AT ETON AND OXFORD
There is very little recorded of the boyhood of some great men, and this
is true of the childhood of William E. Gladstone, until he leaves the
parental home for school, which he does in 1821, at the early age of
eleven. He was fortunate in his parentage, but no less so in his early
associations, both in and out of school. We refer particularly to his
private preceptors, two of whom, the venerable Archdeacon Jones and the
Rev. William Rawson, first Vicar of Seaforth, a watering-place near
Liverpool, were both men of high character and great ability. Mr.
Gladstone always highly esteemed Mr. Rawson, his earliest preceptor, and
visited him on his death-bed. Dr. Turner, afterwards Bishop of Calcutta,
was for two years young Gladstone's private tutor, beginning his
instruction when his pupil left Eton in 1827.
Besides these associations of his early life there were Canning, a
frequent visitor, as has been mentioned, at his father's house, and
Hannah More--"Holy Hannah," as Horace Walpole called her. She singled
out "Billy" Gladstone for her especial pet out of the group of eleven
children in whom her warm heart delighted, and it has been asked
wonderingly if Miss More could preternaturally have lengthened her days
until William E. Gladstone's present glory, whether she would have gone
on dubbing him "Billy" in undignified brevity until the end.
William E. Gladstone, when very young, gave such evidence of uncommon
intellectual ability and promise of future greatness that his father
resolved upon educating him in the best schools of England. There are
four or five great schools in England in which the English youth are
prepared in four or five years for Cambridge or Oxford. "Eton, the
largest and the most celebrated of the public schools of England, ranks
as the second in point of antiquity, Winchester alone being older."
After the preparation at home, under private teachers, to which we have
referred, William E. Gladstone was sent to Eton, in September, 1821. His
biographer, George W.E. Russell, writes, "From a provincial town, from
mercantile surroundings, from an atmosphere of money-making, from a
strictly regulated life, the impressible boy was transplanted, at the
age of eleven, to the shadow of Windsor and the banks of the Thames, to
an institution which belongs to history, to scenes haunted by the
memory of the most illustrious Englishmen, to a free and independent
existence among companions who were the very flower of English boyhood.
A transition so violent and yet so delightful was bound to produce an
impression which lapse of time was powerless to efface, and no one who
knows the man and the school can wonder that for seventy years Mr.
Gladstone has been the most enthusiastic of Etonians."
Eton of to-day is not in all respects the Eton of three-quarters of a
century ago, and yet in some particulars it is as it was when young
"Billy" Gladstone studied within its walls. The system of education and
discipline pursued has undergone some modifications in recent
years--notably during the provostship of the Rev. Francis Hodgson; but
radical defects are still alleged against it. It is not remarkable,
however, that every Eton boy becomes deeply attached to the school,
notwithstanding the apprenticeship to hardships he may have been
compelled to undergo.
The "hardships" there must have been particularly great when young
Gladstone entered Eton, at the close of the summer holidays of 1821. The
school was under the head-mastership of "the terrific Dr. Keate." He was
not the man to spare even the scholar who, upon the emphatic testimony
of Sir Roderick Murchison, was "the prettiest boy that ever went to
Eton," and who was as studious and well-behaved as he was good-looking.
The town of Eton, in which the school is located, about 22 miles from
London, in Berkshire, is beautifully situated on the banks of the river
Thames, opposite Windsor Castle, the residence of the Queen of England.
Eton College is one of the most famous and best endowed educational
institutions of learning in England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI.
The king was very solicitous that the work should be of a durable kind,
and he provided for free scholarships. Eton of Mr. Gladstone's day,
according to a critic, was divided into two schools--the upper and the
lower. It also had two kinds of scholars, namely, seventy called king's
scholars or "collegers," who are maintained gratuitously, sleep in the
college, and wear a peculiar dress; and another class--the
majority--called "oppidans," who live in the town. Between these two
classes of students there prevails perpetual hostility. At Cambridge,
there was founded, in connection with Eton, what is called King's
College, to receive as fellows students from Eton, and to give them
gratuitously an education. The ground on which students of Eton were
promoted to King's College and these fellowships was, strangely to say,
upon that of seniority, or long residence, and not of merit. Because
there was no competition, scholars who were deficient in education at
Eton were promoted to Cambridge, where they had no incentive to work,
being exempt from the ordinary university examination.
