26 OCTOBER 1901, Page 2

Much, perhaps most, of all this is true, though but

for "the golden mouth and smiting eyes "it might have remained unperceived ; but we hope that Mr. Morley in his biograpbY will remember what in his speech he.forgets, that Mr. Glad- stone will live in history according to the estimate historians form of him, not as orator or as moralist, but as statesman. We cannot but think that the answer is less certain than Mr. Morley appears to .believe. Mr. Gladstone gave the English people prosperity; he made military reform possible by abolishing purchase; he began the reform of land tenure in Ireland; and he helped materially in .the emancipation of Italy and the enlargement of Greece. On the other hand, be did not give us an army, which he could have done, for the people would have accepted his counsel; he did no remove, even in a dezree, the hostility of the Trish people; he was so. wrong about the American Civil War that he nearly made the breach between England and America irreparable,—virtually acknowledging, as he did, that the South was a " nation " ; he brought on us by his policy in South Africa the great struggle which is now crippling us ; and he broke to pieces, it may be for ever, the British Liberal party, the greatest. instrument of welordered progress which the last two generations have beheld. The historian will have much to clear up or admit, as well as much to praise, and he will have little help from eulogies such as Mr. Morley's, though if he is capable of literary enjoyment they will furnish him with much delightful reading. .