It was remembered that the Earl of Beaconsfield's conduct on the occasion of his going forth had been significant. The last thought and almost the last word of his last speech was “Empire." Taking his seat, he remained for a brief time with folded arms, his head bent forward. The bell struck midnight. He then arose and passed the full length of the floor, turning and bowing to the speaker. At the bar he paused for a moment and surveyed the House; then passed on to return no more. Mr. Gladstone, as we have seen, uttered for his last words a challenge to the House of Lords, telling that body that there was an appeal to something stronger and greater than themselves; that is, the British nation. Mr. Balfour, leader of the opposition, said in answer that " behind the dignified language of the speech there lurked nothing less than a declaration of war against the ancient Constitution of these realms." Mr. Gladstone made no answer. He sat holding his ministerial box on his knees. He talked for a few minutes with his colleagues, who were in the secret that the hour had come when they should see him there no more. Then he arose and with quick steps, in his usual manner and by the usual passage, went behind the speaker's chair and disappeared.

The veteran ex-prime minister repaired to his home at Hawarden. No man in his eighty-fifth year can be regarded as strong or as having the prom­ise of long life before him. If it had not been for the failure of Mr. Glad­stone's eyesight he might yet have remained in the House of Commons for a season. He was, however, getting almost blind. One of his eyes was seri­ously affected with incipient cataract, and the other was affected by sympa­thy. It became necessary to have surgical treatment, and this was success­fully given a short time after the statesman's retirement. He bore the surgery with great fortitude, and his sturdy constitution brought him safely through. His eyesight began to improve from the operation and from the

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rest which he now enjoyed; and he was soon able to resume his reading and correspondence. His general health improved, and he began to be seen abroad about his estates as usual. His step, however, had now become deliberate and his shoulders were bent somewhat with the accumulation of years. The happy surroundings at Hawarden favored the restoration of the Grand Old Man to as full a measure of strength as one of his great age might hope to enjoy.

Mr. Gladstone had during his long public career several haunts which were favorite places with him. While on parliamentary duty his residence

was generally at " 10 Downing Street." Sometimes he lived at Carlton House Terrace; sometimes at the Lion Mansions, at Brighton; sometimes at Mr. Armistead's home in the North, and in vacations frequently at Biar­ritz, in Brittany. But of all the places none was as his home at Hawarden. That was his Mecca. It is not without note of memory and praise that the universal tradition respecting the happiness of Mr. Gladstone's home life is no more than a record of indubitable fact.

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The biographers of great men are in the habit of glorifying them at all hazards, particularly as it relates to their domestic bliss. This has been done in several notable cases with the great men of America, when as a matter of fact exactly the opposite was true. In Mr. Gladstone's case the home life was as happy as the public life was famous. Mrs. Gladstone has been through a long life his comfort and support. She is known the world over as a woman of extraordinary virtue, good taste, charitable dispositions, social accomplishments, and religious character. She has kept ever by Mr. Gladstone's side, watching over him as a guardian angel and ministering to his wants and tastes with a constancy worthy of the highest praise.

All the members of the family have in like manner held honorable and affectionate relation to the father. The eldest daughter is Mrs. Wickham and the second, Mrs. Drew, wife of the Rev. Harry Drew, whose duties have been at the church of Hawarden. The third is Helen Gladstone un­married. The Drews have remained residents of the castle, and the chil­dren of Mrs. Drew are especially dear to their grandfather. The little granddaughter, Dorothy Mary Drew, or, as she is called in her own lisp­ing, “Dorsy " Drew, has been the favorite of the old veteran, and nearly always his companion and playmate in the late years of his life. With her of course, the Grand Old Man became again a boy and a poet. To her he addressed the following poem, which has been regarded as one of the best examples of his art in verse :

"AD DOROTHEAM. "I know where there is honey in a jar, Meet for a certain little friend of mine, And, Dorothy, I know where daisies are That only wait small hands to intertwine A wreath for such a golden head as thine. “The thought that thou art coming makes all glad. The house is bright with blossoms high and low And many a little lass and little lad Expectantly are running to and fro. The fire within our hearts is all aglow. "We want thee, child, to share in our delight On this high day, the holiest and best, Because 'twas then, ere youth had taken flight Thy grandmamma, of women loveliest, Made me of men most honored and most blest “That naughty boy who led thee to suppose He was thy sweetheart has, I grieve to tell Been seen to pick the garden's choicest rose And toddle with it to another belle, Who does not treat him altogether well.

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"But mind not that, or let it teach thee this— To waste no love on any youthful rover. All youths are rovers, I assure thee, miss. No, if thou wouldst true constancy discover, Thy grandpapa is perfect as a lover.

“So, come, thou playmate of cry closing day, The latest treasure life can offer me, And with thy baby laughter make us gay. Thy fresh young voice shall sing, my Dorothy, Songs that shall bid the feet of sorrow flee."

