MR GLADSTONE'S SCHOOLDAYS.

Waikato Times, Volume XX, Issue 1683, 19 April 1883, Page 4

MR GLADSTONE'S SCHOOLDAYS.

"Temple Bar" contains a long and interesting article on "Mr Gladstone's Sphooldays," by James Brinsley Richards; Mr Richards has collected several incidents connected with Mr Gladstone's six years' stay at Eton', and he mentions he " is indebted for some of these which ho publishes to Mr Gladstone himself, whp kindly communicated them in conversar tion." The following extracts may be of interest : — William Kwart Gladstone entered Eton in September, 1821. His two elder brothers, Thomas and Robertson, had already been some time at the school, and Thomas was in the fifth form. William was soon to be his fag. The three brothers boarded at Mrs Shurey's. Shnrey's was a Bniall house, and it is a curious coincidence that Lord Salisbury —then Lord Robert Cecil— boarded there in after years. Gladstone was placed in the middle remove of the fourth form. His tutor was the Rev. Henry Hartopp Knapp, tan excellent scholar, and a pleasant, very pleasant fellow, but a curious cleric, and as a tutor by no means exemplary. It is more than strange to hear that tho Chancellor of the Exchequer was taught no mathematics at Eton, and hardly any arithmetic. . . . Gladstone received no religious teaching cither. The boys used to be in bed till nearly ten, as Sunday " private business" (which consists now of a Scriptural lesson) was not thought of. At half-past ten they attended a service in chapel, and it was a common complaint among the parishioners of Eton, many of whom had sittings in the choir, that the boys in the higher forms used not to enter chapel until the last stroke of the bell, when they would rush in altogether, helter-skelter, shoving one another, laughing, and making as much noise as possible. The noblemen, or " nobs," and the sixth form, occupied stalls, and it was customary that every occupant of a stall should, on taking Ins seat for the first time, distribute among his neighbours packets of almonds and raisins, which were eaten during the service. Between 2 and 3 p.m. all the foims below the sixth (but not the lower school) had to muster in the upper schoolroom, wheic Dr. Kcate gave out the subjects for tho week's Latin theme, and then gabbled out some pages fiom the " Maxims "' ol Epictctus, or a few extracts fiom Blairs " Sermons." During this performance somo of the boys, having brought pens and ink with them, would dash off their themes, -while the others kept up a continuous uproar. It used to be customary for a boy on promotion to tho fifth form to give a supper in his room ; and afterwards to recite a satiucal ode, passing comments on all the other fellow s in his boardinghouse. Gladstone in his fifth form poem eschewed all personalities, > but conveyed his opinion with great vigour on some of the abuses rife in the school, and in particular on cruelties that used to be practised towards pigs at the Eton fair that was held every Ash Wednesday. A baibarous usage had arisen for boys to hustle the drovers and then cut off the tails of the pigs. Gladstone gave great offence by remarking that the boys who were foremost in this kind of butchery were the first to quake at the consequence of detection, and he dared them, if they were proud of their work, to sport the trophies of it in their hats. On the following Ash Wednesday he found three, newly-amputated pigtails hung in a bunch on Ins door, with a paper bearing this inscription :— Quhq-.is amat porcos, porcis ntnibitur lllis ; CuuU sit c\cmplum ter rcpetit.i tibi. Gladstone Avrotc underneath a challenge to tho despoilcrs of the pigs to come forth and take a receipt for their offering, which he would rnaik "in good lound hand upon your faces ;"' but his invitation met -with no response. Gladstone founded amaga/ine — the Jtisrclldiii/— and he used to stupefy his fags by his prodigious capacity for work. His table and open bureau would be littcied with "copy" and pi oofs; ho suffered like othei editors from the plague of MSS., and had to read quiies of pi offered contributions that were unacceptable; anil yet he always found time to do his school ■work well. Dr Koato, carper as lie was, could find no fault in him ; and even ended by taking him into special favour, as undoubtedly one of the best and most industrious soholais in the school. Piobably no other boy ever got such praise ftom Dr Kcate as (Jladstonc did, when tho head master said to him: "You belong to the Li/trafi (Pop.), and of course you say there all that's on your mind. J wi^h I could hear you without you being aware of my picscnco ; I'm sine I should hear a speech tli.it would give me plcasuie." The Elon Miscellany continued to appear until its editor left Eton at Cliiistmas, 1527. He had then been a whole year in the sixth form ; but he had not become captain of Oppidans, for one boy who was bis senior lemained at the school much longer than was usual ; .and, as alleady explained, places in the si\th were only to lie conquered by time, not by met it. Gladstone was, however, President of the Debating Society, and the acknowledged head of Eton in literal y attainments and oiatory.

Whkre to find the in-try-cases of the law — In the Couvt-iooni. Tiik visit of the e\-Emprcss to Paris (says tlic l\mri ) was a maik oi sympathy •with Prince Napoleon, on account of hi-3 illegal arrest, not in respect to her views of ins manifesto, fine iii<3eU\me<\ pniticipntion in any unlawful or clandestine cntcipiisc against tlie Republic. The Prince on his pai tstates that if the popular vote shows a jneterence for the Republic he will bow to it. The Republic has never yet, he says, polled a clear majority of registered eleetois and he states it is theiefore governing by virtue of popular apathy. If the Prince is banished he may come to London. He has no intention of abdicating his position in favour of his son. The latter -\\ as not privy to the issue of the manifesto, but thcie is no antagonism between father and son. Theuk is a strong probability, says the Atgic>, of New Zealand not being sented at the intercolonial conference on postal mattcis, for which invitations have beeh issued by the Victorian Government. Though the absence of New Zealand is to be regretted, it is to be hoped that the various Australian colonies will be represented, as important matters concerning all of them have to be considered, which cannot very conveniently be postponed. In the proposals issued by the Victorian Government, neither time nor place were definitely fixed so that the leply from the Now Zealand Government cannot be looked upon as final. At the battle of Tel-el-Kebir a bugler of the 18th Royal Irish, a mere lad, was breast to bieast v>\t\\ Major Hart at the head of the attacking force. Turning as he scrambled up the face of the work, to sound the charging call, a hostile rifle butt came down on his head, and he tumbled back into the ditch. He staggered to his feet, picked up his bugle, and followed the red wave which had rolled by during his disaster. . He got to the front while the rank and file were treating the foe to the cold steel, according to the prescription of Sir Garnet Wolseley. Hete he laised a brazen note, but in the midst of it was bayoneted in the shoulder by a Nubian. The Irish boy had lost his sword in his fall, but he held his bugle in his fist, and with this he joined battle with his black antagonist whom he put down in no time •with that " point of wai" called " a hand and foot." Then standing over the •prostrate captive, he blew a triumphant blast. The performance is related by Lieutenant Drummond Wolff, who adds, in his'letter, that the drollery of the performance set the soldiers laughing even T in the very thick ' of the' carnage. Had this happened in the' French' ■ army the bugler would 'ba've received the cross of ."■■ the Leglqu of HOHOUV, <