A TORY VIEW OF MR GLADSTONE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1815, 14 April 1888, Page 3

A TORY VIEW OF MR GLADSTONE.

(By "Jehu Junior" In " Vanity Fair .") The Gladstones were a family of Livorponl slaveowners who had enriched themselves by working up old Africans In Vreeden Hoop Plantation m Demorara, where they drove dally to the canefi^lds over 500 African negroes, B; the aotive cultlvat (on of augar under these oonditlons one John Gladstone acquired a large fortune, whloh In 1846 bore the fruit of a baronetcy ; and his fonrth son Willfam Ewart, had only been a yoar In Parliament when he waa able to distinguish himself by olalmlng and obtaining from the country compensation for such of hia father's old Africans as had not been us 3d up, on the ground that If full compeusntlon wire not givon to slave owners when .slavery waa abolished, It would be "a signal for the downfall of the empire " William Ewart was born eJght- andaeventy yearß ago, went to Eton and to Oxford, and, being taken under the protection of the Duke of Newoaatle, whb by the latter seated m Parliament for hia nomination borough of Newark, as a eaalous high Tory and an ardent Protectionist. Bat William Boon saw that the times were changing , and after having written a treatise to prove that all men not belonging to the State Ohnroh should be excluded from State employment, and having assisted to howl down Mr Oharleß VillerB 1 Freetrade proposals, ho swallowed j hla treatise, joined the Freetraders, and helped to form that ting of deserters from 1 the Tory party who became known a3 ' Peelltea. Upon the corner stone of this desertion a Liberal party waa built, which In timu beofuno reconciled to the Radicals, took William for ita leader, and B3cured for him that Premiership c ,the enjoymont of whloh had become the one objoot of hla life. JBh has written of himself that he 1b a "puriat with roapsct to what touches the ooneifltoncy of aatatermn " ; wherefore, frtna 1832 to 1841 he waa a O.)na?rvntlve ; from 1842 to 1857 a Liberal Conservative ; from 1857 to 1885 a Liberal ; and from 1885 he bai besn a Home Raler — the oonßiatency through all being that which consistently seeka the largest number of Bupporters In the struggle to obtain or to keep the Qieon'a bbalb and thß country's pay. Hlb tenure of po\v.^r h^a been distinguished by the successive burning of M the gods he had ever affected to adore. In 1869 he dlneßtabliahed the Irish Church ; m 1870 he paßaed an Irish Land Act ; » n 1871 he capitulated to America on the Alabama claims ; In 1872 ho passed the Ballot Act ; m 1875 he solemnly resigned the leadership of the Liberal party ; m 1880 he na eolemnly reeumod it ; In 1881 he passed another Irhh Land Act ; In 1882 he raado a piratical expeditio 1 into Egypt ; In 1884 h3 sent out Gordon, and left him to be killed at Khartoum ; and In the Bamo year he passed a Roform Act which gave household suffrage to the oountios and redistributed the constituencies ; In 1885, hiving raised the expenditure of the- country to a hqudred millions, he resigned off^e, and having Called In the genoral elections of November In that year to obtain a sufficiently large m&prlty to dlfipenae with the Irish Parnollltca, hf, to tho astonishment of the world, began to glvo elgna of adopting the Parnollitea as- his masters, and of declar- j Ing for Home Rule. This waß his ond. Ho was brought into power once more iv January, 1886, on a throe aorea aud a cow resolution ; disclosed hia llorae Rule scheme j and being abandoned by onethird of tha moncbora and all the honeoty and ability of hta own party, was defeated upon it. Then he challacged In Jane, 1886, another general oUotion, which gave tho Torlßa and tho Libtral Bocedors, 10 v joined together as the Unionists, a majority, and forced him once more to resign office. S'nea hia Hst resignation he has bacoma tho 1< adei' f'f thosa advocates of tho separation of Irol:»\d whom ha bad denounced aa plunderers, tho ringleader of thd as3oo!at.o3 of avowed nHsasalna whom he had Impria^ecl as traitors, the friend of his country's foes, and the foo of her friends ; ao groat a transformation that even the foolish Whlga, who so long followed him and abotted him In tho mischiefs ho haa wrought, now repudiate him with loathing, and are determined that, whatever happono, they will stand by tho Tories In preveotlng for ever the calamity of hia return to power In England. (To be continued.) Keep the kidneys hoalthy and unobstructed with Amerioan Oo.'s Hop Bitters, and yoc need not fear sioknoss. Bead

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