, Mart Lemon, Charles Lever, Samuel Morley and Abraham Lincoln. Those wore men wh* made history, who changed the face of aflairs and

taught great lessons to the world. They | were prime human products iu their varied spheres of influence. Gladstone brought to English politics a devoutness and keenness of political acumen which have per* haps never been equalled in our history. Tennyson was the great sweat singer of our language in his time, and will remain in our memories as one of the first of many illustrious English poets. Darwin’s scientific investigations and discoveries set the world thinking along new lines. Dr Holmes made Ufa brighter by his writing., in which philosophy, pathos and wit were mixed with such quaint palatablenese. And Abraham Lincoln stays in tho world s portrait gallery as the representative type of a now nation, of the American bursting into distinctiveness after many years of laborious development. Indeed Lincoln is perhaps the biggest of these big figures, because he was, more than any of the others, a great reformer whose achievements only find a parallel, if at all, among the men of his year in Darwin. Darwin revolutionised thought in a certain direction, Lincoln revolutionised a hemisphere. Putting questions of that sort aside, the year IBU9 can fairly be given the name of a wonderful year, since iu its duration many of tho greatest men of the century were born. E ven if it had only produced Lincoln, Tennyson, Gladstone and Darwin it would haVe done the world much good service; but through these and many others —men who have achieved lasting celebrity in literature, iu science, in religion and in politics—lßo9 can claim and maintain a uniquely spleu l did record.