At his first school the young Gladstones (as the name then was) was considered very stupid at arithmetic; but he must soon have overcome this failing, for at the University of Oxford he took the highest honors in mathematics as well as in classical studies, and as a statesman he has handled the enormous revenues of the British Empire with wonderful skill.
At twenty-three years of age Mr. Gladstone became a member of Parliament, and during the half-century that has elapsed since that time he has only been without a seat in the House of Commons for a few months. At thirty-four he became a member of the cabinet, and in every succeeding cabinet, when the Liberal party has been in power, he has had a seat.
He has twice been Prime Minister—an office which can be held only so long as the Minister is supported by a majority of the members of the House. This office he still holds; and though he is said to be anxious to retire from public life, he is so far superior to any other statesman in the Liberal party that he must remain at its head as long as health and strength will permit.
Although he is now seventy-two years of age, Mr. Gladstone is still a young man so far as work is concerned. It is said that he does the work of two men, and as if to prove the fact, he holds two offices in the government of which he is the head.
He is a powerful speaker, and has frequently spoken in Parliament, and once in the open air, for four hours without a break. The fact that he held the attention of his listeners for so long a time is the highest tribute to his powers as an orator.
When Mr. Gladstone wants rest, he reads Homer in the original Greek or writes a book, and for recreation he cuts down trees in his beautiful park at Hawarden, in Wales. Abraham Lincoln in his youth was a rail-splitter; Mr. Gladstone in the fullness of his years is an expert lumberer.
THE NEW LOVE.