THE STORY OF GLADSTONE'S LIFE.* Mn. McCalmly states in the

preface that his volume is "not la political treatise, not even a study of our political epoch, but an account of the life of a man." In relating this " Story " the author has the misfortune to write as a partisan, and not, as he apparently wishes to do, in the spirit of the historian. Considering, however, the position Mr. McCarthy has held, and the atmosphere in which he has been nurtured, it would be unreasonable to expect that he should look at the events with which the interests of his life have been bound up, in the "dry light" Lord Bacon requires from the searcher after truth. Political impartiality is not likely to distinguish a disappointed Home-ruler, but in a few instances the author

iwrites of his opponents with an acrimony that surprises us in a man of his genial nature.

, It is needless to say that this is not the first Life of Mr. Gladstone which has appeared in book-form. In point of ability and fullness of knowledge it cannot be compared to Mr. Russell's monograph, but it is obvious that neither of ;these volumes can have more than a passing value; a narra- tive written for the day must die with the day, for the eharacter of a great man cannot be fitly judged until all the materials needed to form an estimate are in the hands of the public. "In this age," Southey wrote, "when a person of any notoriety dies, they lose as little time in making a book of him as they used to do in making a mummy." Since Southey's day notoriety brings with it a fresh penalty, and now the book is made, and, as it not infrequently happens, the victim dissected, while he is still able to watch the opera- tion and to estimate the result.

Mr. McCarthy's hand is a gentle one, and his scalpel will -sot injure Mr. Gladstone. Whether it will prove of essential ,service to his fame is another question. The book is, for the most part, a high eulogy, and if on one or two occasions the author discovers that his hero has gone astray, he consoles himself by remembering that "we must take Mr. Gladstone :as Nature made him,—impetuous, earnest, fall of emotion, and quick of speech." It would be idle to follow Mr. McCarthy's narrative as he relates the story of Mr. Glad- stone's vigorous and varied career from early manhood to old age. The facts are already familiar, and there is little to attract the reader in the author's facile but rather careless style.

I The value of the work is to be found in Mr. McCarthy's personal recollections and impressions. He has lived an active life, he is familiar with public affairs and public men, he has been an actor in the events of his time as well as a recorder of them, and he is to a considerable extent a man of culture. His memories, it may be added, carry him over a long tract of years, and a writer with such qualifications must have something to say which, if not of any special significance, will be fresh to his readers. Thus we read with interest how Mr. Gladstone suggested as long ago as 1879 the publication of one or two articles in the Nineteenth Century on the ques- tion of Home-rule; how Mr. McCarthy knew that the subject had been under the great statesman's consideration for several years ; and how it did not come upon him with the slightest surprise when in 1885 it began to be publicly said that Mr. Gladstone was a convert to the cause.

'" That question," Mr. McCarthy adds, "will be settled some time, let pessimists say what they may." Most of our ,readers may think, and the attitude of the Opposition will ;bear them out in thinking, it is already settled. The author observes that the House of Lords "always gives way when pressure enough has been put on it to make it clear that the public are becoming impatient of its intervention." This is true, but it is just because the House in exercising its legiti- mate function on this occasion was acting in accordance with the wishes of the nation that the pressure was not put.

I It was inevitable that the author of a " Life " of Mr. Glad- stone should have much to say of his mental versatility. It is probably due to the variety of his pursuits that mind and body have worked so harmoniously together. With literature he has been able to enliven debate, and in that, as well as in theology, he has always found solace and refreshment. Art for art's sake has not found more favour with him than with Lord Tennyson; but what in writing of Wordsworth he has called "the capital points of purity and

• The Wry of Giochtoses Lilo. By Justin McCarthy. Loudon' A. and C. .31aak. [7s. td..1

elevation" have not prevented him, as Mr. McCarthy points out, from doing justice to Swift as our "greatest prose writer." Mr. Gladstone's perfect mastery of Italian and his love of Dante are well known; it has not been thought that be cares much for German literature, but the author observes that some of the happiest of his quotations in the House have been taken from Schiller and Goethe. There have been seasons when Mr. Gladstone has buried himself in books, and in forming a great library he has found a delightful recreation. If his large sympathies have sometimes led him to praise inferior writers, he may have felt with Longfellow that it is a relief to turn occasionally from the mountain heights of literature to the humbler thoughts and words which yield content in the valley. After living in intimate companionship with Homer and Dante, with Wordsworth and Bishop Butler, Mr. Glad- stone can afford to listen for a while to the thin notes of a minor poet or to the narrative of a third-rate novelist.

