William Ewart Gladstone | Page 7

his
probable action. Thus his political character was the result of influences
differing widely in their origin--influences, moreover, which it was
hard for ordinary observers to appreciate.
CHAPTER III
: PARLIAMENTARIAN

Mr. Gladstone sat for sixty-three years in Parliament, and for more than
twenty-six years was the leader of his party, and therefore the central
figure of English politics. As has been said, he began as a high Tory,
remained about fifteen years in that camp, was then led by the split
between Peel and the protectionists to take up an intermediate position,
and finally was forced to cast in his lot with the Liberals, for in
England, as in America, third parties seldom endure. No parliamentary
career in English annals is comparable to his for its length and variety;
and of those who saw its close in the House of Commons, there was
only one man, Mr. Villiers (who died in January, 1898), who could
remember its beginning. He had been opposed in 1833 to men who
might have been his grandfathers; he was opposed in 1893 to men who
might have been his grandchildren. In a sketch like this, it is impossible
to describe or comment on the events of such a life. All that can be

done is to indicate the more salient characteristics which a study of his
career as a statesman and a parliamentarian sets before us.
The most remarkable of these characteristics is the sustained freshness,
openness, eagerness of mind, which he preserved down to the end of
his life. Most of us, just as we make few intimate friends, so we form
few new opinions after thirty-five. Intellectual curiosity may remain
fresh and strong even after fifty, but its range steadily narrows as one
abandons the hope of attaining any thorough knowledge of subjects
other than those which make the main business of one's life. One
cannot follow the progress of all the new ideas that are set afloat in the
world. One cannot be always examining the foundations of one's
political or religious beliefs. Repeated disappointments and
disillusionments make a man expect less from changes the older he
grows; and mere indolence adds its influence in deterring us from
entering upon new enterprises. None of these causes seemed to affect
Mr. Gladstone. He was as much excited over a new book (such as
Cardinal Manning's Life) at eighty- six as when at fourteen he insisted
on compelling little Arthur Stanley (afterward Dean of Westminster,
and then aged nine) to procure Gray's poems, which he had just perused
himself. His reading covered almost the whole field of literature, except
physical and mathematical science. While frequently declaring that he
must confine his political thinking and leadership to a few subjects, he
was so observant of the movements of opinion that the course of talk
brought up scarcely any topic in which he did not seem to know what
was the latest thing that had been said or done. Neither the lassitude nor
the prejudices common in old age prevented him from giving a fair
consideration to any new doctrines. But though his intellect was
restlessly at work, and though his eager curiosity disposed him to relish
novelties, except in theology, that bottom rock in his mind of caution
and reserve, which has already been referred to, made him refuse to
part with old views even when he was beginning to accept new ones.
He allowed both to "lie on the table" together, and while declaring his
mind to be open to conviction, he felt it safer to speak and act on the
old lines till the process of conviction had been completed. It took
fourteen years, from 1846 to 1860, to carry him from the Conservative
into the Liberal camp. It took five stormy years to bring him round to

Irish home rule, though his mind was constantly occupied with the
subject from 1880 to 1885, and those who watched him closely saw
that the process had advanced some considerable way even in 1881.
And as regards ecclesiastical establishments, having written a book in
1838 as a warm advocate of state churches, it was not till 1867 that he
adopted the policy of disestablishment for Ireland, not till 1890 that he
declared himself ready to apply it in Wales and Scotland also.
Both these qualities--his disposition to revise his opinions in the light
of new arguments and changing conditions, and the reticence he
maintained till the process of revision had been completed--exposed
him to misconstruction. Commonplace men, unwont to give serious
scrutiny to their opinions, ascribed his changes to self-interest, or at
best regarded them as the index of an unstable mind. Dull men could
not understand why he should have forborne to set forth all that was
passing in his mind, and saw little