On Thursday Lord Rosebery, speaking at a meeting held in
Edinburgh to consider the proposals for a Gladstone memorial, passed a glowing panegyric on Mr. Gladstone al a statesman and orator. "We have," said Lord Rosebery "the memory of a matchless individuality, an oratory whici has never been surpassed in our time, never perhaps beer equalled in all its forms and varieties, and which, perhaps will stand unrivalled in the history of eloquence since the great Athenian models existed." Surely this is a great exaggeration. Mr. Gladstone was a very effective orator, bui his oratory was extra:ordinarily evanescent, and unless we are much mistaken, his speeches will be utterly unknown to the next generation. It is Mr. Bright who will survive as a orator, for he had what Mr. Gladstone never possessed,—the great antiseptic of style. Lord Rosebery was on surer ground when he went on to say of Mr. Gladstone :—" We have besideE a model, which appeals to all classes and to all shades al opinion, of a life the purity of which was never questioned, the integrity of which in all the storms and trials of politics wae never even doubted, which I will not say popularised religia —that would be too audacious an expression—but which certainly advanced the cause of Christianity in this country as much as the sermons of thousands of men." These lasi words we believe to be absolutely true.
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