Read Gladstone: A Biography Online
Authors: Roy Jenkins
Tags: #History, #Politics, #Non-Fiction, #Biography
Gladstone: A Biography (114 page)
He and his party arrived at Hawarden on a beautiful early-spring evening, but his perception of this or anything else was becoming confused. After the fatal diagnosis he was heavily sustained by
pain-killing drugs. Music also helped, although the recordings to which he listened must have been almost as scratchy as those of his own voice which survive from the epoch. There were nine weeks
between his return and the end. There were a few upward spirals. He last walked out of the castle on 9 April, and he last came down to dinner on the 18th, when he talked with animation of the
Oxford and Cambridge boat race, his mind going back to the first one, which he had seen rowed at Henley sixty-nine years before. His family were in constant attendance. Rosebery and Morley paid
farewell visits. Messages of goodwill were abundant, the most welcome being a felicitously drafted one from the Hebdomadal Council at Oxford. Gladstone roused himself to dictate to his daughter
Helen a reply in at least equally memorable terms to ‘the God-fearing and God-sustaining University of Oxford. I served her, perhaps mistakenly, but to the best of my ability. My most earnest
prayers are hers to the uttermost and to the last.’ He died in the early morning of Ascension Day, which that year fell on 19 May.
The obsequies were magnificent. He who had been so sparing of honours for himself in life was allowed by his family and without any sign of attempted prior prohibition by himself to be treated
in death far more grandly than Peel or Disraeli before him, or Asquith or Lloyd George after him. The only comparable non-royal funerals of the past 150 years have been those of the Duke of
Wellington and of Churchill. The House of Commons adjourned immediately on receipt of the news, and on the following day tributes were paid by Balfour and Harcourt in the Commons and by Salisbury
and Rosebery in the Lords. All four were notable. Resolutions for a Westminster Abbey burial were carried unanimously. The body was brought by special train to the adjacent Underground station
before lying in state in Westminster Hall, with a great file-past of the famous and the obscure alike. The Abbey funeral was on Saturday, 28 May. The pall-bearers were the Prince of Wales and his
son the Duke of York (later King George V); Lord Salisbury and Lord Rosebery; Lord Kimberley and Sir William Harcourt; Arthur Balfour and the Duke of Rutland (who as Lord John Manners had been
Gladstone’s fellow member for Newark during the Peel government;
and Lord Rendel and Mr Armitstead. It was a nicely balanced ten, although among Liberals both Spencer and
Morley (the latter presumably excluded as a non-believer) would have been more appropriate than Harcourt, and Rutland was a substitute for Argyll, who was unable to be present, and defensively
explained to The Times that it was not because of recent political differences. The Queen, unfailing to the last, telegraphed to the Prince of Wales to ask what was the precedent he had followed
and whose advice he had taken in acting in such a capacity. He rather splendidly replied that he knew of no precedent and had taken no advice.
Even in her relatively warm telegram to Catherine Gladstone the Queen could not bring herself to refer to Gladstone as more than ‘one of the most distinguished statesmen of my
reign’.
14
What she could not recognize was that he was the quintessential statesman of her reign, its epitome and, almost as much as
herself, its symbol. His death announced the conclusion of the Victorian age only a little less clearly than did her own two and a half years later.
R
EFERENCES
1. A Liverpool Gentleman?
1
Bagehot,
Biographical Studies
, p. 86.
2
Checkland,
The Gladstones
, pp. 414–15.
3
Ibid
., p. 129.
4
Brooke and Sorenson (eds),
The Prime Ministers’ Papers: W. E. Gladstone
, I. p. 21.
5
Ibid
., pp. 18–19.
6
Diaries
, I, p. 74.
7
Diaries
, I, p. 74.
8
Brooke and Sorenson (eds),
The Prime Ministers’ Papers: W. E. Gladstone
, I, p. 28.
9
Ibid
., pp. 24–5.
10
Diaries
, I, p. 360.
11
Brooke and Sorenson (eds),
The Prime Ministers’ Papers: W. E. Gladstone
, I, p. 30.
12
Diaries
, I, p. 259.
13
Magnus,
Gladstone
, p. 9.
14
Diaries
, II, p. 63.
15
Tennyson,
In Memoriam.
16
Martin,
Tennyson: The Unquiet Heart
, p. 74.
17
Diaries
, I, pp. 290–1.
18
Ibid
., p. 386.
19
Ibid
., p. 347.
20
Morley,
Life of Gladstone
, I, p. 74.
21
Commons Hansard for 22 April 1866.
22
Brooke and Sorenson (eds),
The Prime Ministers’ Papers: W. E. Gladstone
, I, p. 40.
2. A Grand Tour Ending at Newark
1
Diaries
, I, p. 551.
2
Ibid
., pp. 562–3.
3
Magnus,
Gladstone
, p. 4.
4
Matthew,
Gladstone 1809–1874
, p. 6.
5
Diaries
, I, p. 97.
6
Ibid
., I, p. 272.
7
Gleamings of Past Years
, VII, p. 219.
8
Diaries
, I, p. 413.
9
Ibid
., p. 453.
