GLADSTONE AND DEMOCRACY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 1926, 27 February 1885, Page 2

GLADSTONE AND DEMOCRACY.

How great Mr Gladstone is we shall never really .'know until he is. gone. At present he is not so much appreciated as idolised. No man ever had so deep, so powerful a hold upon the imagination of the English people as the Prime Minister has to-day, When he travels about the •country his journeys are more than royal processions. Crowds wait at every railway station to clamor for a passing word, and a hundred newspapers give precedence to reports of his wayside talk over news of the fall of Ministers or the fate of campaigns. In the popular imagination he has undergone an apothoesis not unlike thatjwhich in the mind of the Russian peasant takes place on the coronation of the Czar. He is the only statesmen who at once kindles the imagination, informs the understanding, and commands the enthusiasm of the people. Without him to praise or abuse, English politics would lose half their zest. He is the great dominant personality of our nation, If anything goes wrong, the people do not blame him, but charitably lament the shortcomings of his colleagues. "If only Mr Gladstone would take it in hand 1" is the cry of masses whenever a difficulty insuperable to ordinary mortals overtakes tho State; and "More power to his elbow!" is the popular panacea for all the ills of the body politic, It is strange to witness this revival of the old kingship as the first-fruits of English democracy, and it is well that the first monarch of the now lino should bear a character as lofty as that of Mr Gladstone—'Pall Mall Budget.'