MR GLADSTONE,

Otago Witness, Issue 2085, 8 February 1894, Page 17

MR GLADSTONE,

RELIEF FROM PUBLIC CARES DESIRABLE. London, January 31. Tbe Pall Mall Gazette says that Mr Gladstone intends to resign almost immediately, owing to old age and disappointment at tbe failure of bis Home Rule proposals. Mr Gladstone denies that he has any intention of resigning, but admits that tbe condition of his sight and hardness of hearing have long rendered relief from public cares desirable. February 1. The Times thinks Mr Gladstone's plain admission of failing strength serious, though the idea of resignation is premature. The Daily News minimises the Premier's reference to the state of bis health, and ! accuses tbe Pall Mall Gazette of hoaxing the public. ] The Standard considers tbe nature of the Premier's denial most damaging and discouraging to the Ministry. Mr Gladstone says that he is ignorant of the course of possible events during the remainder of the session. The Pall Mall Gazette repeats its statement, and adds that Mr Gladstone's resignation is virtually decided on, and that he is preparing his supporters for his early withdrawal from political life. The press almost unanimously difcredit the Pall Mall's statement. In political circles a denial is given to the statement made by the Pall Mall Gazette that Mr Gladstone intends to retire from political life. His secretary wired to Mr Gladstone at Biarritz inquiring as to the truth of the rumour, and in reply the Premier said he recognised that his tenure of office was liable to be interrupted at anj time, but he bad not said or done anything which would restrain the absolute freedom of his colleagues. Mr Herbert Gladstone states his father is in tbe best of spirits and enjoying splendid health ; also that he is eager for the fight at the forthcoming session. Mr Gladstone has often boasted bis possession of purely Scotch blood, bafc it will be news to many of his admirers (says the London correspondent of the Birmingham Post) that he is descended from Duncan, King of Scotland, who in recompense for being murdered by Macbeth has been immortalised by Shakespeare. This is on his mother's side, and it is from Dingwall, his mother's native place, and of which the Prime Minister himself is a burgess, that the intelligence comes. The North Star, a Dingwall newspaper, has secured an elaborate genealogy of Mr Gladstone on the maternal side; and this shows that the Highland family of Robertson — the Gladstones were a Lowland family—is really the Clan Dcmachie, descended from Duncan,

through the second son of the last Celtic Earl of Atholl. Not 6<Sfly is' it claimed that the Premier's ancestry connet£§ K'rt with the older line of Scottish monarchs, but witS tihb most renowned and powerful of the ancient Celtic princes, the Lords of Kintail and Eilean Donan ; and the true Qladstonian who happens also to have a taste for genealogy will rejoice accordingly.