At Eton "no instruction was given in any branch of mathematical,
physical, metaphysical or moral science, nor in the evidences of
Christianity. The only subjects which it professed to impart a knowledge
of were the Greek and Latin languages; as much divinity as can be gained
from construing the Greek Testament, and reading a portion of Tomline on
the Thirty-nine Articles, and a little ancient and modern geography." So
much for the instruction imparted. As regards the hours of tuition,
there seems to have been fault there, in that they were too few and
insufficient, there being in all only eleven hours a week study. Then as
to the manner of study, no time was given the scholar to study the style
of an author; he was "hurried from Herodotus to Thucydides, from
Thucydides to Xenophon, from Xenophon to Lucian, without being
habituated to the style of any one author--without gaining an interest
in the history, or even catching the thread of the narrative; and when
the whole book is finished he has probably collected only a few vague
ideas about Darius crying over a great army, Abydos and Nicias and
Demosthenes being routed with a great army near Syracuse, mixed up with
a recollection of the death of Cyrus and Socrates, some moral precept
from Socrates, and some jokes against false philosophers and heathen
gods." Hence the Eton student who goes to Cambridge finds he has done
but a little desultory reading, and that he must begin again. It was
charged that the system of education at Eton failed in every point. The
moral discipline of the school was also called in question. The number
of scholars was so great that the proper control of them seemed
impossible under the management. Great laxity prevailed among the larger
boys, while the younger and weaker students were exposed to the tyranny
of the older and stronger ones without hope of redress. The result was
that the system of "fagging," or the acting of some boys as drudges for
the others, flourished. "The right" of fagging depended upon the place
in the school; all boys in the sixth and fifth forms had the power of
ordering--all below the latter form being bound to obey. This system of
fagging has a very injurious effect upon most of the boys; "it finds
them slaves and leaves them despots. A boy who has suffered himself,
insensibly learns to see no harm in making others suffer in turn. The
whole thing is wrong in principle, and engenders passions which should
be stifled and not encouraged." Why free and enlightened England should
tolerate, even then, such barbarous slavery cannot be understood and
yet there are outrageous customs prevailing among college students of
our day in every civilized land that should be suppressed.
Flogging was in vogue, too, at Eton, with all its degrading and
demoralizing effects, and was performed by the Head-Master himself. In
1820, the year before Mr. Gladstone entered Eton, there were 280 upper
students and 319 lower, a total of 612, and none were exempt.
Some curious stories are told of flogging, which has ever existed at
Eton, and from which even the largest boys were not exempt. Mr. Lewis
relates how a young man of twenty, just upon the point of leaving
school, and engaged to be married to a lady at Windsor, was well and
soundly whipped by Dr. Goodford, for arriving one evening at his tutor's
house after the specified time. And it is related that Arthur Wellesley,
afterwards the Iron Duke of Wellington, was flogged at Eton for having
been "barred out." At the same time there were eighty boys who
were whipped.
And the Eton of twenty years later was very little improved over its
condition in Mr. Gladstone's time there, or in 1845. John D. Lewis,
speaking of this period, says that after the boys reached the fifth
form, then began "some of the greatest anomalies and absurdities of the
then Etonian system." The student was now safe from the ordeal of
examinations, and that the higher classes, including ten senior
collegers and ten senior oppidans, contained some of the very worst
scholars. "A boy's place on the general roll was no more a criterion of
his acquirements and his industry than would be the 'year' of a young
man at Oxford or Cambridge." The collegers, however, were required to
pass some kind of examination, in accordance with which their place on
the list for the King's college was fixed. But the evils regarding the
hours of study and the nature of the studies were as bad. "The regular
holidays and Saints' days, two whole holidays in a week, and two
half-holidays, were a matter of common occurrence."
Lord Morley, in his examination before the Commission on Public Schools,
was asked whether a boy would be looked down upon at Eton for being
industrious in his studies, replied, "Not if he could do something else
well." And this seems to be the spirit of the Eton boy with whom a lack
of scholarship is more than made up by skill in river or field sports.
This is true to-day; for a recent writer in the _Forum_, upon "The
Training of Boys at Eton," says: "Athletic prominence is in English
public schools almost synonymous with social prominence; many a boy
whose capacity and character commanded both respect and liking at the
universities and in after life, is almost a nobody at a public school,
because he has no special athletic gifts.... Great athletic capacity may
co-exist with low moral and intellectual character."
There were few inducements to study and to excel in scholarship, and
plenty to idleness and neglect, hence he who did so must study in hours
and out of hours, in season and out of season. The curriculum is still
strictly classical, but French, German and mathematics are taught. The
collegers of recent years have done very fair work and carried off many
distinctions at Cambridge. With all these odds against them, and these
difficulties to surmount, yet there were Eton boys whose attainments
were deep and solid, and who became famous men, and one of these was
William E. Gladstone.
When young Gladstone entered Eton his brothers, Thomas and Robertson
Gladstone, were already there, and the three boys boarded at Mrs.
Shurey's, whose house "at the south end of the broad walk in front of
the schools and facing the chapel," was rather nearer the famous
"Christopher Inn" than would be thought desirable nowadays. On the wall
opposite the house the name of "Gladstone" is carved. Thomas Gladstone
was in the fifth form, and William was placed in the middle remove of
the fourth form, and became his eldest brother's "fag." This doubtlessly
saved him much annoyance and suffering, and allowed him better to
pursue the studious bent of his indications.
William E. Gladstone was what Etonians called a "sap"--in other words, a
student faithful in the discharge of every duty devolving upon him at
school--one who studied his lessons and was prepared for his recitations
in the classroom. This agreeable fact has been immortalized in a famous
line in Lord Lytton's "New Timon." He worked hard at his classical
studies, as required by the rules of the school, and applied himself
diligently to the study of mathematics during the holidays.
