On Wednesday Mr. Gladstone went to Midlothian to give some
account to his constituents of his four years' administra- tion. Blackwood's Magazine for September, which indulges in its usual frothy fury against him, contains a prose attack and a verse attack, the latter containing these lines :— " Though the grand old word-spinner, the live paradox, On his stump seek to lure back the populi vox ; Though he promise, and palter, and misrepresent, His charms are all powerless, his sleights are all spent."
Well, that does not look as if Blackwood knew much of its own country and capital. Mr. Gladstone, though he did all in his power to avoid publicity, and did not take the old Waverley route to Scotland, was received with more than the passion of 1880. Even before be reached Scotland, he had been compelled to receive at Warrington an address of the utmost enthusiasm, to which he only replied that the issue of the struggle was in the hands of the country ; that the Government would not go about to entreat support, but would do their duty if the people did theirs, but that it was ultimately a question for the people. He made a similar suggestion at Carstairs Junction, where he said, in answer to the vehement manifestations of popular feeling, that .the real question was not one whether the
Liberal Party supported the Government, but whether the Liberal Party in this matter were the true representative of the people. At every station where be was recognised the enthu- siasm of the crowd, and the vehement desire to obtain a shake of his hand, surpassed anything that happened in 1880. His. political " charms," apparently, were never more engrossing, and he had absolutely no occasion for any " sleights."
