The _Manchester Guardian_, in an editorial on the one hundredth
anniversary of Gladstone’s birth (December 29), had the following fine
appreciation of the great statesman’s international spirit:
To him the line of State boundaries formed no limit beyond which
the writ of conscience ceased to run. He held national duties
to be as sacred as personal duties, and judged national honor
by the same standard as personal honor. From the debate on the
opium war in 1840 to the last speech on behalf of the dying
Armenians in 1896, Gladstone maintained this ideal in the face
of Europe. He could not always carry it through against his
own colleagues in government. No man at the head of affairs can
have his way in all things; but he closed his public career
by resigning office rather than associate himself with an
increase of armaments which he judged unnecessary, and therefore
injurious to the cause with which his name is indelibly
associated.
(3055)