It is said that his interest in the work of the school was first aroused
by Mr. Hawtrey, who afterwards became Head-Master, who commended some of
his Latin verses, and "sent him up for good." This led the young man to
associate intellectual work with the ideas of ambition and success.
While he did not seem to be especially an apt scholar in the restricted
sense for original versification in the classical languages, or for
turning English into Greek or Latin, yet he seemed to seize the precise
meaning of the authors and to give the sense. "His composition was
stiff," but yet, says a classmate, "when there were thrilling passages
of Virgil or Homer, or difficult passages in 'Scriptores Graeci' to
translate, he or Lord Arthur Hervey was generally called up to edify
the class with quotations or translations."
He had no prizes at Eton except what is called being sent up for good,
on account of verses, and he was honored on several occasions. Besides
he took deep interest in starting a college periodical, and with some of
the most intellectual of the students sustained it with his pen. The
more studious of Eton boys have on several occasions in the present
century been in the habit of establishing periodicals for the purpose of
ventilating their opinions. In 1786 Mr. Canning and Mr. Hookham Frere
established the _Microcosm_, whose essays and _jeux d'esprit_, while
having reference primarily to Eton, demonstrated that the writers were
not insensible to what was going on in the great world without. It was
for this college paper that Canning wrote his "Essay on the Epic of the
Queen of Hearts," which, as a burlesque criticism, has been awarded a
high place in English literature. Lord Henry Spencer, Hookham Frere,
Capel Lofft, and Mr. Millish, were also contributors to the columns of
the _Microcosm_. In the year 1820 W. Mackworth Praed set on foot a
manuscript journal, entitled _Apis Matina_. This was in turn succeeded
by the _Etonian_, to which Praed contributed some of his most brilliant
productions. John Moultrie, Henry Nelson Coleridge, Walter Blunt, and
Chauncy Hare Townshend were also among the writers for its papers, who
helped to make it of exceptional excellence. Its articles are of no
ordinary interest even now.
In the last year of William E. Gladstone's stay at Eton, in 1827, and
seven years after Praed's venture, he was largely instrumental in
launching the _Eton Miscellany_, professedly edited by Bartholomew
Bouverie, and Mr. Gladstone became a most frequent, voluminous and
valuable contributor to its pages. He wrote articles of every
kind--prologues, epilogues, leaders, historical essays, satirical
sketches, classical translations, humorous productions, poetry and
prose. And among the principal contributors with him were Sir Francis
Doyle, George Selwyn, James Colville, Arthur Hallam, John Haumer and
James Milnes-Gaskell. The introduction, written by and signed "William
Ewart Gladstone" for this magazine, contained the following interesting
and singular passage, which probably fairly sets forth the hopes and
fears that beset statesmen in maturer years, as well as Eton boys of
only seventeen years of age:
"In my present undertaking there is one gulf in which I fear to sink,
and that gulf is Lethe. There is one stream which I dread my inability
to stem--it is the tide of Popular Opinion. I have ventured, and no
doubt rashly ventured--
Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders,
To try my fortune in a sea of glory,
But far beyond my depth."
At present it is hope alone that buoys me up; for more substantial
support I must be indebted to my own exertions, well knowing that in
this land of literature merit never wants its reward. That such merit is
mine I dare not presume to think; but still there is something within me
that bids me hope that I may be able to glide prosperously down the
stream of public estimation; or, in the words of Virgil,
'--Celerare viam rumore secundo.'
"I was surprised even to see some works with the names of Shakespeare
and Milton on them sharing the common destiny, but on examination I
found that those of the latter were some political rhapsodies, which
richly deserved their fate; and that the former consisted of some
editions of his works which had been burdened with notes and mangled
with emendations by his merciless commentators. In other places I
perceived authors worked up into frenzy by seeing their own compositions
descending like the rest. Often did the infuriated scribes extend their
hands, and make a plunge to endeavor to save their beloved offspring,
but in vain; I pitied the anguish of their disappointment, but with
feelings of the same commiseration as that which one feels for a
malefactor on beholding his death, being at the same time fully
conscious how well he has deserved it."
Little did this diffident and youthful editor imagine that he was
forecasting the future for himself by the aid of youth's most ardent
desires, and that he would live to become the Primate of all England and
the foremost statesman of his day.
There were two volumes of the _Miscellany_, dated June-July and
October-November, respectively, and Mr. Gladstone contributed thirteen
articles to the first volume. Among the contributions were an "Ode to
the Shade of Watt Tyler," a vigorous rendering of a chorus from the
Hucuba of Euripides, and a letter under the name of "Philophantasm,"
detailing an encounter he had with the poet Virgil, in which the great
poet appeared muttering something which did not sound like Latin to an
Eton boy, and complaining that he knew he was hated by the Eton boys
because he was difficult to learn, and pleading to be as well received
henceforth as Horace.
We give a quotation from a poem, consisting of some two hundred and
fifty lines, from his pen, which, appeared also in the _Miscellany_:
"Who foremost now the deadly spear to dart,
And strike the javelin to the Moslem's heart?
