Sketcher. THE GLADSTONES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1806, 2 February 1884, Page 2 (Supplement)

Sketcher.

THE GLADSTONES.

BOME ANECDOTES OF THE ENGLISH PREMIER'S FAMILY. John Gladstone, says a writer in Temple Bar, liked that his chicken should exercise their judgment by stating the why and wherefore of every opinion they offered, and a college friend of William's, who went on a vist to Fasque, in Kincardineshire, during the summer of 1829, furnishes amusing pictures of the family customs in that house, " where the children and their parent.s argue upon everything." " They would debate as to whether the trout should be boiled or broiled, whether a window should be opened, and whether it was likely to be fine or wet next day. It was always perfectly good humored, but curious to a stranger, because of the evident care which all the disputants took to advance no proposition, even to the prospect of a rain, rashly. One day Thomas Gladstone knocked down a wasp with his, handkerchief, and was about to crush it on the table, when the father •started the question as t>. whether he had the right

to kill the insect; and this point was discussed with as much seriousness as if a human life had been at stake. When at last it was adjudged that death \Vas deserved because it was a trespasser in the drawing-room, a common enemy and a danger there, it was found that the insect had crawled from under the handkerchief, and was flying away with a sniggering sort of buzz, as If to mock them all." ' On another occasion William Gladstone and his sister Mary disputed as to where a certain picture ought to be hung. An old Scotch servant came in with a ladder and stood irresolute while the argument progressed ; but as Miss Mary would not yield William gallantly ceased from speech, though unconvinced, of course. The servant then hung up the picture where the young lady ordered ; but when he had done this he crossed the room and hammered a nail into the opposite wall. He was asked why he did this : " Aweel, Miss, that'll do to hang the picture on when you have come roond to Master Willies opeenion." The family generally did come round to William's opinion, for the resouroes of his tongue-fencing were wonderful, and his father, who admired a clever feint as much as a straight thrust, never failed to encourage him by saying : " Hear, hear ; well said, well put, Willie, if the young debater bore himself well in an encounter. Another thing which John Gladstone taught his children was to accomplish to the end whatever they might bogin, no matter how insignificant the undertaking might be. Assuming that the enterprise had been commenced with a deliberate, thoughtful purpose, it would obviously be weakness to abandon it, whereas if it had been entered upon without thought it would be useful to carry it through as a lesson against acting without reflection. The tenacity with which William Gladstone adhered to this principle exercised no doubt a beneficial moral discipline upon himself, but was frequently very trying to his companions. "At Fasque," says his friend already quoted, " we often had archery practice, and the arrows that went wide the targets would get lost in the long graß3. Most of us would have liked to collect only the arrows that we could find without trouble, and then begin shooting again ; but this was not William's way. He would insist that all the arrows should be found before we shot our second volleys, and would marshal us in Indian file and make us tramp about in the grass till every quiver had been refilled. Once we were so long in hunting for a particular arrow that dusk came on and we had to relinquish the search. The next morning as I was dressing I saw my window William ranging the fieiu m prodding into every tuft of grass with a stick. He had been busy in this way for two hours, and at length he found the arrow just before breakfast. I remarked that he had wasted a good deal of time. ' Yes and no,' he said. I was certain the arrow could be found if I looked for it in a certain way, but it waa, the longest way, and I failed several times from trying shorter methods. When I set to work in the properfashion I succeeded.' Well done, Willie ! ' concurred his always appreciative father." It was the same at Oxford. Gladstone would stait for a walk to some place eight miles distant, and made up his mind to go at least more than half the way." Eain might fall in torrents (a serious matter in those days when no undergraduate ever carried an umbrella), but this would not Bhake him from his purpose ; so long as he had not passed his fourth mile post nothing would make him turn back. Directed towards higher objects thiB stubbornness could be dignified with the name of perseverance, and it was a master quality that kept all Gladstone's friends in subjection to him more or less. Those who would not give in to him from reason would do so to avoid a contest — this being a world in which there are more earthen pots than iron ones, and the earthen pots try to escape collisions when they can.