Once safely in the haven of his old age Mr. Gladstone by no means forgot the world he had left behind. His mind, however, was more occu­pied with the affairs of humanity in general than with the political affairs of Great Britain. Occasionally he continued to give utterance to his opin­ions and hopes on great questions affecting the welfare of mankind. For example, when the Armenian outrages began to distress the world in the early part of 1895, Mr. Gladstone became deeply interested in the subject, and used his influence in accordance with his lifelong policy in favor of the oppressed. In the latter part of July, in the year just mentioned, he was induced by the Duke of Westminster and the general voice to make an address on the Armenian atrocities. On the 25th of the month the aged statesman and his wife had celebrated the fifty-sixth anniversary of their mar­riage. There had been a family gathering at Hawarden, which was not yet dissolved, when the Town Hall of Chester was procured, and Mr. Gladstone was announced to speak.

A throng gathered which the hall could by no means accommodate. The Duke of Westminster presided. Many distinguished men sat on the platform. The members of the family, including the Hon. Herbert Gladstone, M.P., and the Rev. Stephen Gladstone, were present. The vet­eran orator came to his task in full spirit and spoke for more than an hour. Mrs. Gladstone sat immediately in front, watching her boy-husband, to see that his oration was au fait. The human heart loses not its buoyancy of hope even to the last day!

“Such things may show How far into the arctic region of our lives The Gulf Stream of our youth may flow."

Mr. Gladstone's speech was up to his usual standard of excellence. It was described by the London Times as “an effort unparalleled, even as a mere physical achievement, by a man advanced in his eighty-sixth year."

In the course of his speech the orator said: “In ordinary circumstances, when we have before us cases of robbery, of crime, perhaps of very horrible

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crime—for example, the sad case mentioned in the papers to-day of the massacre of persons in a part of China—we at once assume, ' O, yes, in all countries, unfortunately, there are malefactors, there are plunderers, there are murderers ; and these are the people whose deeds we are going to con­sider.' It is not so here. Here you will find nothing of that kind. We have nothing to do with what are called the dangerous classes of the com­munity. It is not their proceedings which you are asked to consider. It is the proceedings of the government at Constantinople and of its agents. There is not one of those misdeeds for which the government at Constan­tinople is not morally responsible."

It was just before the event last referred to that Mr. Gladstone sent his final communication to the House of Commons. This was done under date of July 5, 1895. The Irish cause had continued to obtrude itself ever and anon upon the attention of the government. The short-lived ministry of Lord Rosebery had in the meantime been overthrown, and the Marquis of Salisbury had enabled the Conservatives to reestablish themselves in power; but, like the ghost of Banquo, the Irish specter would not down. Mr. Gladstone's letter had the double purpose of promoting the cause of Home Rule and of indicating his fixed dislike of the influence of the House of Lords in thwarting the purposes of the nation. The letter was as follows: Hawarden Castle, Chester, July 5, 1895. " Above all other present purposes vindicate the rights of the House of Commons as the organ of the nation, and reestablish the honor of England, as well as consolidate the strength of the empire, by conceding the just and constitutional claims of Ireland. W. E. Gladstone."

This is the letter the facsimile of which we have set in the place of a dedication to this volume. It was written just after Mr. Gladstone's return from a summer voyage to the north of Europe. An event of European im­portance had occurred there in June of 1895, attracting Mr. Gladstone's attention and inducing him to make a voyage to Denmark and the German coast.

The event referred to was the completion and dedication of a great ship canal extending from Kiel to Brunsbuttel. The channel thus opened for commerce extended from the Baltic to the North Sea. Hitherto, the only means of transit by water between the North Sea and the Baltic had been far around the peninsula of Jutland, by way of the Cattegat and the Skager Rack. The old Eider canal had given passage to small ships only. Such were the difficulty and the danger of the all-water way around, that an annual loss of two hundred vessels was entailed on the commerce of the world. The new canal was safe and direct and capacious.

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The occasion of the opening was honored with an international pageant of magnificent character. The formal dedication was on the 20th of June. The Kaiser Wilhelm II was present and presided at the principal ceremony. Distinguished visitors and representatives gathered from, nearly all the leading nations. Mr. Gladstone, with his family and a company of friends, took ship from Southampton to Kiel as an observer and honored guest. His coming and reception were heralded as a matter worthy of his­torical note. Nor might it be observed that his influence and fame were

lessened by the fact that he was no longer responsible for the conduct of the British government. The leading men of Europe gathered round him, and it was conceded that his presence at the opening of the canal greatly heightened the event in the estimation of not only the Germans and the Danes, but also of the representatives of other nations.

During the years 1895-96 Mr. Gladstone in his retirement inveterately agitated the question of British interference in behalf of the Armenians His constitutional and acquired dislike of the Ottoman Empire, and in par- ticular of the policy of the sultan and his subordinates in Armenia, increased the acerbity of his attacks on the conduct of the government. He wrote letters and published articles in which the national animosity toward the Turk was fanned to a white heat. His assaults and those of other liberal leaders on the mild mannered policy of Lord Rosebery told so on

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that statesman that he determined to resign from the head of the govern­ment. This he did on October 7, 1895, assigning as a reason that he could not accept the course suggested by Gladstone, and that he must therefore " resume his liberty of personal action " in the House. To this he added that the acceptance of the Gladstonian policy would, in all probability, plunge England into war, and would almost certainly bring down a whole­sale destruction on the Armenians. It was one of the spectacles of the year that an infirm old man, nearly eighty-six years of age, half blind and living in retirement away from the central scene of parliamentary agitation, should be able to compel the resignation of the British ministry !