Who foremost now to climb the leaguered wall,
The first to triumph, or the first to fall?
Lo, where the Moslems rushing to the fight,
Back bear their squadrons in inglorious flight.
With plumed helmet, and with glittering lance,
'Tis Richard bids his steel-clad bands advance;
'Tis Richard stalks along the blood-dyed plain,
And views unmoved the slaying and the slain;
'Tis Richard bathes his hands in Moslem blood,
And tinges Jordan with the purple flood.
Yet where the timbrels ring, the trumpets sound,
And tramp of horsemen shakes the solid ground,
Though 'mid the deadly charge and rush of fight,
No thought be theirs of terror or of flight,--
Ofttimes a sigh will rise, a tear will flow,
And youthful bosoms melt in silent woe;
For who of iron frame and harder heart
Can bid the mem'ry of his home depart?
Tread the dark desert and the thirsty sand,
Nor give one thought to England's smiling land?
To scenes of bliss, and days of other years--
The Vale of Gladness and the Vale of Tears;
That, passed and vanish'd from their loving sight,
This 'neath their view, and wrapt in shades of night?"
Among other writers who contributed to the first volume of the
_Miscellany_ were Arthur Henry Hallam and Doyle, also G.A. Selwyn,
afterwards Bishop Selwyn, the friend of Mr. Gladstone, and to whom he
recently paid the following tribute: "Connected as tutor with families
of rank and influence, universally popular from his frank, manly, and
engaging character--and scarcely less so from his extraordinary rigor as
an athlete--he was attached to Eton, where he resided, with a love
surpassing the love of Etonians. In himself he formed a large part of
the life of Eton, and Eton formed a large part of his life. To him is
due no small share of the beneficial movement in the direction of
religious earnestness which marked the Eton of forty years back, and
which was not, in my opinion, sensibly affected by any influence
extraneous to the place itself. At a moment's notice, upon the call of
duty, he tore up the singularly deep roots which his life had struck
deep into the soil of England."
Both Mr. Gladstone and the future Bishop of Selwyn contributed humorous
letters to "The Postman," the correspondence department of the _Eton
Miscellany_.
In the second volume of the _Eton Miscellany_ are articles of equal
interest to those that appeared in the first. Doyle, Jelf, Selwyn,
Shadwell and Arthur Henry Hallam were contributors, the latter having
written "The Battle of the Boyne," a parody upon Campbell's
"Hohenlinden." But here again Mr. Gladstone was the principal
contributor, having contributed to this even more largely than to the
first, having written seventeen articles, besides the introductions to
the various numbers of the volume. Indeed one would think from his
devotion to these literary pursuits during his last year at Eton, that
he had very little leisure for those ordinary sports so necessary to
Eton boys. He seems to have begun his great literary activity. Among
them may be mentioned an "Ode to the Shade of Watt Tyler," mentioned
before, which is an example of his humorous style:
"Shade of him whose valiant tongue
On high the song of freedom sung;
Shade of him, whose mighty soul
Would pay no taxes on his poll;
Though, swift as lightning, civic sword
Descended on thy fated head,
The blood of England's boldest poured,
And numbered Tyler with the dead!
"Still may thy spirit flap its wings
At midnight o'er the couch of kings;
And peer and prelate tremble, too,
In dread of mighty interview!
With patriot gesture of command,
With eyes that like thy forges gleam,
Lest Tyler's voice and Tyler's hand
Be heard and seen in nightly dream.
"I hymn the gallant and the good
From Tyler down to Thistlewood,
My muse the trophies grateful sings,
The deeds of Miller and of Ings;
She sings of all who, soon or late,
Have burst Subjection's iron chain,
Have seal'd the bloody despot's fate,
Or cleft a peer or priest in twain.
"Shades, that soft Sedition woo,
Around the haunts of Peterloo!
That hover o'er the meeting-halls,
Where many a voice stentorian bawls!
Still flit the sacred choir around,
With 'Freedom' let the garrets ring,
And vengeance soon in thunder sound
On Church, and constable, and king."
In a paper on "Eloquence," in the same volume, he shows that even then
his young mind was impressed by the fame attached to successful oratory
in Parliament. Visions of glory and honor open before the enraptured
sight of those devoted to oratorical pursuits, and whose ardent and
aspiring minds are directed to the House of Commons. Evidently the young
writer himself "had visions of parliamentary oratory, and of a
successful _debut_ in the House of Commons, with perhaps an offer from
the Minister, a Secretaryship of State, and even the Premiership itself
in the distance." But then there are barriers to pass and ordeals to
undergo. "There are roars of coughing, as well as roars of cheering"
from the members of the House, "and maiden speeches sometimes act more
forcibly on the lungs of hearers than the most violent or most cutting
of all the breezes which AEOLUS can boast." But the writer draws comfort
from the fact that Lord Morfeth, Edward Geoffrey, Stanley and Lord
Castlereagh who were all members of the Eton college debating society
were then among the most successful young speakers in Parliament. This
sounds more like prophecy than dreams, for within a very few years after
writing this article the writer himself had passed the dreaded barrier
and endured the ordeal, and had not only made his appearance in the
House of Commons, but had been invited to fill an honorable place in the
Cabinet of the Ministry then in power.
