STRANGE CONDUCT TOWARDS MR GLADSTONE.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1061, 15 April 1882, Page 4

STRANGE CONDUCT TOWARDS MR GLADSTONE.

During the dinner given by the Premier to his tenantry recently, a man entered the room and quietly took his seat at the top of the table amongst the principal guests, and close to Mr Gladstone himself. It seems that he had passed everybody, some taking him for a tenant and others for a clerk. At dinner he drank plentifully of wine and cheered Mr Gladstone, but before the speaking commenced, he handed Mr Gladstone a letter, which the gentleman read and took no further notice of. The letter began with the expression, “My dear Satan,” and the writer went on to offer Mr Gladstone his services, adding, ■“ If you require brimstone, I can give it you cheap.” The letter was signed “ Old Harry.” After the banquet the man, as he was following Mr Gladstone to Hawarden, was arrested. It appears he is Henry Wil son, formerly in some employment at Uedditch, near Worcester, from which he had been discharged for misconduct. Since then he seems to have been drinking heavily. When asked why he had sent such a letter to Mr Gladstone, he replied that this was a Christian country and Mr Gladstone was a Christian, and therefore ought to assist one who was a poor young man without friends or employment. He tramped about his cell on the night following his arrest, seeming to be in a state of great excitement and singing snatches of songs. Amongst the statements he made was one that he had also been a correspondent of the late Earl of Beaconsfield, to whom he wrote on his return from Berlin asking whether peace with honor had anything to do with Peace, the burglar. He has been handed over to the care of his friends.