The agitation of the Armenian question, led by Mr. Gladstone, extended into literature. Conservatism and liberalism appeared in poetry. A series of powerful sonnets, entitled The Purple East, by William Watson, pub­lished at this juncture, were read and applauded wherever the English language is spoken. One of these sonnets entitled “Abdul the Damned," gave to the sultan a new name, which could hardly be regarded as Chris­tian. On the other side a weaker champion arose in a feeble attempt to uphold the conservative policy of the empire as represented by the incom­ing Salisbury government. This was Alfred Austin, who, on New Year's Day, 1896, was appointed to the office of Poet Laureate. That post had been vacant since the death of Lord Tennyson in 1892. The appointment of Austin, whose rank as a poet was not above the level of formal respecta­bility, was a part of the odium which Lord Salisbury took upon himself just after assuming office.

Mr. Gladstone signalized the beginning of the year 1896 by the con­tribution of a series of articles under the title of “The Future Life and the Condition of Man Therein," to the North American Review. In these he showed at once the unabated force of his intellect and the strong ground­work of his old-time conservative education. It is remarkable that while Gladstone as a statesman advanced from Conservatism to Liberalism, and that while as a philosopher on ecclesiastical policies he made much progress and accomplished much in the way of freeing his country from Church thralldom, in his fundamental religious concepts and doctrine he progressed not at all.

This fact was strongly revealed in his series of articles on “The Future Life." He took as the basis of the discussion Bishop Butler's Analogy of Natural and Revealed Religion, a work which in the early part of the cen­tury exercised a powerful influence on religious thought, but which no longer satisfied the conditions of philosophical inquiry.

As an example of Gladstone's analysis and method we may note the six following distinctions which he draws as necessary to the discussion of the question of immortality :

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" I. A vitality surmounting the particular crisis of death is one thing; an existence without end is another. " 2. We may speak of an immortality of the disembodied spirit, and may combine it with or disjoin it from a survival or resurrection of the body. In the second case it is of the entire man ; in the first it is of part only of man, although of the chief part. " 3- The new life to which death is to introduce the human being may be active, intelligent, moral, spiritual, and may be placed in an environment accordant with all these; or it may be divested of any of these character­istics or of them all. " 4. The life of the unseen world may be conceived as projected into the future, as it is presented to us by divine revelation, or it may be pro­jected also into the past, and viewed there in association with a past eternity. "5. It was when Butler saw personal identity, as he thought, in danger that he undertook to deal with the question of our existence in the unseen world. This identity is in truth the very core of the whole subject. An immortality without identity is of no concern to us, and the transfiguration of souls is a virtual denial of the doctrine. "6. We have to distinguish between a condition of deathlessness into which we grow by degrees, and an immortality which, ingrained (so to speak) from birth, is already our absolute possession. This distinction is a vital one for those who do not accept any dogma of immortality belonging to nature, but who look upon it as a gift resulting from union with Christ and with God."

It was in literary work such as this, and such as his strength and impaired vision would permit, that Mr. Gladstone spent the remainder of 1896 and the early part of the following year. In this period he arranged his papers, perfected his published works, and prepared the documents for his biography- It were hardly a metaphor to say that the entire world looked on with interest as this great life in the hours of sunset busied itself with Preparation for the last long flight. When the completed product of this strong and efficient intellect shall be given to mankind in its final form as it came from his hands, it will be worthy of a place in the immortal collec­tion where are set the works of the leading statesmen, publicists, thinkers, philanthropists of the human race.

In March of 1897 Mr. Gladstone was aroused to unusual indignation on account of the aggression of the Ottoman Empire on the patriot Greeks, and on the score of the merciless war which the Turks made on the weaker party. True, as the event showed, the Greeks in that war presented a sorry figure; but the righteousness of their cause nevertheless appealed power­fully to the veteran statesman, and he issued, at the time stated, an address

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on the Eastern crisis, in which he denounced in quite unmeasured terms the so-called "concert of Europe" in supporting the Ottoman empire as against the Greek, whom he characterized as " the modern David among the nations who has dared to defy six Goliaths." The address was a fierce philippic directed in chief against the policy of the German empire and against the weakness of the British Empire in being dragged subserviently in the wake of the Kaiser Wilhelm II.

As the fall of 1897 verged to winter Mr. Gladstone was in his usual health with the exception of the increasing severity of the facial neuralgia

with which he had been afflicted for the past eighteen months. His physi­cian found that all of his vital organs were not in healthy condition, nor might it be easily discovered to what circumstances the facial neuralgia was due. Acting under advice, Mr. Gladstone, with Mrs. Gladstone and other atten­dants, went to Cannes, in southern France, and thence to the Riviera to take advantage of the mild air during the winter months. His stay on the Mediterranean, however, produced no good results, and in midwinter the aged sufferer returned to London. He went thence to Bournemouth, but could find little relief, and the news went abroad that he was in a dying condition. At Bournemouth he remained for a month, and was then

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taken to his beloved Hawarden, where he arrived on February 19, 1898. From that haunt of peace he never expected to go forth again.

