One hundred years ago
Mr Gladstone, having visited the Orkneys, steamed across to Copen- hagen, where he was received, on the 17th inst., with every honour by the family party there assembled, consisting of the King of Greece, the Princess of Wales, and a crowd of junior Princes, all descendants or connections by mar- riage of King Christian. On Tuesday, the entire group, with all the diplomatists prepnt in the city, except the represen- tatives of Sweden, lunched with Mr Gladstone on board the 'Pembroke Cas- tle', and afterwards listened to Mr Tennyson reading his own poetry. Let us hope he did not read 'The Charge of the Six Hundred'. Mr Gladstone's visit, coinciding with the sudden departure of Lord Dufferin for Constantinople, has set the journalists of the Continent all agog, and the wildest speculations are indulged in. The English Premier sought the Czar in order to reunite the two Bulgarias, or to sell Armenia for Egypt, or to arrange a Northern alliance with France, as a counterpoise to Germany. These speculations are, of course, dreams. There is not the slightest evidence that Mr Gladstone transacted any political business at all, or had any objects whatever, except to make a plea- sant trip to a new place, and some valuable fresh acquaintances. As for the Czar, a few days of perfect safety must be to him the truest holiday.
Spectator, 22 September 1883
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