Who in his sane mind would be Gladstone living any more than Homer
living? Of course, he survives those horrible crises in which public
duty has made him the most pitiable object, and in the most dreadful
complication of great interests shines forth as Venus fresh-lighted.
But I would not have Gladstone's fame for the boon of rest eternal, from
fear that his retrospect of inconsistency and apostacy would be its
accompaniment, its deeper shadow. Yet who shall blame Gladstone? He was
the executor and administrator of the policy of a parvenu Jew, one of
the very bad men of the earth. He