is a feeling of jealousy which we have cherished with regard to the American Union. It was very much shown at the beginning of this war, when an honorable member whom I will not name, for he would not like it now, spoke of "the bursting of the bubble republic." Well, I recollect that Lord John Russell turned round and rebuked him in language worthy of his name, character, and position. I beg to tell that gentleman and any one else who talks about bubble republics that I have a great suspicion that a great many bubbles will burst before that bubble bursts. Why should we fear a great nation on the American continent? Some fear that a great nation would be arrogant and aggressive. But that does not at all follow. It does not depend altogether upon the size of a nation, but upon its qualities, and upon the intelligence, instruction, and morals of its people. You fancy that the supremacy of the sea will pass away from you. Well, if the supremacy of the sea excites the arrogance of this country, the sooner it becomes obsolete the better. I don't believe it to be for the advantage of this country or of any other that any one nation should pride itself upon what it terms the supremacy of the sea, and I hope the time is come when we shall find that law and justice shall guide the councils and direct the policy of the Christian nations of the world.

WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE

William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898) was a man of broad and liberal training. He attended a private school until he was twelve years old, when he was sent to Eton. After finishing his course there

he spent two years with a private tutor and entered Oxford, where he remained four years. He not only completed his studies with credit, but secured the highest honors in two departments of study, classics and mathematics, a thing almost unprecedented in the history of Oxford.

An indefatigable student, he not only pursued his regular college work but devoted his leisure

hours to literature, history, and finance. Even while at Eton he began to contribute to magazines. He early made it a duty to cultivate his varied intellectual powers, especially his power of expression with the pen. He became a sound classical scholar, an accurate thinker, a thorough student of ecclesiastic history and of the faith and doctrines of Christianity, so that later in his career he contributed many learned articles on religious faith and tenets.

During his early years in Parliament he took up the study of law and kept his course for several terms at Lincoln's Inn. But he was never admitted to the bar, as he was too much engrossed with affairs of state to give time to the practice of law. The training which bore particularly on his oratory was his work in the Oxford Union, a debating society composed of students interested in discussing public questions. These opportunities were attractive to him, and his remarkable talents as a debater soon made him a conspicuous member of that organization. It was his persistency in informing himself on public questions and upholding his views in the Union with spirit and logical skill that developed him so rationally and so rapidly for his duties in Parliament; so that when he entered the House he soon made a name for himself for his thoughtfulness, his energy, and his skill in presenting his arguments.

He was also much profited by his early association with George Canning, the great parliamentarian and orator, who was a close friend of his father, and other men of literary fame whose skill in oratory and debate and whose many hints on the subject affected most favorably the mobile nature of young Gladstone. He himself explains what he believes to be the best preparatory training for one who would succeed in oratory, and which he carried out to the letter, in the following terse language: "The first requisite is a wide and thorough general education. Second, the habit of constant and searching reflection on the subject of any proposed discourse. Such reflection will naturally clothe itself, and of the phrases it supplies many will spontaneously rise to the lips. It is on these that I should advise the young principally to rely."

In personal appearance Gladstone was very attractive. He was over six feet in height, with a commanding, erect figure, a large, well-poised head, and ample chest. His eyes were

gray and his brows dark and prominent, and his intelligent, expressive countenance, though sometimes severe, generally wore a pleasing expression. No one who ever saw him can forget his erect form with its quick, strong step. He was temperate in habits and kept himself in physical condition by regular, active exercise in the open air. A brisk walk of ten or twenty miles was a small matter to him, and the decaying trees on his estate at Hawarden yielded to the swing of his ax as he felled them and turned them into firewood.

His power as an orator was a great delight to his waiting audiences. His command of language was remarkable. Copiousness and readiness of speech, versatility and grace of diction, were never wanting. Dr. James M. Buckley calls him "the most wonderful extemporizer of the modern Englishspeaking world." He would hold an audience for hours while he extemporized on finance or diplomatic relations. Few may be said to be his peers in power of statement and exposition. Though sometimes wordy in expression, with a tendency to use long words where short Anglo-Saxon ones would better hit the mark, yet he weighted his every utterance with thought and feeling. Some of his sentences are nearly a page in length. With their parentheses and saving clauses it is hard sometimes to keep in mind the subject of the sentence. His fondness for Latin and Greek derivatives, his long words and almost interminable sentences, seem to us to-day to be his chief faults of style. On this account his speeches, to read them, do not compare in effectiveness and incisiveness with those of John Bright, his great contemporary and friend.

But Gladstone's great charm was in his immediate personal influence upon his audience. Not only was he fluent and versatile, but he was very earnest in the delivery of his thought, with that warmth of disposition, that blood-earnestness, that sensitive sympathy between the speaker and his audience so

necessary to the best eloquence. When he first began speaking he stood for a while with his hands behind him, but as he warmed to his theme he released them and used them, in varied and energetic action, to enforce his thought. His whole body spoke, and he was magnetic even in repose.

His voice was a baritone, now low and soft, now full and clear, now strong and powerful. Its varied melody and directness of inflection were a constant pleasure to the ear. When he was thoroughly aroused his slow and carefully accentuated tones marked the heat of his passion and his self-restraint; a man all but mastered by his excitement, but who at the very point of being mastered masters himself, apparently cool while he is at a white heat, so as to make the audience glow with fire." Yet under intense excitement his voice remained firm and strong and apparently insensible to fatigue during his speeches, even in his old age.

The intense interest shown by his audiences is evidence of the great weight of his personality and his persuasiveness. On the occasion of his first budget speech after his election to the premiership, it is said that "expectation stood on tiptoe, the House was crowded in every part, and it remained crowded and tireless, while for the space of five hours Mr. Gladstone poured forth a flood of oratory which made arithmetic astonishingly easy and gave an unaccustomed grace to statistics. Merely as an oratorical display the speech was a rare treat to the crowded assembly that heard it, and to the innumerable company which some hours later read it. But the form was rendered doubly enchanting by the substance. It was clear that Mr. Gladstone could not only adorn the exposition of finance with the gifts of oratory, but he could control the developments of finance with a master hand."

What is said of this speech may be said of other great speeches. Whenever it was expected he would speak on an