The Grand Old Man | Page 3

it. We can best conclude these introductory remarks
by applying to the subject of the following pages, some words which he
applied a generation ago to others:
In the sphere of common experience we see some human beings live
and die, and furnish by their life no special lessons visible to man, but
only that general teaching in elementary and simple forms which is
derivable from every particle of human histories. Others there have
been, who, from the times when their young lives first, as it were,
peeped over the horizon, seemed at once to--
"'Flame in the forehead of the evening sky,'" --Whose lengthening
years have been but one growing splendor, and who at last--
"------Leave a lofty name, A light, a landmark on the cliffs of fame."
CHAPTER I
ANCESTRY AND BIRTH
All history, says Emerson, "resolves itself into the biographies of a few
stout and earnest persons." These remarks find exemplification in the
life of William Ewart Gladstone, of whom they are pre-eminently true.
His recorded life, from the early period of his graduation to his fourth
premiership, would embrace in every important respect not only the
history of the British Empire, but very largely the international events
of every nation of the world for more than half a century.

William Ewart Gladstone, M.P., D.C.L., statesman, orator and scholar,
was born December 27, 1809, in Liverpool, England. The house in
which he was born, number 62 Rodney Street, a commodious and
imposing "double-fronted" dwelling of red brick, is still standing. In the
neighborhood of the Rodney Street house, and a few years before or
after the birth of William E. Gladstone, a number of distinguished
persons were born, among them William Roscoe, the writer and
philanthropist, John Gibson, the sculptor, Doctor Bickersteth, the late
Bishop of Ripon, Mrs. Hemans, the poetess, and Doctor James
Martineau, Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy in Manchester
New College, and the brother of Harriet Martineau, the authoress.
The Gladstone family, or Gledstanes, which was the original family
name, was of Scottish origin. The derivation of the name is obvious
enough to any one familiar with the ancestral home. A gled is a hawk,
and that fierce and beautiful bird would have found its natural refuge
among the stanes, or rocks, of the craggy moorlands which surround
the "fortalice of gledstanes." As far back as 1296 Herbert de Gledstane
figures in the Ragman Roll as one of the lairds who swore fealty to
Edward I. His descendants for generations held knightly rank, and bore
their part in the adventurous life of the Border. The chief stock was
settled at Liberton, in the upper part of Clydesdale. It was a family of
Scottish lairds, holding large estates in the sixteenth century. The estate
dwindled, and in the beginning of the seventeenth century passed out of
their hands, except the adjacent property of Authurshiel, which
remained in their possession for a hundred years longer. A younger
branch of the family--the son of the last of the Gledstanes of
Arthurshiel--after many generations, came to dwell at Biggar, in
Lanarkshire, where he conducted the business of a "maltster," or grain
merchant.
Here, and at about this time, the name was changed to Gladstones, and
a grandson of the maltster of Biggar, Thomas Gladstones, settled in
Leith and there became a "corn-merchant." He was born at Mid
Toftcombs, in 1732, and married Helen Neilson, of Springfield. His
aptitude for business was so great that he was enabled to make ample
provision for a large family of sixteen children. His son, John

Gladstone, was the father of William E. Gladstone, the subject of our
sketch.
Some have ascribed to Mr. Gladstone an illustrious, even a royal
ancestry, through his father's marriage. He met and married a lovely,
cultured and pious woman of Dingwall, in Orkney, the daughter of
Andrew Robertson, Provost of Dingwall, named Ann Robertson, whom
the unimpeachable Sir Bernard Burke supplied with a pedigree from
Henry III, king of England, and Robert Bruce, of Bannockburn, king of
Scotland, so that it is royal English and Scottish blood that runs in the
veins of Mr. Gladstone.
"This alleged illustrious pedigree," says E.B. Smith, in his elaborate
work on William E. Gladstone, "is thus traced: Lady Jane Beaufort,
who was a descendant of Henry III, married James I, of Scotland, who
was a descendant of Bruce. From this alliance it is said that the steps
can be followed clearly down to the father of Miss Robertson. A
Scottish writer upon genealogy, also referring to this matter, states that
Mr. Gladstone is descended on the mother's side from the ancient
Mackenzie of Kintail, through whom is introduced the blood of the
Bruce, of the ancient Kings of Man, and of the Lords of the Isles and
Earls of Ross; also from