MR G_ADSTONE'S;SEVENTIETH BIRTHDAY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume II, Issue 56, 9 March 1880, Page 3

MR GLADSTONE'S SEVENTIETH BIRTHDAY.

Mr Gladstone has just c,d&l} rated his seventieth birthday, andjiuiough he received many invitations to attend banquets which it was intended to get up in honor of the event; he declined all the invitations that were cordially sent to him, from, as it _j__l appears, an exaggerated idea o*$HH solemnity of arriving at the arajll

threescore years and ten. However,' he was, after much pressure had been put upon him, prevailed upon to receive at his residence at Hawarden Castle, a deputation ostensibly representing the Liverpool Liberals, who were the bearers of a very handsome present, to which many Conservatives and a vevy large number of people who felt no strong political convictions either one way or the other, had gladly subscribed. This was a silver casket which, unfinished though it is, is very beautiful, and when it has received the finishing touches from the artist engaged upon it, will be one of the finest gifts ever offered to a public man. (Of course I except the golden laurel wreath, which the Prime Minister declined, and which is now to be seen at a public exhibition in London.) Well, an ordinary statesman would have received the deputation (which nurn bered only seven persons), would have thanked them for their gift, and have at once offered them some champagne But Mr Gladstone is not an ordinary statesman, and before he invited them to quaff the cup of pleasure he made them drink of the fountain of politics which gushed from his lips for at least half an hour. He reviewed the circumstances under which he retired from public life six ypars ago, and if his auditors had not been as grave as fashionable undertakers they must have laughed outright when he attributed the downfall of his Cabinet to internal dissensions, and not to the popularity of the Tory leaders. — Correspondent Canterbury Press.