BUNSEN ON GLADSTONE.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—Bunsen, writing to his wife in 1838, just thirty years ago, prophesies thus respecting Gladstone :—
" Then went to Gladstone, and was delighted with the man who is some day to govern England, if his book is not in his way." (Memoirs, I , 501.)
And again :— " Gladstone is the first man in England as to intellectual power, and he has besides higher tones than any one else in this island." (I., 4S9.) Writing to Arnold at the same time, he says :—
" I read Gladstone's book in the night and following morning of the day it was published. It appears to me the most important and dignified work which has been written on that side of the question since Burke's Considerations. Gladstone is by far the first living in- tellectual power on that side. He has left his schoolmasters far behind him, but we must not wonder if he still walks in their trammels ; his genius will soon free itself entirely, and fly towards heaven with its own wings." (I., 492.)
And again :—
" This led to my declaration of love to him for having conscientiously thrown a stumblingblock in his own way as a statesman, and excited censure because he came conscientiously to this consequence, for which he was so violently attacked, and that I admired him particularly on that point on which I differed from him." (L, 503.) Pray give these extracts a place in the Spectator.—I am, Sir
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