The National Memorial to Mr. Gladstone--.-erected on a site provided
by the London County Council at the eastern junction of Aldwych with the Strand—was unveiled on Saturday last by Mi., John Morley. Lord Peel, who presided, after alluding to his father's and his own relations with Mr. Gladstone, said that they were met together that day in no partisan spirit, but simply to unveil a national monument to a man who might without exaggeration be called a national possession. Of Mr. Morley's eulogy it is enough to say that it was worthy of the author of what is after all the best tribute to Mr. Gladstone's memory. Mr. Morley justified the erection of a memorial and the choice of its site. "It is good that his effigy should be placed on high amidst this thronging tide of life, so that men may know by recollecting his achievements and his character—which was greater even than his achievements—how great a thing the life of a man may be made." The Duke of Devonshire, who followed, expressed a natural regret that none of those who had succeeded Lord Salisbury in the leadership of the official and habitual opponents of Mr. Gladstone were present. Speaking for himself and others "who once for a long period were colleagues or followers of Mr. Gladstone," the Duke declared that no differences of temperament, judgment, or principle ever impaired their admiration for his character or their firm belief in the high aims of his statesmanship. The Duke, who described Mr. Morley's Life as the fittest and most permanent memorial, referred to the partial obscuration of the public memory of Mr. Gladstone since his death,—a point with which we deal elsewhere.
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