MR GLADSTONE AND THE DUBLIN TRAGEDY.

Patea Mail, 5 July 1882, Page 4

MR GLADSTONE AND THE DUBLIN TRAGEDY.

On the evening on which the murders were committed Mr Gladstone attended a reception at the house of the Austrian Ambassador. While enjoying the occasion the first telegram from Dublin conveying the intelligence of the crime was received, and immediately despatched to the ambassador’s residence and delivered to Sir William Vernon Harcourt, who undertook the task of communicating the news to Mr Gladstone. The Premier was quietly called aside and taken into a private room, where he was informed of what had occurred. The natural pallor of the old man’s face became absolutely ghastly, and throwing up both hands he staggered to a seat without'words. For a moment it was thought he would faint, and there was a rush for restoratives, but he gradually recovered, and refusing all proffered assistance, demanded in a broken voice to know the particulars. At firs he would not believe the story. . After he had become convinced there was no hope that the reports had been exaggerated, he rallied, and, making a brief excuse to his host, entered a carriage, and was driven directly home, and he spent nearly the entire night writing and reading telegrams, dictating to his secretary, and forming plans to meet the situation. .A summons was sent for the members of the Cabinet to meet him at his home on Sunday afternoon. So much other business of vital importance was transacted, that it was six in the morning before the Premier retired. He was up again at nine. The Ministers found the Premier almost crushed by the intelligence.