Meanwhile it was discovered by the physicians that the source of his suffering was a necrosis of the nasal bones. Nor was the belief wanting that the disease was of a cancerous character. Nevertheless, Mr. Glad­stone's improvement was manifest after his return to Hawarden. As late as the 9th of April he was able to walk about the grounds, but he had to be supported by an attendant. The pain in his face subsided in a measure; but he was not able to write further, and his biography, on which he had been long engaged, was remanded to other hands.

In the after part of April the intelligence was given forth that Mr. Glad­stone had come to the last scene. This, however, proved to be a premature report. Nevertheless the disease had now set a fatal limitation to his career. The heroic patient suffered greatly. At intervals he suggested the perform­ance of an operation, but the surgeons decided otherwise. At last, his vital organs began to fail. The strong heart that had beaten the march of life for more than eighty-eight years began to perform its work in an irregular and spasmodic manner. The month of May found him still alive, but steadily going down the shadowy way into the obscurity of the oncoming night.

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Mr. Gladstone faced the ordeal without fear and without hesitation. On the 17th of May his physicians, Dr. Dobie and Sir Thomas Smith, notified the family and friends that the last hour was near at hand. The dying man's mind remained comparatively clear to the close. On the 18th he took leave of all his servants and attendants. He gave to his grand- daughter, Dorothy Drew, an affectionate farewell. He gave up Mrs. Glad- stone and his children.

Meanwhile correspondents representing the newspaper press of nearly the whole world had gathered at the little railway station a short distance from Hawarden Castle. During the night Mr. Gladstone sank into uncon- sciousness. He continued to breathe until five o'clock on the morning of the 19th of May, when life departed, and the soul of the great British states- man went to its place in the eternities.

At the date of his death William Ewart Gladstone's age was eighty- eight years four months and twenty days.

On the morrow something of the details of the event of death were given to the public. In the early dawn a bulletin was posted on the Golden

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Wedding porch of Hawarden, saying, “Mr. Gladstone passed peacefully away at five this morning." Mrs. Gladstone had remained at the bedside of her husband until he ceased to breathe. Dorothy Drew had gone away crying when her grandfather was no longer able to recognize her. The servants had been called in during the day to take their leave of the master of the castle, but in the night it was remembered that the old coachman had not been present; he was accordingly sent for, and was allowed to remain until the final moment came. Rev. Stephen Gladstone continued to read hymns and to repeat the prayers of the Church until his father was dead. Once the dying man, when his son had finished the Litany, said, “Amen." It was his last word on earth.

Just after Mr. Gladstone's death a bulletin was posted by the family, stating in general terms that the funeral and sepulture of the statesman would take place at Hawarden—this in compliance with the expressed wish of Mr. Gladstone himself. To this another wish was added, and that was that there should be no lavish offering of flowers or other ostentatious dis­play on the occasion of his funeral. The substance of this announcement was, however, soon to be changed by the course of events and in compliance with the wishes of the public.

As morning rose into day, telegrams and messages of condolence began

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to arrive, first from distinguished personages in England, then from the official representatives of foreign states, and then from hundreds of eminent men and women throughout the world. The queen, in a note to Miss Helen Gladstone, said :

“I am deeply grieved at the sad news. Princess Beatrice and I wish to express our deepest sympathy with your dear mother and all of you."

The Prince of Wales expressed his sympathy in a note to Mr. Henry Gladstone as follows :

“My thoughts are with you, your mother, and your family at the trying time you are experiencing."

Hon. John Hay, Ambassador of the United States, sent t© Herbert Gladstone the following message :

"The President of the United States directs me to express to your family the sympathy and sorrow of the American people at the passing away, in the ripeness of years and in the fullness of honor, of one of the most notable figures in modern civil statesmanship. I beg to present my heartfelt sympathy in your personal loss, and at the same time to congratu­late you and the English race everywhere upon the glorious termination of a life filled with splendid achievements and consecrated to the noblest purposes.

His Majesty Czar Nicholas sent the following, in English, as an expres­sion of his sympathy :

"The whole civilized world bewails the loss of a great statesman whose political views were so widely humane and peaceable.

President Faure, of the French republic, sent a dispatch to Mrs. Glad­stone, in which he expressed a wish to be among the first to associate him­self with her grief, and added, “By the high liberalism and by the ability with which he carried out his political ideals, Mr. Gladstone nobly served his country and humanity."

Similar messages from nearly all the leading nations were received during the day, and it was at once apparent that, though the death of Mr. Gladstone had long been anticipated, the event, when realized, had produced a profound sensation throughout the world. In England many were ready to repeat once more the Tennysonian verse :

“The last great Englishman is low."

