MR. MORLEY'S LIFE OF GLADSTONE. *ITO THE EDITOR OE THE
"SPIOTATOIL")
Si8,—In your concluding notice of Mr. Morley's Life of Gladstone in the Spectator of October 24th you refer to Mr. Gladstone's fondness for poetry, and mention in this con- nection the once famous couplets about the Straits of Malacca. The inference is that Mr. Gladstone was himself the author of the couplets; but this is, I think, a mistake. I heard that celebrated speech—it was delivered on Blackheath Common just after the Dissolution in 1874—and the way the couplets came in was this. Mr. Gladstone said that immediately before the meeting some verses had been put into his hand, and he read them from a piece of paper which I saw had jagged edges
as if torn from somewhere. The whole thing remains very
vividly in my recollection, and has been ever since one of my stock yarns. You know bow Mr. Disraeli in his very next speech apologised for being unable to address the meeting in
poetry ? It was a most delicate sarcasm.—I am. Sir, &c., GEO. S. MACILWAINE (Captain R.N. retired). GEO. S. MACILWAINE (Captain R.N. retired).
United Service Club, Pall Mall, S.W.
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