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THE LIFE OF
WILLIAM EWART
GLADSTONE
BY
JOHN MORLEY
IN THREE VOLUMES—VOL. I
(1809-1859)
TORONTO
GEORGE N. MORANG & COMPANY, LIMITED
1903[Pg iv]
Copyright, 1903,
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up, electrotyped, and published October, 1903. Reprinted
October, November, 1903.
Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing & Co.—Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.[Pg v]
TO THE
ELECTORS OF THE MONTROSE BURGHS
I BEG LEAVE TO
INSCRIBE THIS BOOK
IN GRATEFUL RECOGNITION
OF
THE CONFIDENCE AND FRIENDSHIP
WITH WHICH
THEY HAVE HONOURED ME
NOTE
The material on which this biography is founded consists mainly, ofcourse, of the papers collected at Hawarden. Besides that vastaccumulation, I have been favoured with several thousands of otherpieces from the legion of Mr. Gladstone's correspondents. Between twoand three hundred thousand written papers of one sort or another musthave passed under my view. To some important journals and papers fromother sources I have enjoyed free access, and my warm thanks are due tothose who have generously lent me this valuable aid. I am especiallyindebted to the King for the liberality with which his Majesty has beengraciously pleased to sanction the use of certain documents, in caseswhere the permission of the Sovereign was required.
When I submitted an application for the same purpose to Queen Victoria,in readily promising her favourable consideration, the Queen added amessage strongly impressing on me that the work I was about to undertakeshould not be handled in the narrow way of party. This injunctionrepre[Pg viii]sents my own clear view of the spirit in which the history of acareer so memorable as Mr. Gladstone's should be composed. That, to besure, is not at all inconsistent with our regarding party feeling in itshonourable sense, as entirely the reverse of an infirmity.
The diaries from which I have often quoted consist of forty little booksin double columns, intended to do little more than record persons seen,or books read, or letters written as the days passed by. From thesediaries come several of the mottoes prefixed to our chapters; suchmottoes are marked by an asterisk.
The trustees and other members of Mr. Gladstone's family have extendedto me a uniform kindness and consideration and an absolutely unstintedconfidence, for which I can never cease