Meanwhile the bells of the cathedrals of England announced in muffled and measured strokes the lamented event of Gladstone's departure from the earth. In London the great bell of Westminster struck at intervals of a minute, calling the people to heed the death of their most distinguished leader. In the early morning at Hawarden the entire Gladstone household with the exception of Airs. Gladstone and her son Herbert, attended early communion service in the church of the estate near by. The service was

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conducted by the Rev. Stephen Gladstone, second son of the dead states­man. The usual form of the ritual was prefaced by two prayers from the burial service.

When the Houses of Parliament convened on the 19th Hon. Arthur J. Balfour, leader of the House of Commons, immediately arose and said:

“I think it will be felt in all parts of the House that we should do fit­ting honor to the great man whose long and splendid career closed to-day, by adjourning.

“This is not the occasion for uttering the thoughts which naturally sug­gest themselves. That occasion will present itself to-morrow, when it will be my duty to submit to the House an address to the queen, praying her to grant the honor of a public funeral, if such honor is not inconsistent with the expressed wishes of himself or of those who have the right to speak in his behalf, and also praying the queen to direct that a public monument be erected at Westminster with an inscription expressive of the public admira­tion, attachment, and high sense entertained by the House of Mr. Gladstone's rare and splendid gifts and devoted labors in Parliament and in the high offices of state.

“Before actually moving the adjournment, I have to propose a formal resolution that the House to-morrow resolve itself into a committee to draw up an address, the contents of which I have just indicated."

The House then adjourned, and on the next day the question of Mr. Gladstone's funeral was formally taken up. The House was crowded to repletion, and though one hundred and four questions of business had been recorded on the notice-paper for the day, there was an immediate outcry of “No questions."

It devolved upon Mr. Balfour to speak, and for his rising the House silently waited. In his opening remarks the speaker adverted to the fact that the last motion in the House for a monument in Westminster was made seventeen years previously by Mr. Gladstone in favor of his lifelong competitor, the Earl of Beaconsfield. " Mr. Gladstone's task on that occa­sion," said Mr. Balfour, "was serious and embarrassing; for he had to pro­pose addresses to the queen when the controversies just ended by Lord Beaconsfield's death were still fresh in the memories of men. But to-day even the most scrupulous partisan will not hesitate to join me in the address which we unanimously adopt. The great career just closed is already, in large part, a matter of history."

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great words of his. The words indeed are there, lying side by side with the words of lesser men in an equality as of death, but the spirit and fire of inspiration are gone, and he who alone could revive them, alas, is silent We may live to see the dawn and even the meridian of other men destined to add luster to this House, and to do great and illustrious service to the sovereign and to the country. We shall never see the man who can repro- duce what Gladstone was, and show those who never heard him how much they lost. The mere average of civic virtue is not sufficient to preserve this assembly from the fate which has come over so many assemblies which are the products of democratic forces. More than this is required, and more than this was given by Mr. Gladstone. He raised in public esti- ' mation the whole level of our proceedings."

Sir William Vernon Harcourt followed Mr. Balfour with an appropriate address. "The House," he said, “is deeply conscious of the void in the national life. It was shown by the impressive spectacles of yesterday and to-day when we presented to the queen, in the name of her people, an address to beseech her to bestow upon his dead body the highest honor that a sorrowing nation can bestow upon her greatest son. During his life he gave his great gifts to the nation ; in death it is only right that the nation in turn should pay him the highest honors."

The other speakers who addressed the House were John Dillon, the Nationalist leader of Ireland, and David A. Thomas, who spoke as a rep- resentative of Wales. In the course of his remarks Mr. Dillon said: " England has had other statesmen in years gone by who have served her splendidly, and around whose graves her people have gathered in sorrow; but around the deathbed of Mr. Gladstone this people are joined by many . other strange peoples, and to-day throughout the Christian world there go up from many peoples, in many tongues, prayers that God, in whom in the last hour of trial he put his humble and firm reliance, will remember his servant. And how earnestly he loved his fellow-men—without distinction of race—and how mightily they returned his love!"

In the House of Lords the scene was especially impressive. In this venerable body it became the duty of Lord Salisbury to lead in addressing the Lords on the subject of Mr. Gladstone’s death. That nobleman first offered a resolution identical with that presented by Mr. Balfour in the House of Commons, moving an address to the queen, and praying for a public funeral to Mr. Gladstone and the erection of a monument to his memory in Westminster Abbey. Continuing his address, Lord Salisbury said that Mr. Gladstone was guided in all that he did by a high moral ideal and left behind him the memory of a great Christian statesman. “What will attract the attention of foreign nations and future generations," said the speaker, " is the universal assent of all persons of all classes and schools

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of thought in doing honor to the man who has been more mixed up in political conflicts than any man that our history records. There is' no differ­ence of opinion in the honor we give to greatness, or in the desire that the honor should be displayed before the eyes of the whole world. Men recog­nized him as a man who was guided by a high moral ideal. What he sought was the achievement of great ideals. He was honored by his coun­trymen because, through many years and many vicissitudes of conflicts, they recognized this one characteristic which never left him. He will Jong be remembered, not so much for the causes in which he engaged or the political projects he favored, as for his great example, of which history has hardly furnished a parallel, of a great Christian man."

