The Grand Old Man | Page 5

part of which
time it had been government agent, the firm was dissolved and its
business was continued by John Gladstone. His six brothers having
followed him from Leith to Liverpool, he took into partnership with
him his brother Robert. Their business became very extensive, having a
large trade with Russia, and as sugar importers and West India
merchants. John Gladstone was the chairman of the West India
Association and took an active part in the improvement and
enlargement of the docks of Liverpool. In 1814, when the monopoly of
the East India Company was broken and the trade of India and China
thrown open to competition, the firm of John Gladstone & Company
was the first to send a private vessel to Calcutta.
John Gladstone was a public-spirited man and took great interest in the
welfare of his adopted city. He was ever ready to labor for its

prosperity, and consequently endeared himself to the people of all
classes and conditions, and of every shade of political opinion.
The high estimation in which he was held by the citizens of Liverpool
was especially manifest October 18, 1824, when they presented him
with a testimonial, consisting of a magnificent service of plate, of
twenty-eight pieces, and bearing the following inscription: "_To John
Gladstone, Esq., M.P., this service of plate was presented
MDCCCXXIV, by his fellow townsmen and friends, to mark their high
sense of his successful exertions for the promotion of trade and
commerce, and in acknowledgment of his most important services
rendered to the town of Liverpool_."
John Gladstone, though devoted to commerce, had time for literary
pursuits. He wrote a pamphlet, "On the Present State of Slavery in the
British West Indies and in the United States of America; and on the
Importation of Sugar from British Settlements in India." He also
published, in 1830, another pamphlet, containing a statement of facts
connected with the same general subject, "in a letter addressed to Sir
Robert Peel." In 1846 he published a pamphlet, entitled "Plain facts
intimately connected with the intended Repeal of the Corn Laws; or
Probable Effects on the Public Revenue and the Prosperity of the
Country."
From the subject discussed it can be readily and truly imagined that
John Gladstone had given thought to political subjects. He was in favor
of a qualified reform which, while affording a greater enfranchisement
of the people, looked also to the interests of all. Having an opinion, and
not being afraid to express it, he was frequently called upon to address
public meetings. The matters discussed by him were, however, rather
national than municipal, rather humane than partisan. He was a strong
advocate for certain reforms at home in 1818, and in 1823 on the seas,
and for Greek independence in 1824. "On the 14th of February, 1824, a
public meeting was held in Liverpool Town Hall, 'for the purpose of
considering the best means of assisting the Greeks in their present
important struggle for independence.' Mr. Gladstone spoke
impressively in favor of the cause which had already evoked great

enthusiasm amongst the people, and enlisted the sympathies and
support of Lord Byron and other distinguished friends of freedom."
It was in 1818 that he addressed a meeting called "to consider the
propriety of petitioning Parliament to take into consideration the
progressive and alarming increase in the crimes of forging and uttering
forged Bank of England notes." The penalties for these crimes were
already heavy, but their infliction did not deter men from committing
them, and these crimes increased at an enormous rate. Resolutions were
passed at the Liverpool meeting, recommending the revision and
amendment of existing laws.
Then again, so late as the year 1823, the navigation between Liverpool
and Dublin was in a lamentable condition, and human life was
recklessly imperiled, and no one seemed willing to interfere and to
interest himself in the interests of humanity. It was then that he again
came to the front to advocate a just cause. To illustrate the dangers to
vessels and passengers, the case of the sloop Alert may be cited. It was
wrecked off the Welsh coast, with between 100 and 140 persons on
board, of whom only seventeen were saved. For the safety and rescue
of all those souls on board this packet-boat there was only one small
shallop, twelve feet long. Mr. Gladstone was impressed with the
terrible nature of the existing evil, and obtained an amendment to the
Steamboat Act, requiring imperatively that every passenger vessel
should be provided with boats sufficient for every passenger it was
licensed to carry. By this wise and humane provision thousands of lives
were doubtless saved that would otherwise have been lost--the victims
of reckless seamanship and commercial greed.
John Gladstone, either through the influence of Mr. Canning, or from
having imbibed