Chapter I: Preface

In this little work I have aimed to write, not a history or a biography, not a criticism or a eulogy, but merely to give a few scattered notes, gathered from many quarters, for the general public, rather than for the professional politician. Lord Rosebery is reported to have said that it will require many writers to give a complete biography of Mr. Gladstone. He may be right; but the evil of it will be, the work, if exhaustive, will be exhausting. Especially will it be so in these busy times, when yesterday's biographies become stale to a public forgetful of the past, caring only for the present, oblivious of the morrow. It is almost an impertinence to speak of the many claims Mr. Gladstone has on a people whom he has served so long. All I claim to do is to give a few data which may help them to estimate the

'Heroic mind
Expressed in action, in endurance proved'--

in short, more or less imperfectly, 'The Real Gladstone.'

Clacton,
_May_, 1898.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
I. BIRTH AND SCHOOLDAYS 1
II. GLADSTONE AT OXFORD 9
III. ENTERS PARLIAMENT 16
IV. M.P. FOR OXFORD UNIVERSITY 38
V. MR. GLADSTONE'S ECCLESIASTICAL OPINIONS 47
VI. MR. GLADSTONE AND THE DIVORCE BILL 67
VII. POLITICS AGAIN 75
VIII. POLITICS AND THE IRISH CHURCH 92
IX. EDUCATION AND IRELAND 116
X. IRELAND UNDER MR. FORSTER 126
XI. HOME RULE 140
XII. MR. GLADSTONE'S SPEECHES 154
XIII. MR. GLADSTONE'S PUBLICATIONS 170
XIV. ANECDOTAL AND CHARACTERISTIC 191
XV. MR. GLADSTONE'S LETTERS 213
XVI. MR. GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES 235
XVII. AT HOME 273