The other speakers in the House of Lords were the Earl of Kimberley, the Duke of Devonshire, and the Earl of Rosebery. It was the duty of the latter to deliver the formal oration in commemoration of Mr. Gladstone's life and public services. In the course of his speech Lord Rosebery said: The most melancholy feature of Mr. Gladstone's end was the solitary and pathetic figure which for sixty years had shared all his sorrows and all his joys, shared his triumphs and cheered him in his defeats, and who by her vigilance had sustained and prolonged his life. The occasion ought not to pass without letting Mrs. Gladstone know that she is in all our thoughts.

“We were too near to him to do more than note the vast space he filled in the world, the great influence he exercised, and his constant contact with all the great features of his time. It must be left to a greater time cor­rectly to appreciate his value. The first feature of his intellect was his enormous power of concentration. There was never another man in the world who, at any given moment and upon any subject, could devote every resource of his intellect, without the restriction of a single nerve, to the immediate purpose of that subject. Moreover, there has been no man in the history of England who touched the intellectual life of the country at so many points and over such a range of years. The most obvious feature °' his character was his universality and humanity. I mean his sympathy with all classes of human beings. That was one of the secrets of his unpar­alleled power with his fellow-men.

“I believe that the last note Mr. Gladstone wrote with his own hand was addressed to Lady Salisbury, asking about the carriage accident which her husband had met with. I think it was pathetic and characteristic of the man, in the hour of his own sore distress, that he should have written that letter of sympathy to the wife of his most prominent and not the least gen­erous political opponent.

“Mr. Gladstone's Christian faith pervaded every act and part of his life. It was the pure faith of a child confirmed by the experience and con-

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viction of manhood. The word most frequently on his lips was manhood. It was obvious from all that he said and did that virile virtue, in which he comprehended courage, righteous daring, and disdain of odds against him, was what he put highest.

"Surely this is not the occasion for grief that that life so prolonged, full of honor and crowned with glory, has come to an end. The nation lives that produced him, and may yet produce another like him."

The honors thus paid to Mr. Gladstone's memory in Parliament were unique in character as judged by those paid to other members of the House. Since the days of Lord Palmerston no similar action had been taken in honor of a public man in Great Britain. The resolution adopted

and the style of funeral contemplated were modeled after the like events on the occa­sion of Lord Palmerston's death, in 1865.

Meanwhile at Hawarden Castle arrangements had been made in the simple way indicated by the wishes of Mr. Gladstone for his obsequies. A plain coffin of heavy oak was prepared, having for its principal decoration a cross reaching nearly the whole length of the cover; at the foot of the cross was the inscription in raised letters :< P> Requiescat IN PACE. The body of the deceased was laid in modest state in one of the rooms

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of the castle, where it remained from the 19th to the 25th of the month. Here it was viewed by the immediate friends of the Gladstone family and by the people of the vicinage. On the morning of the 25th the casket was removed from the castle to the village church. This task was assigned to a half dozen of the old retainers of the family, who placed the coffin on a wheeled bier and transferred it across the lawn, and by the various nooks where Mr. Gladstone had been wont to repose, to the church where he was accustomed to worship. The coffin was placed in the nave of the church, where it remained in state on the afternoon of the 25th. Here it was viewed by thousands of people who came in all day long to have a last look at the benignant face of the man who had made not only Chester, but all England famous by his life and work. At five o'clock in the afternoon a procession was formed, and the bier was carried to the railway station, where it was placed upon the train for London. The friends of the family, the tenants of the estate, and the local officials of the neighborhood walked behind the bier. The train reached London about midnight, and on the following morning the casket was transferred to Westminster Hall.

For, in the meantime, the family of the dead statesman had yielded to the wishes of the public and had accepted (they could not well do otherwise) the offer of Parliament for a public funeral. The action of that body was the voice of the nation. It became known that Mr. Gladstone, foreseeing what would happen in the event of his death, had expressed a modest will­ingness that the public might do as it would in the matter of his funeral, provided the wish for publicity should be general and unmistakable. It was also understood that the concession of the public funeral and burial in Westminster Abbey was coupled with the condition that on Mrs. Gladstone's death her body should repose by the side of that of her husband. Though nothing was said in the public announcements, it was accepted as true that the public authorities had agreed to the proposal for Mrs. Gladstone's burial also in the famous Abbey.

In carrying out these arrangements Hon. Herbert Gladstone went to London in advance, and the preparation for burial was made in accordance with his wishes by the officials of Westminster. The arrangements included the appointment of the honorary pallbearers, who were the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, the Marquis of Salisbury, the Earl of Kimberley, the Earl of Rosebery, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Hon. Arthur J. Balfour, and Sir William Vernon Harcourt. The arrangements for the funeral included the selection of the spot for burial. This was found in the rotten transept of the cathedral where England's greatest dead are resting. The grave was made beside that of Mr. Gladstone's lifelong adversary, Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, whose marble effigy, clad with the insignia of nobility! Looked down on the spot where his rival was to be entombed.

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During the 26th and 27th of May the body lay in state in the great hall of the cathedral, where it was visited by an almost endless concourse of people, anxious to take a last glance at the well-known, honored face. The last ceremonies were appointed for the afternoon of the 28th. The day was observed by the people at large ; London made a pause. The interest in the last event extended to foreign nations. In the United States many cities observed the day and the hour with commemorative ceremonies.