Mr. McCarthy records with frankness his estimate of the public men of the Victorian era. The Duke of Wellington, we are told, "apart from his gifts and instincts as a com- mander, was not a man of any intellect." O'Connell "was a great figure," and Mr. Gladstone was early drawn to him by a kind of sympathy :—

" I asked Mr. Gladstone about Mr. O'Connell's eloquence in the House of Commons, and he told me it was so great and so com- manding that he was unwilling even to offer a criticism upon it, but that his impression was that of the three special opportunities which O'Connell enjoyed, the Bar, the platform, and the House of Commons, the House of Commons did not make his greatest success I asked Mr. Gladstone what he believed to be O'Connell's principal characteristic. He made me an answer in a magnificent phrase which does honour to the memory of O'Connell. He said, I think O'Connell's principal characteristic was a passion of philanthropy.' "

Lord Brougham is said to be "curiously forgotten" by the public of to-day, and Sir George Cornewall Lewis is also "curiously forgotten." Yet Mr. McCarthy is convinced that

Sir George was one of the greatest intellects of his time, and how highly Mr. Gladstone thought of him and of his volume, On the Influence of Authority in Matters of Opinion, the present

writer can testify. Robert Lowe is described as carrying off the honours of the debate in the Reform Bill of 1866 :—

" He had," Mr. McCarthy writes, "a marvellous literary gift of phrase-making, of paradox, of sarcasm, and of illustration. He had read much in many literatures ; he had apparently a wonderful memory, and whenever an idea occurred to him some quotation floated with it double—swan and shadow. He was literally the comet of a season ; he dazzled and startled the whole House of Commons. I heard almost all those great debates, and I remember them well. I know that Gladstone was at his best, that Bright was at his best, that Disraeli was at his best, but I cannot help acknowledging that the chief interest was absorbed by Mr. Lowe."

How it came to pass that Lowe, with his very bad voice and wretched articulation, should have taken prece-

dence of the most distinguished speakers of the day, Mr. McCarthy cannot understand, but the one thing certain to his mind is that he did take it. It was inevitable that in his estimate of statesmen the author should draw a comparison between Gladstone and Disraeli, who "seemed formed by Nature to be antagonists." He admits the great disadvantages under which the latter entered upon public life, and finds another difference between the two men in their attitudes towards general culture. "Gladstone had a positive passion for studying everything, for knowing something about everything. He had tastes the most varied and all but universal." Disraeli, on the other hand, "had no such ubiquitous tastes and no such varied knowledge. He had travelled more than Gladstone ever travelled, but he brought back little from his wanderings. His life, indeed, ran in a narrow groove. Political ambition was his idol, and he lived in its worship." Gladstone, he observes, was no equal of Disraeli in the gift of sarcasm, but in a reply "he swept his antagonist before him " :—

"I heard nearly all the great speeches made by both the men in the Parliaments/7 duel which lasted for so many years. My own observation and judgment gave the superiority to Mr. Glad- stone all through, but I quite admit that Disraeli stood up well to his great opponent, and that it was not always easy to award the prize of victory."

Mr. McCarthy adds that Gladstone changed his political opinions many times, but always from "a recognition of facts and conditions which he could no longer conscientiously dispute. Nobody probably ever knew what Disraeli's real opinions were upon any political question, or whether he had any real opinions at all." The author hints that Disraeli went over to the Tories as "there was no opening for him on the Liberal benches of the House of Commons," and he suggests that Mr. Chamberlain's recent attitude has been doe to the same cause. It is never just to impute motives to opponents, and before saying bitter things of the Unionists, and especially of Mr. Chamberlain, it would have been well if Mr. McCarthy had recalled the praise he gives to Mr. Gladstone for never feeling personal ill-will to his opponents.

The author strikes another note, and shows a feeling with which all readers will sympathise, when he describes his last interview with Mr. Gladstone after the defeat of Home. rule :-

"In words which, though really conversational, were as im- pressive to me as human eloquence could make them, he bade me tell my colleagues that his heart was ever with the success of our cause, and that he prayed for that success and gave it his blessing. I have not often been so much moved as by those words. I took leave of Mr. Gladstone as if I bad been leaving some being who belonged to a higher order of the world than the commonplace existence of every day. I passed out into St. James's Park feeling as though even the sunshine and the grass and the trees and the lake were commonplace things after such a

farewell That meeting was, to use Carlyle's expression, not easily to be forgotten in this world."

Mr. McCarthy can be careless, but he is never dull. His

" Story " has the saving merit of liveliness, and the eighteen illustrations reproduced from pictures and photographs are

likely to make the book a welcome one on the drawing-room, if not on the library, table.