GLADSTONIANA.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVI, Issue 12, 22 July 1898, Page 6

GLADSTONIANA.

A POPULAR NICKNAME. It is curious that Mr. Gladstone never acquired a popular nickname till Mr. Labouchere invented ' The Grand Old Man.' So writes the Sydney Freeman. In a special club at Eton he was ' Mr. Tipple.' His contemporaries at Oxford called him 'The W.E.G.' Vain attempts were made to popularise him as • Gladdy.' ' The People's William, ' and ' Sweet Y\ tlliam,' but the 'G.O.M.' h'rhi caught the pubic fancy, and now holds the iield. In days gone by, men spoke ot 'Pam' and 'Johnny Russell, ' and a variety ot nicknames more or less contumelious have been bestowed on prominent politicians by their opponents. But nicknames of affection bestowed on leaders by their followers and generally adopted are few. It is rumoured that in the innermost mysteries of domestic life Lord Salisbury is called ' Bob '; but. even wi these demxsrafcic days one can hardly conceive of this irrevertnc ln-mosyliable becoming the recognised synonym of the r'ii.u L-rd ot Hutfleld. A WRITER. Mr. Gladstone was a very prolific writer. During his distinguished career he published no fewer than 22'J books and pamphlets, exclusive of numberless newspaper and magazine articles, Perhaps his pen scribbled on moie post-cards than that of any other man, either living or dead. The Post Office had a profitable customer in him, for he used about 4000 per annum. HIS LAST PUBLIC LETTER. The Irish members recall with special satisfaction that the last public letter signed in Mr. Gladstone's own handwriting was the one he addressed to Mr. John Dilon from Bournemouth, on St. Patrick's Day. The body of the letter, which was in Miss Gladstone" s handwriting, hud been written to her father's dictation in these terms :— ' Your cause is in your own hands. If Ireland ia disunited her cause so long remains hopeless. If, on the other hand, she knows her own mind, and is one in spirit, that cause is irresistible.' Mr. Gladstone's own hand supplied the signature. ON THE CHURCH. ' D.B. writing in the Sydney Jtreeman of July 9, says that quite early in his career the great statesman wrote thus :— ' She (the Catholic Church) has marched for 1500 years at the head of civilisation, and has harnessed to her chariot, as the horse of a triumphal car, the chief intellectual and material forces of the world ; her art, the art of the world ; her genius, the genius of the world ; her greatness, glory, grandeur, and majesty have been almost, though not absolutely, all that in these respects the world has had to boast of. Her children are more numerous than all the members of the sects combined ; she is every day enlarging the boundaries of her vast empire ; her altars are raised in every clime, and her missionaries are to be found wherever there are men to be taught the evangel of immortality and souls are to be saved. And this wondrous Church, which is as old as Christianity and as universal as mankind, is to-day, after twenty centuries of age, as fresh and as vigorous and as faithful as on the day when the Pentecostal fires where showered upon the earth.' IN THE CHURCH. The Edinburgh Catholic Hcr.dd mentions a curious point in connection with Air Gladstone's religious opinions. While in Paris he would never take part i.i Protestant services save those connected with the Briiish Embassy. His reasoning in the matter was this that the Protestant episcopate of England had no authoritative jurisdiction outside England, and therefore its bishops on the Continent and its services lacked sufficient warrant. The British Embassy he considered as being virtually a part of the country whose embassy they housed, in a word, the British Embassy in Paris was England. Mr. Gladstone has bern known to worship in the Church of Notre Dame in Paris, and when it i 3 recollected that such men as Maturin and Riving ton have, to all appearance, been much Dearer the Church than Mr. Gladstone was, and still refrained, for a time, from entering its fold, it will be seen that it would be rash to say that Mr. Gladstone has ignored the light accorded to him, or that he will be called to answer for gracj unresponded to.

Who owns Britain is a question -which is often asked. Here ia a list of some of our great land-owners and the extent of their property in acres :—: — Duke of Sutherland ... 1,358.600 Duke of Baccleuch ... 460,000 Duke of Fife ... 249,300 Duke of Portland ... 183,200 Duke of Bedford ... 84,000 | Duke of Westminster ... 30,600 Neither the Duke of Bedford's nor the Duke of Westminster's riches should be estimated by his acres, by the way. Both are said to be worth over a quarter of a million a year, the Duke of Westminster owning 600 acres in London alone.