Another contribution of Mr. Gladstone's to the _Miscellany_, and perhaps
the most meritorious of the youthful writer's productions, was
entitled, "Ancient and Modern Genius Compared," in which the young
Etonian editor ardently and affectionately apostrophized the memory of
Canning, his father's great friend and his own ideal man and statesman,
who had just then perished untimely and amid universal regret. In this
article he first takes the part of the moderns as against the ancients,
though he by no means deprecates the genius of the latter, and then
eloquently apostrophizes the object of his youthful hero-worship, the
immortal Canning, whose death he compares to that of the lamented Pitt.
The following are extracts from this production:
"It is for those who revered him in the plenitude of his meridian glory
to mourn over him in the darkness of his premature extinction: to mourn
over the hopes that are buried in his grave, and the evils that arise
from his withdrawing from the scene of life. Surely if eloquence never
excelled and seldom equalled--if an expanded mind and judgment whose
vigor was paralleled only by its soundness--if brilliant wit--if a
glowing imagination--if a warm heart, and an unbending firmness--could
have strengthened the frail tenure, and prolonged the momentary duration
of human existence, that man had been immortal! But nature could endure
no longer. Thus has Providence ordained that inasmuch as the intellect
is more brilliant, it shall be more short-lived; as its sphere is more
expanded, more swiftly is it summoned away. Lest we should give to man
the honor due to God--lest we should exalt the object of our admiration
into a divinity for our worship--He who calls the weary and the mourner
to eternal rest hath been pleased to remove him from our eyes.
"The degrees of inscrutable wisdom are unknown to us; but if ever there
was a man for whose sake it was meet to indulge the kindly though frail
feelings of our nature--for whom the tear of sorrow was to us both
prompted by affection and dictated by duty--that man was
George Canning."
After Hallam, Selwyn and other contributors to the _Miscellany_ left
Eton, at midsummer, 1827, Mr. Gladstone still remained and became the
mainstay of the magazine. "Mr. Gladstone and I remained behind as its
main supporters," writes Sir Francis Doyle, "or rather it would be more
like the truth if I said that Mr. Gladstone supported the whole burden
upon his own shoulders. I was unpunctual and unmethodical, so were his
other vassals; and the '_Miscellany_' would have fallen to the ground
but for Mr. Gladstone's untiring energy, pertinacity and tact."
Although Mr. Gladstone labored in editorial work upon the _Miscellany_,
yet he took time to bestow attention upon his duties in the Eton
Society of the College, learnedly called "The Literati," and vulgarly
called "Pop," and took a leading part in the debates and in the private
business of the Society. The Eton Society of Gladstone's day was a
brilliant group of boys. He introduced desirable new members, moved for
more readable and instructive newspapers, proposing new rules for better
order and more decorous conduct, moving fines on those guilty of
disorder or breaches of the rules, and paying a fine imposed upon
himself for putting down an illegal question. "In debate he champions
the claims of metaphysics against those of mathematics, and defends
aristocracy against democracy;" confesses innate feelings of dislike to
the French; protests against disarmament of the Highlanders as
inexpedient and unjust; deplores the fate of Strafford and the action of
the House of Commons, which he claimed they should be able to "revere as
our glory and confide in as our protection." The meetings of the Eton
Society were held over Miss Hatton's "sock-shop."
In politics its members were Tory--intensely so, and although current
politics were forbidden subjects, yet, political opinions were disclosed
in discussions of historical or academical questions. "The execution of
Strafford and Charles I, the characters of Oliver Cromwell and Milton,
the 'Central Social' of Rousseau, and the events of the French
Revolution, laid bare the speakers' political tendencies as effectually
as if the conduct of Queen Caroline, the foreign policy of Lord
Castlereagh, or the repeal of the Test and Corporation Act had been the
subject of debate."
It was October 15, 1825, when Gladstone was elected a member of the Eton
Society, and on the 29th of the same month made his maiden speech on the
question "Is the education of the poor on the whole beneficial?" It is
recorded in the minutes of the meeting that "Mr. Gladstone rose and
eloquently addressed the house." He spoke in favor of education; and one
who heard him says that his opening words were, "Sir, in this age of
increased and increasing civilization." Says an eminent writer, by way
of comment upon these words, "It almost oppresses the imagination to
picture the shoreless sea of eloquence which rolls between that exordium
and the oratory to which we still are listening and hope to listen for
years to come."
"The peroration of his speech on the question whether Queen Anne's
Ministers, in the last four years of her reign, deserved well of their
country, is so characteristic, both in substance and in form," that we
reproduce it here from Dr, Russell's work on Gladstone:
"Thus much, sir, I have said, as conceiving myself bound in fairness not
to regard the names under which men have hidden their designs so much
as the designs themselves. I am well aware that my prejudices and my
predilections have long been enlisted on the side of Toryism (cheers)
and that in a cause like this I am not likely to be influenced unfairly
against men bearing that name and professing to act on the principles
which I have always been accustomed to revere. But the good of my
country must stand on a higher ground than distinctions like these. In
common fairness and in common candor, I feel myself compelled to give my
decisive verdict against the conduct of men whose measures I firmly
believe to have been hostile to British interests, destructive of
British glory, and subversive of the splendid and, I trust, lasting
fabric of the British constitution."