As the hour for the last scene arrived the concourse of people set in toward the cathedral. At eleven o'clock the edifice was opened and the train entered. No funeral could be insignificant in a structure so magnifi­cent as that in which the event was solemnized. The coffin containing Mr. Gladstone's body was placed on an elevated bier before the altar. Its plain­ness was hidden beneath a pall of white and gold, embroidered with Re­quiescat in pace.

Around and about were many historical characters. Two future kings of Great Britain—the Prince of Wales and his son George, Duke of York— walked beside the coffin of the great commoner. As it was placed on the bier a majority of the nobility and learned men of the state surrounded it. The scene was grand and imposing. Six tall candles burned beside the catafalque; on either side stood the supporters of the pall.

The Prince of Wales and the Duke of York were at the head of the coffin, and behind them were the Marquis of Salisbury; the Earl of Kimberley, the Liberal leader in the House of Lords; Mr. A. J. Palfour, the gov­ernment leader in the House of Commons; Sir William Vernon Harcourt, the Liberal leader in the House of Commons; the Duke of Rutland; Lord Rosebery ; and Mr. Gladstone's two old-time friends, Lord Rendel and Mr. George Armistead. Within the chancel stood the Dean of Westminster, and behind him were gathered the cathedral clergy and the Archbishop of Canterbury, the scarlet and white surpliced choir filling the chapel.

The mourners who sat in the stalls nearest the bier were Mrs. Gladstone, her sons Herbert and Stephen, and other members of the family, with little Dorothy Drew, Mr. Gladstone's favorite grandchild.

The; Princess of Wales and the Duchess of York occupied the dean's few opposite.

In tiers of temporary seats in the north and south transepts were as­sembled the members of the House of Lords and the House of Commons, the mayors of the principal cities, delegates from Liberal organizations, and representatives of other civic and political organizations ; while the long nave was crowded with thousands of men and women, among them being most of the celebrities in all branches of English life; every gallery, balcony, and niche high up among the rafters held a cluster of deeply inter­ested spectators. In all, twenty-five hundred persons were assembled in the

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Abbey, all clother in the deepest black, save a few officials, whose regalia gleamed brilliantly from the comber background.

Thousands thronged the square outside to witness the passage of the funeral procession from Westminster Hall.

The chief officials had assembled in Westminster Hall at ten o'clock. When all had taken their places the Duke of Norfolk, the earl marshal of England, conducted the Bishop of London, Right Rev. Mandell Creighton, D.D., to the coffin, where he offered a brief prayer. He said: "Almighty God, in whom live the spirits of just men made perfect, we give thee hearty thanks for the life example of thy servant, William Ewart Gladstone, whom thou hast been pleased to call from the trials and troubles of this world to the realm of eternal rest. We beseech thee to grant of thy grace that as we commit his body to the ground our hearts and minds may be moved to remembrance of his long and manifold labors in the service of mankind, his country, and his queen, begun, continued, and ended in thy faith and fear. And grant that we fail not to learn the lessons which thou ever teaches faithful people by the lives of those who love and serve thee through Jesus Christ, our only Lord and Saviour."

There was a brief moment of silence, and then the coffin was raised upon the shoulders of the bearers, and the procession moved slowly from the hall to the Abbey.

The procession was headed by four heralds in court dress, bearing the arms. Then followed the speaker, Right Hon. William court Gully; clerks and officers of the House of Commons in robes and wigs, carrying the mace in their midst; four hundred members of the House of Commons, marching four abreast and wearing frock coats and high hats, with the solitary and conspicuous exception of John Burns, the labor leader, who wore his usual derby hat and short coat; four heralds escorting half a dozen privy coun- cilors, not members of Parliament; more heralds ushering the officers of the House of Lords; the lord chancellors in their robes, with a mace bearer; two hundred members of the House of Lords, attired like the members of the House of Commons, with the exception of the bishops, who were robed; and others.

Then came a groups of members of Mr. Gladstone's last ministry, fol- lowed by representatives of various royal families and the foreign ambas- sadors, including Colonel John Hay, ambassador of the United States. After them came the Duke of Cambridge and the Duke of Connaught, escorted by equerries, and the Earl of Pembroke, representing the queen. Then came the funeral car, plainly draped with black, and drawn by two horses, pre- ceded by the earl marshal of the kingdom, the Duke of Norfolk, the sup- porters of the pall walking beside the car.

Outside a vast throng filled the whole neighborhood, and every roof

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and window was crowded with spectators. Lines of police standing shoul­der to shoulder guarded the short route. As the coffin was borne from the hall every hat was doffed, and silence fell upon the bareheaded gathering.

The entire congregation in the Abbey rose at 10:15 o'clock, when Mrs. Gladstone, supported by two of her sons, entered ; and the same compliment Avas paid to the Princess of Wales a few minutes later.

