Brown at Rugby" told me in great detail why he had been forced to this conclusion. As this is a most serious charge, we are led to ask whether in the rough and tumble of party politics, any human being can play the game and remain wholly unstained by this evil thing.

In John Morley's noble biography the graver accusations have been met while the lesser frailties sink into the background of a literary portrait that symbolizes all that was best in two generations of English history. Of Gladstone's friend, Cardinal Manning, Purcell wrote a biography. It was so plain-spoken of the faults of this high prelate that some wit said it left nothing over for the day of judgment. One may say this, too, of Morley's tribute, but it carries with it no sting. We always see Gladstone on the move toward larger and more human policies. To "humanize politics" or again to "moralize politics" are not merely phrases with him, they are objects to which he gives his full strength. If he saw extravagance and petty dishonesties in the officials about him they were forthwith to be corrected. If there were too many ink-stands and too much paper he insisted that it was as inexcusable as it would be in the head of a private family. The nation should be as careful of human rights as the private person. Very early in his career, Gladstone felt this as a principle, and it was doubtless this which brought the first sharp conflict between him and his Tory supporters. It was the first high test which showed the resources of moral courage thus early at his command. He was but thirty-one years of age; Englishmen were smug. gling opium into China in the teeth of Chinese law. This fact first amazed Gladstone and then roused in him something like moral rage. "What does it mean that a people should be prevented from enforcing their own laws meant for the common good?" That Englishmen should do this moreover merely for trade profits and by use of commodities that were a devastating social evil stirred all that was deepest in the coming man. He saw that no man in power cared a fig for any right or wrong in the issue. He saw

that England's prestige and commerce so overtopped all considerations that the most elemental questions of human justice could not even be raised. After his first bewilderment, Gladstone took his stand. He spoke guardedly at first but stung by some opponent he added, “A war more unjust in its origin, a war more calculated in its progress to cover this country with disgrace, I do not know and I have not read of."

When the familiar cant about the "flag once raised," etc., was flung a him, he retorted, "If it were never to be hoisted except as it is now hoisted on the coast of China, we should recoil from its sight with horror." These, in 1840, were daring words, but Gladstone soon saw that those in charge of English destinies cared as little for them as for the opinions of a country parson. China had to open four ports, give up Hong Kong and pay an enormous indemnity.

The reaction of this immense injustice on Gladstone's moral nature was direct. It helped to commit him once for all against war, which he came to think of as associated in modern times almost exclusively with the extension of trade as in the case of the "opium war."

Later in life, he called war "the greatest feeder of that lust of gold which we are told is the essence of commerce." Even this lesson is perhaps secondary to another which this struggle brought to him. The whole moral of this was so simple and clear to him that he could not believe his colleagues would fail to respond. Here for the first time he took the measure of those with whom he had cast his lot. He was forced to become their critic; forced to see, as in clear light, the hardened self interest and class bigotry of those same conservatives who were using him for their ends. From this on, Gladstone never was at ease with this group. Slowly a large life and sympathy unfolded within him until Toryism marked him as the "champion of the mass against the class." This process was slow but it never halted. From fear of the people, he passed to a gen

erous trust tempered by prudence. Though passionately devoted to the established church, he cast off with a kind of shame his old intolerance. More than any other, he won the victories in England for religious freedom. He began by defending every privilege of the landed aristocracy and ended by land acts that are among the most radical in the history of social legislation. We saw him ask at first for Irish coercion; yet he it is who became the palladium of Irish Home Rule. From dread of the ballot, he came to plead for and win its wide extension. To accept the principle of freedom, to trust it and extend it to the whole life, to trade, politics and religion, appears to me the chief and signal characteristic of this great statesman.

One event in his career troubled seriously many Americans: the stand he took in our Civil War. He ended a speech at Newcastle with the words, "But there is no doubt that Jefferson Davis and other leaders of the South have made an army; they are making, it appears, a navy, and they have made what is more than either, they have made a nation." How bitterly Gladstone came to repent these utterances, he tells us in 1896. The words are memorable enough to repeat: "That my opinion was founded on a false estimate of the facts was the very least part of my fault. I did not perceive the gross impropriety of such an utterance from a Cabinet Minister, or a power allied in blood and language, and bound to loyal neutrality; the case being further exaggerated by the fact that we were, so to speak, under indictment before the world for not (as was alleged) having strictly enforced the laws of neutrality in the matter of cruisers. My offense was indeed only a mistake, but one of incredible grossness.'