The following extracts from the diary of William Cowper, afterwards Lord
Mount-Temple, we also reproduce from the same author: "On Saturday,
October 27, 1827, the subject for debate was:
"'Whether the deposition of Richard II was justifiable or not.' Jelf
opened; not a good speech. Doyle spoke _extempore_, made several
mistakes, which were corrected by Jelf. Gladstone spoke well. The Whigs
were regularly floored; only four Whigs to eleven Tories, but they very
nearly kept up with them in coughing and 'hear, hears,' Adjourned to
Monday after 4.
"Monday, 29.--Gladstone finished his speech, and ended with a great deal
of flattery of Doyle, saying that he was sure he would have courage
enough to own that he was wrong. It succeeded. Doyle rose amidst
reiterated cheers to own that he was convinced by the arguments of the
other side. He had determined before to answer them and cut up
Gladstone!
"December 1.--Debate, 'Whether the Peerage Bill of 1719 was calculated
to be beneficial or not.' Thanks voted to Doyle and Gladstone; the
latter spoke well; will be a great loss to the Society."
There were many boys at Eton--schoolfellows of Mr. Gladstone--who became
men of note in after days. Among them the Hallams, Charles Canning,
afterwards Lord Canning and Governor-General of India; Walter Hamilton,
Bishop of Salisbury; Edward Hamilton, his brother, of Charters; James
Hope, afterwards Hope-Scott; James Bruce, afterwards Lord Elgin; James
Milnes-Gaskell, M.P. for Wenlock; Henry Denison; Sir Francis Doyle;
Alexander Kinglake; George Selwyn, Bishop of New Zealand and of
Litchfield; Lord Arthur Hervey, Bishop of Bath and Wells; William
Cavendish, Duke of Devonshire; George Cornwallis Lewis; Frederic
Tennyson; Gerald Wellesley, Dean of Windsor; Spencer Walpole, Home
Secretary; Frederic Rogers, Lord Blachford; James Colvile, Chief Justice
at Calcutta, and others.
By universal acknowledgment the most remarkable youth at Eton in that
day was Arthur Hallam, "in mind and character not unworthy of the
magnificent eulogy of 'In Memoriam.'" He was the most intimate friend of
young Gladstone. They always took breakfast together, although they
boarded apart in different houses, and during the separation of
vacations they were diligent correspondents.
The father of William E. Gladstone, as we have seen, discovered
premonitions of future greatness in his son, and we may well ask the
question what impression was made by him upon his fellow school-mates at
Eton. Arthur Hallam wrote: "Whatever may be our lot, I am confident that
_he_ is a bud that will bloom with a richer fragrance than almost any
whose early promise I have witnessed."
James Milnes-Gaskell says: "Gladstone is no ordinary individual; and
perhaps if I were called on to select the individual I am intimate with
to whom I should first turn in an emergency, and whom I thought in every
way pre-eminently distinguished for high excellence, I think I should
turn to Gladstone. If you finally decide in favor of Cambridge, my
separation from Gladstone will be a source of great sorrow to me." And
the explanation of this latter remark is that the writer's mother wanted
him to go to Cambridge, while he wished to go to Oxford, because
Gladstone was going there.
Sir Francis Doyle writes: "I may as well remark that my father, a man of
great ability, as well as of great experience of life, predicted
Gladstone's future eminence from the manner in which he handled this
somewhat tiresome business. [The editorial work and management of the
_Eton Miscellany._] 'It is not' he remarked, 'that I think his papers
better than yours or Hallam's--that is not my meaning at all; but the
force of character he has shown in managing his subordinates, and the
combination of ability and power that he has made evident, convince me
that such a young man cannot fail to distinguish himself hereafter.'"
The recreations of young Gladstone were not in all respects like his
school-mates. He took no part in games, for he had no taste in that
direction, and while his companions were at play he was studiously
employed in his room. One of the boys afterwards declared, "without
challenge or contradiction, that he was never seen to run." Yet he had
his diversions and was fond of sculling, and kept a "lock-up," or
private boat, for his own use. He liked walking for exercise, and walked
fast and far. His chief amusement when not writing, reading or debating,
was to ramble among the delights of Windsor with a few intimate friends;
and he had only a few whom he admitted to his inner circle. To others
beyond he was not known and was not generally popular. Gladstone,
Charles Canning, Handley, Bruce, Hodgson, Lord Bruce and Milnes-Gaskell
set up a Salt Hill Club. They met every whole holiday or half-holiday,
as was convenient, after twelve, "and went up to Salt Hill to bully the
fat waiter, eat toasted cheese, and drink egg-wine." It is startling to
hear from such an authority as James Milnes-Gaskell that "in all our
meetings, as well as at almost every time, Gladstone went by the name of
Mr. Tipple."