It was by no means a weary wait for the arrival of the procession. For nearly an hour the great organ, supplemented by a large orchestra, filled the grand old cloisters with Schubert's and Beethoven's funeral music. The first was Beethoven’s funeral Equale. Four trombones, placed far up in the triforium, added a sad wail to the notes of the organ, with an effect that was almost weird. Then followed Schubert's and Beethoven's familiar funeral marches. By this time the head of the procession arrived, and those forming it slowly filed to their places. A great surpliced choir, comprising the wonderful boys' voices from St. Paul’s and St. Margaret's, as well as those of Westminster, entered, singing " I Am the Resurrection and the Life."

The coffin was placed on a high catafalque under the lantern in the

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center of the church, the pallbearers remaining at each side. The Lords, the members of the last Gladstone cabinet, and other high dignitaries occu­pied the north transept immediately overlooking the open grave in the Statesmen's Corner.

Soon after eleven o'clock, when the church was hushed to a silence that was almost oppressive, the choir began to sing “Lord, Thou Hast Been Our Refuge," and never was cathedral music more sweetly sung. As the "amen " died faintly away Dean Bradley read the lesson in a voice low and solemn, yet which carried with wonderful distinctness to the farthest auditor. Then all the assembly sang the favorite hymn of the man they mourned, “Rock of Ages," as perhaps it was never sung before.

It was appropriate, too, that the next song, also sung by the choir and the congregation as the body was being conveyed to the grave, should be a song of triumph and praise. Newman's “Praise to the Holiest" was the hymn.

The ceremonies were all the more impressive because they were devoid of imposing pomp, and all the more appropriate as consistent with the unostentatious grandeur of the statesman whose memory they honored.

Such is the account which the international press, on the day following the burial of the body of William E. Gladstone, sent out to the civilized nations of the world; and with this account the narrative of his life and work is concluded. Not to his death however, not to the imposing pageant witnessed in the venerable Abbey on the clay of his obsequies, but to his life and the deeds and teachings of his life the mind of the reader must revert for the lesson and inspiration which spring there from.

Out of so great a life reminiscences might be given, and incidents nar­rated, and anecdotes be repeated in such quantity as to fill not one volume but many volumes. Here, however, our story of the Life and Times of Gladstone must conclude—not without a hope that so great and worthy an example of humanity may prove to be an inspiring force wherever the Eng­lish language is spoken and free institutions prevail. The story as a whole is worthy of the sonnet which the poet S. C. Beach contributed to the Boston Transcript on the occasion of Mr. Gladstone's death :

Gladstone, well art tho u named The Grand Old Man ! In length of service and in noble deeds I hy name is foremost in an age that leads 1 he ages ! Thine apprenticeship began, Rare youth, at three and twenty ; in the van Of English statesmen—so soon—he who reads Will read thy name unspotted by the greeds That stain the weak. Thence greatening onward ran Through more than sixty years thy grand career Of large achievements and of larger aims ;

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'Tis thine to leave thy battle partly won; But thou didst fight without reproach or fear For truth, for justice, and for manhood's claims, And thou wast, living, England's greatest son.

We are thus able to contemplate one of the few finished and well-rounded lives. Gladstone had, as all men have, imperfections and weak­nesses, but he also had, in a measure, surpassing the measure of men, his perfections and his strengths. His years were more than threescore years and ten; aye, they were well-nigh fourscore years and ten, and yet their strength was not, as the preacher saith, weakness and sorrow.

Out of the final wreck of this great manhood a new and immortal manhood springs up and survives. Yet we contemplate him for a moment as he was in the serenity of his old age. We dwell with delight upon the example which the veteran gave to all mankind, even in the years of his twilight and setting. A heroic old man, he kept himself in hand to the last hour. His physical imperfections did not appall him. In his last earthly retreat we still hear him speak at intervals. We follow each day and note each vicissitude. We mark with inexpressible sympathy his threatened blindness, and rejoice at the result of the skillful surgery that gives him back his sight. We note with admiration the challenges which he sends forth at intervals to his countrymen. We hear him speaking for the Armenians. We applaud his denunciations of the Turk. We note with pleasure the philan­thropic expressions of the old hero in behalf of the downtrodden among all nations. We admire the vigor of his extreme old age. We surround the woodchopper, a group of boys and young men gathered from all nations, and shout as the bareheaded veteran swings his ax. We read and republish his exquisite bit of little song addressed to his granddaughter, Dorothy Drew. We join a little space in the play with her kittens and spitz on the big rug, in the halls of Hawarden Castle. We mark the tottering step, the slow incoming of decrepitude, the deepening wrinkles on the furrowed face, the blossom of the almond tree, the obscuration of the light, the settling of the darkness, the incoming of the final night, not unrelieved, however, by the benignant star of hope hanging luminous in the western sky.

Death has taken the Grand Old Man out of the world. The drama is concluded. The last act is done. The funeral across the sea is ended; the nations are the mourners. Humanity has lost a friend, and the nations have lost a leader. William E. Gladstone, by the victorious battle of a long life, has earned a serene repose for his exhausted body in the silent house to which they have borne him, and for his spirit some elevated sphere out of which he may look well pleased on the results of his labors. He has gone to Burke and Wellington and Palmerston; he is reconciled with Beaconsfield.