A hundred years ago
From the 'Spectator', 16 January I869—There is a notion in the world that great statesmen's opinions on politics are something more than opinions, whether they be formed on subjects with which they are really familiar or not. Mr. Glad- stone's manner of saying, both with regard to the Irish Church, and the American War, and many other matters, 'really the public gives me credit for being much wiser than I am, I made a great though a very natural mistake, which I am quite willing to admit,' should do a good deal to make the public feel its own responsibility, and that even their greatest statesmen can never be more than a trifle in advance of themselves. If the public at large wholly misinterpret and mis- conceive great events, depend upon it that most even of the wisest of our statesmen must do so too. This is a very wholesome lesson for all of us, and one which statesmen have usually been too .pompous to teach us. They too oftcn -retract opinions with great rhetorical flourishes intended to disguise the fact that they have made great blunders, and are sorry for it. Mr. Gladstone does not do so. He says quite naturally what he feels,—that he possesses no superhuman insight into political affairs, that his admirers are pleased to give him credit for more than he has, that he recognizes some very great errors that he has made; and directly he recognizes is willing to admit them.
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