James Martineau once gave me this explanation of Gladstone's error. "When Lincoln made the early statement that slavery was not to be attacked, Gladstone took him at his word saying, as many of us did, if slavery is not to be done away with, what is the object of the war."

Such truth as there is in this interpretation, together with so noble an apology, softens all harshness against the

author. It was a part of that "knightly courtesy" which was inherent in his character. It was this quality which led his tart antagonist, Lord Salisbury, to call him "a great Christian statesman." Another says, "No insult ever made him forget to be a gentleman." It is this same elevation of character which helped him to meet the suffering of his last days with a kind of gaiety which won the sympathy of so many of his lifelong enemies. No one has stated this serene quality of his habitual character more fittingly than Mr. Morley in the closing sentences of the biography.

"Let us rather leave off with thoughts and memories of one who was a vivid example of public duty and private faithfulness; of a long career that with every circumstance of splendor, amid all the mire and all the poisons of the world, lighted up in practice even for those who have none of his genius and none of his power, his own precept. 'Be inspired with the belief that life is a great and noble calling; not a mean and grovelling thing that we are to shuffle through as we can, but an elevated and lofty destiny."

REVIEW QUESTIONS.

1. Under what circumstances did Coleridge write the "Ancient Mariner?" 2. What struggle took place at Sedgemoor? 3. What tragedy was enacted at Taunton? 4. Mention some associations of the neighboring towns. 5. What peculiar interest has Cadbury? 6. Give in brief the history of Glastonbury. 7. What famous Cathedral is not far distant? 8. What characteristic features have the Mendip hills? 9. How did Landor esteem Bath? 10. What events have given fame to the city? II. What interest attaches to Clevedon? 12. Why did Bristol receive its nickname? 13. What famous admiral once walked her streets? 14. What claim to distinction has St. Mary Redcliffe? 15. Why is Exeter a town of first importance? 16. What is the character of the southern coast of Devonshire? 17. What memories of Elizabethan days cluster about Plymouth? 18. What is the character of Clovelly? 19. What Saxon memorial is at Stoke? 20. Describe the northern coast of Devon. 21. What is the nature of Dartmoor? 22. What are some of the superstitions of Cornwall? 23. What legend is associated with Dozmare Pool? 24. What is the nature of the country around Tintagel? 25. Describe the place itself. 26. What is the legend of the bells of Forrabury?

SEARCH QUESTIONS.

What famous poem is as

I. Who was Hannah More? 2. sociated with the Quantock Hills? 3. What striking architectural peculiarity has Wells Cathedral? 4. Who was Salvation Yeo? 5. What famous lighthouse lies off the Cornish coast? 6. At what period in Shelley's life did he live at Lynmouth?

was Chatterton?

End of June Required Reading, pages 271-335.

7.

Who

England*

By John Howard Whitehouse

Secretary of Toynbee Hall, London.

THE present is still a transitional stage in the history of elementary education. Up to the year 1902 the charge of education so far as the public elementary schools were concerned, was in the care of specially elected school boards. The Act of 1902 abolished the School Boards in England and transferred their duties to the County, Town, and District Councils. The change was not accomplished without great opposition from many who held that the education of the nation was too great a duty to be imposed upon bodies already loaded with onerous public duties, and that it should be left in the hands of bodies specially elected to deal with it. The Act of 1902 also gave great offense to the English nonconformists, who objected to paying rates which, under the Act, largely supported Church elementary schools in which religious instruction from a denominational standpoint was given. This led to the Passive Resistance movement which has not yet died out. The Education Bill which was introduced by the Liberal Government last year was intended to remedy the grievances of the nonconformists. The bill was, however, rejected by the House of Lords and the religious aspect of the controversy continues. It is not, however, on the political side of the question that the present writer wishes to dwell and the above events are only touched upon so that the reader may realize the parliamentary position with regard to the question of elementary education.

*This is the sixth of a series of special articles upon English social topics of current interest. Articles which have already appeared are: "The Ancoats Brotherhood," of Manchester, by Katharine Coman (December); "The Unemployed Camp at Levenshulme, Manchester," by Katharine Coman (January); "The London County Council," by Milo R. Maltbie (February); "The Garden City Movement," by John H. Whitehouse (March); "Child Labor Legislation in England," by Owen R. Lovejoy (April).

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