[Illustration: HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT.]
The strongest testimony is borne to the moral character of young
Gladstone while at Eton. By common consent he was pre-eminently
God-fearing, orderly and conscientious. Bishop Hamilton, of Salisbury,
writes: "At Eton I was a thoroughly idle boy; but I was saved from some
worse things by getting to know Gladstone." This is the strong testimony
of one school-boy after he has reached maturity and distinction for
another. "To have exercised, while still a school-boy, an influence for
good upon one of the greatest of contemporary saints, is surely such a
distinction as few Prime Ministers ever attain."
Two stories are told of him while at Eton that go to show the moral
determination of the boy to do right. On one occasion he turned his
glass upside down and refused to drink a coarse toast proposed,
according to annual custom, at an election dinner at the "Christopher
Inn." This shows the purity of his mind, but there is another
illustrating the humane feeling in his heart. He came forth as the
champion of some miserable pigs which it was the inhumane custom to
torture at Eton Fair on Ash Wednesday, and when he was bantered by his
school-fellows for his humanity, he offered to write his reply "in good
round hand upon their faces."
At Christmas, 1827, Gladstone left Eton, and after that studied six
months under private tutors, Dr. Turner, afterwards Bishop of Calcutta,
being one. Of this Mr. Gladstone writes: "I resided with Dr. Turner at
Wilmslow (in Cheshire) from January till a few months later. My
residence with him was cut off by his appointment to the Bishopric of
Calcutta.... My companions were the present (1877) Bishop of Sodor and
Man, and Sir C.A. Wood, Deputy-Chairman of the G.W. Railway. We employed
our spare time in gymnastics, in turning, and in rambles. I remember
paying a visit to Macclesfield. In a silk factory the owner showed us
his silk handkerchiefs, and complained much of Mr. Huskisson for having
removed the prohibition of the foreign article. The thought passed
through my mind at the time: Why make laws to enable people to produce
articles of such hideous pattern and indifferent quality as this?
Alderly Edge was a favorite place of resort. We dined with Sir John
Stanley (at Alderly) on the day when the king's speech was received; and
I recollect that he ridiculed (I think very justly) the epithet
_untoward_, which was applied in it to the Battle of Navarino."
In 1828, and after two years as a private pupil of Dr. Turner, Mr.
Gladstone entered Christ Church College, Oxford and in the following
year was nominated to a studentship on the foundation. Although he had
no prizes at Oxford of the highest class, unless honors in the schools
be so called--and in this respect he achieved a success which falls to
the lot of but few students. In the year 1831, when he went up for his
final examination, he completed his academical education by attaining
the highest honors in the university--graduating double-first-class.
Of the city of Oxford, where Oxford University is situated, Matthew
Arnold writes: "Beautiful city! So venerable, so lovely, so unravaged by
the fierce intellectual life of our century, so serene! And yet, steeped
in sentiment as she lies, spreading her gardens to the moonlight, or
whispering from her towers the last enchantments of the Middle Age, who
will deny that Oxford, by her ineffable charm, keeps ever calling us
near to the true goal of all of us, to the ideal, to perfection--to
beauty, in a word, which is only truth seen from another side."
Describing Christ Church College, a writer has said that there is no
other College where a man has so great a choice of society, or a man
entire freedom in choosing it.
As to the studies required, a greater stress was laid upon a knowledge
of the Bible and of the evidences of Christianity than upon classical
literature; some proficiency was required also, either in mathematics or
the science of reasoning. The system of education accommodated itself to
the capacity and wants of the students, but the man of talent was at no
loss as to a field for his exertions, or a reward for his industry. The
honors of the ministry were all within his reach. In the cultivation of
taste and general information Oxford afforded every opportunity, but the
modern languages were not taught.
An interesting fact is related of young Gladstone when he entered
Oxford, as to his studies at the university. He wrote his father that he
disliked mathematics, and that he intended to concentrate his time and
attention upon the classics. This was a great blow to his father, who
replied that he did not think a man was a man unless he knew
mathematics. The dutiful son yielded to his father's wishes, abandoned
his own plan, and applied himself with energy and success to the study
of mathematics. But for this change of study he might not have become
the greatest of Chancellors of the Exchequer.
Gladstone's instructors at Oxford were men of reputation. Rev. Robert
Biscoe, whose lectures on Aristotle attracted some of the best men to
the university, was his tutor; he attended the lectures of Dr. Burton on
Divinity, and of Dr. Pusey on Hebrew, and read classics privately with
Bishop Wordsworth. He read steadily but not laboriously. Nothing was
ever allowed to interfere with his morning's work. He read for four
hours, and then took a walk. Though not averse to company and suppers,
yet he always read for two or three hours before bedtime.
Among the undergraduates at Oxford then, who became conspicuous, were
Henry Edward Manning, afterwards Cardinal Archbishop; Archibald Campbell
Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury; Sidney Herbert, Robert Lowe, Lord
Sherbrooke, and Lord Selborne. "The man who _took_ me most," says a
visitor to Oxford in 1829, "was the youngest Gladstone of Liverpool--I
am sure a very superior person."
