MR GLADSTONE AND THE QUEEN

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2459, 14 April 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

MR GLADSTONE AND THE QUEEN

Mil and Mrs Gladstone last week enter tained at dinner—in honour of the Queen's Jubilee—all the inhabitants of the parish of Hawardon of the age of Her Majesty and of a greater age. There were about 300 men and women, ranging from t>B to 01 years of age, present. Mr Gladstone himself helped to carve the join's on the table, and most of his family were present. After dinner he delivered an address in the course of which he pointed out, tho great changes that had taken place in the condition of the common people during tho past fifty years, especially the mitigation of the severity of tho laws, the diminution of crime, and tho vastly better wages earned, together with the great cheapening in the prices of clothing- and food, and the much better houses now inhabited by the poor. Here is an extract from his comparison on these points :—" Within my recollection wo could get no decent tea under Ss per lb. Sugar was-, I v {\\ venture to say, certainly not. less than four times the price it is now. If you take tho rate of wages of the agricultural labourer in this district, it is very little short of 100 per cent, bettor than it was when I becirne acquainted with this district by marrying my wife."

All these blessed changes, Mr Gladstone said, were associated with tho name and action of tho Queen, who had given, not a forced aud grudging, but a. willing and convinced consent to the beneficial laws passed during her reign. With regard to tho Queen's personal character, lie said it was not so very long- ago that, during tho reign of one monarch after another, the Court and the immediate ; surroundings of the Throne, instead of being mi example of Christian life to the | rest of the contitry, where examples of I everything bad, profligate, and corrupt. i Not so in Queen Victoria's time. Under her no form of evil has been permitted to bo present within tho august preeints of her palaces, and in the various walks of du'y the humblest had been able to borrow encouragement from the Queen's example. He declared that the Queen had observed the principles of the British constitution more than any former monarch, and he asked the people to acknowledge the debt of gratitude they owed tho Queen, for her hearty eagerness in public progress aud for the admirable example of hor life, by remembering her in their prayers. Tho Sovereign, more than any other, ho said, needed the support which the prayers of her subjects could give, for the hiirher tho station of any one tho greater wore tho temptations.