" The cow with the crumpled horn " has this
week distin- guished itself by a greater achievement than that recorded in "the house that Jack built." On Monday last it knocked down and trampled upon the great leader of the Home-rule Party, though fortunately without injuring him in the least degree. It was lucky that its horn was crumpled, or it might have inflicted a fatal wound. The cow had escaped from a neighbouring farm, and was disporting herself in Hawarden Park when Mr. Gladstone came down one of the drives and looked at her, whereupon the cow rushed at him, threw him down, and ran over him. She did not, however, renew the attack, and Mr. Gladstone walked quietly home, and was none the worse for the rather serious incident. To paraphrase what Goldsmith said : " The man recovered from the blow, the cow it was who died ! " She was very properly shot, as evidently a dan- gerous creature. The event will rather confirm the belief that Mr. Gladstone bears what is called a charmed life. Certainly it is a very unusual thing, at the age of almost eighty-three, to show such vigour and elasticity as Mr. Gladstone shows after every great effort. We do not believe in charmed lives ; but, doubtless, there is some considerable purpose for his life to fulfil. We believe it may be to prove that the object to which he has devoted such tenacious and unexampled energies is quite beyond the power even of his great enthusiasm.