Gladstone's chosen friends were all steady and industrious men, and many
of them were more distinctively religious than is generally found in the
life of undergraduates. And his choice of associates in this respect was
the subject of criticism on the part of a more secularly minded student
who wrote, "Gladstone has mixed himself up with the St. Mary Hall and
Oriel set, who are really, for the most part, only fit to live with
maiden aunts and keep tame rabbits." And the question, Which was
right--Gladstone or the student? may be answered by another, Which one
became Prime Minister of England?
"Gladstone's first rooms were in the 'old library,' near the hall; but
for the greater part of his time he occupied the right-hand rooms on the
first floor of the first staircase, on the right as the visitor enters
Canterbury gate. He was, alike in study and in conduct, a model
undergraduate, and the great influence of his character and talents was
used with manly resolution against the riotous conduct of the 'Tufts,'
whose brutality caused the death of one of their number in 1831. We read
this note in the correspondence of a friend: 'I heard from Gladstone
yesterday; he says that the number of gentlemen commoners has increased,
is increasing, and ought to be diminished.' Every one who has
experienced the hubristic qualities of the Tufted race, and its
satellites, will cordially sympathize with this sentiment of an orderly
and industrious undergraduate. He was conspicuously moderate in the use
of wine. His good example in this respect affected not only his
contemporaries but also his successors at the university; men who
followed him to Oxford ten years later found it still operative, and
declare that undergraduates drank less in the forties, because Gladstone
had been courageously abstemious in the thirties."
But there were those who better estimated Gladstone's worth and looked
approvingly upon his course, as "the blameless schoolboy became the
blameless undergraduate; diligent, sober, regular alike in study and
devotion, giving his whole energies to the duties of the place, and
quietly abiding in the religious faith in which he had been trained.
Bishop Charles Wordsworth said that no man of his standing in the
university habitually read his Bible more or knew it better. Cardinal
Manning described him walking in the university with his 'Bible and
Prayer-book tucked under his arm.' ... He quitted Oxford with a
religious belief still untinctured by Catholic theology. But the great
change was not far distant, and he had already formed some of the
friendships which, in their development were destined to effect so
profoundly the course of his religious thought."
In reference to the religious and political opinions and influences
prevailing at Oxford, it may be remarked that the atmosphere of Oxford
was calculated to strengthen Mr. Gladstone's conservative views, and did
have this effect, and as English statesmen had not then learned to put
their trust in the people, the cause of reform found few or no friends
at the university, and he was among those hostile to it, and was known
for his pronounced Tory and High Church opinions.
He belonged to the famous debating society known as the Oxford Union,
was a brilliant debater, and in 1831 was its secretary, and later its
president. On various occasions he carried, by a majority of one only, a
motion that the Wellington Administration was undeserving of the
confidence of the country; he defended the results of the Catholic
Emancipation; he opposed a motion for the removal of Jewish
disabilities, and he persuaded 94 students out of 130 to condemn Earl
Grey's Reform Bill as a measure "which threatened not only to change the
form of government, but ultimately to break up the very foundation of
social order." His last speech at Oxford was in support of his own
amendment to a motion for the immediate emancipation of the slaves in
the West Indies. On a certain occasion he entertained a party of
students from Cambridge, consisting of Sir Francis Doyle, Monckton
Milnes, Sunderland, and Arthur H. Hallam, who discussed among them the
superiority of Shelley over Byron as a poet. The motion was opposed by
one Oxonion, the late Cardinal Manning, but Shelley received 90 votes to
33 for Byron.
One who heard the debate on the Reform Bill says that "it converted
Alston, the son of the member in Parliament for Hertford, who
immediately on the conclusion of Gladstone's speech walked across from
the Whig to the Tory side of the house, amidst loud acclamations."
Another who was present writes, "Most of the speakers rose, more or
less, above their usual level, but when Mr. Gladstone sat down we all of
us felt that an epoch in our lives had occurred. It certainly was the
finest speech of his that I ever heard." And Bishop Charles Wordsworth
writes his experience of Mr. Gladstone at this time, "made me feel no
less sure than of my own existence that Gladstone, our then
Christ-Church undergraduate, would one day rise to be Prime Minister
of England."
In the spring of 1832 Mr. Gladstone quitted Oxford. In summing up
results it may be said, in the language of Mr. Russell: "Among the
purely intellectual effects produced on Mr. Gladstone by the discipline
of Oxford, it is obvious to reckon an almost excessive exactness in the
statement of propositions, a habit of rigorous definition, a microscopic
care in the choice of words, and a tendency to analyze every sentiment
and every phrase, and to distinguish with intense precaution between
statements almost exactly similar. From Aristotle and Bishop Butler and
Edmund Burke he learned the value of authority, the sacredness of law,
the danger of laying rash and inconsiderate hands upon the ark of State.
In the political atmosphere of Oxford he was taught to apply these
principles to the civil events of his time, to dread innovation, to
respect existing institutions, and to regard the Church and the Throne
as inseparably associated by Divine ordinance."
[Illustration: Gladstone's London Home]