10
Ibid
.
11
Ibid
., p. 460.
12
Ibid
., p. 462.
13
Ibid
., p. 428.
14
Ibid
., p. 463.
15
Ibid
., p. 495.
16
Brooke and Sorenson (eds),
The Prime Ministers’ Papers: W. E. Gladstone
, I, pp. 142–3.
17
Magnus,
Gladstone
, p. 16.
18
Shannon,
Gladstone
, p. 40.
19
Diaries
, I, p. 592.
20
Morley,
Life of Gladstone
, I, p. 93.
21
Diaries
, II, p. 33.
3. A Clumsy Suitor
4. Peel’s Apprentice
1
Diaries
, II, p. 580.
2
Battiscombe,
Mrs Gladstone
, p. 31.
3
Ibid
., p. 82.
4
Diaries
, II, pp. 639–40.
5
Ibid
., p. 608n.
6
Ibid
., p. 614.
7
Ibid
., III, p. 5.
8
Ibid
., p. 21.
9
Ibid
., p. 29.
10
Bagehot,
Biographical Studies
, p. 6.
11
Gash,
Sir Robert Peel
, II, pp. 185–6.
12
Ibid
., p. 186.
13
Morley,
Life of Gladstone
, I, p. ??
14
Commons Hansard for 3 July 1850.
15
Diaries
, IV, p. 224.
16
Morley,
Life of Gladstone
, I, p. 372.
17
Ibid
., p. 373.
18
Ibid
.
19
Ibid.
20
Ibid
., p. 374.
21
Ibid
., p. 613.
22
Shannon,
Gladstone
, . 62.
23
Diaries
, III, p. 422.
24
Ibid
., IV, p. 200.
25
Ibid
., p. 20–2.
26
Ibid
., III, p. 130.
27
Fletcher,
Mr Gladstone at Oxford
, p. 83.
28
Brooke and Sorenson (eds),
The Prime Ministers’ Papers: W. E. Gladstone
, I, pp 247.
5. Orator, Zealot and Debtor
1
Morley,
Life of Gladstone
, I, pp. 191–2.
2
Ibid
., p. 280.
3
Lathbury,
Letters on Church and Religion of William Ewart Gladstone
, I, p 339.
4
Diaries
, III, p. 483.
5
Morley,
Life of Gladstone
, I, p. 311.
6
Faber,
The Oxford Apostles
, pp. 170–1.
7
Ker,
John Henry Newman
, p. 90.
8
Faber,
The Oxford Apostles
, p. 170.
9
Matthew,
Gladstone 1809–1874
, p. 70.
10
Ibid
.
11
Diaries
, III, pp. 416–70.
6. Mid-Century Frenzy
1
Dugdale,
Arthur James Balfour
, II, p. 55.
2
Tilney Bassett (ed.),
Gladstone to His Wife
, p. 68.
3
Diaries
, III, pp. 506–7.
4
Ibid
., p. 530.
5
Morley,
Life of Gladstone
, III, p. 485.
6
Ibid
., I, p. 350.
7
Shannon,
Gladstone
, I, p. 201.
8
Diaries
, III, p. 653.
9
Ibid
., p. 655.
10
Ibid
., p. 658.
11
Commons Hansard for 16 December 1847.
12
Diaries
, IV, pp. 47–8.
13
Ibid
., p. 146.
14
Ibid
., p. 142.
15
Ibid
., p. 142
16
Ibid
., p. 144.
17
Ibid
., pp. 174–5.
18
Brooke and Sorenson (eds),
The Prime Ministers’ Papers: W. E. Gladstone
, I.
19
Diaries
, IV, p. 353.
7. Ladies of the Night
1
Diaries
, III, p. 491.
2
Ibid
., pp. 492–3.
3
Ibid
., IV, p. 36n.
4
Ibid
., p. 37.
5
Ibid
., p. 55.
6
Ibid
., p. 117.
7
Ivor (Bulmer-)Thomas,
Gladstone of Hawarden
pp. 241–2.
8
Magnus,
Gladstone
, p. 107.
9
Diaries
, IV, p. 319.
10
Ibid
., p. 586.
11
Ibid
., p. 124.
12
Ibid
., p. 133.
13
Ibid
., p. 207.
14
Ibid
.
15
Ibid
., p. 210.
16
Ibid
., pp. 214–15.
17
Ibid
., p. 229.
18
Ibid
., p. 230.
19
Ibid
., p. 233.
20
Ibid
.
21
Ibid
., p. 235.
22
Ibid
., pp. 295–6.
23
Ibid
., p. 319.
24
Ibid
.
25
Ibid
., p. 325.
26
Ibid
., p. 336.
27
Ibid
., p. 342.
28
Ibid
., p. 344.
29
Ibid
., p. 346.
30
Ibid
.
31
Ibid
., V, p. 422.
32
Ibid
., IV, p. 586.
33
Mathew,
Gladstone 1809–1874
, p 93.
8. The Tremendous Projectile
1
Morley,
Life of Gladstone
, I, p. 261.
2
Shannon,
Gladstone
, I, p. 223.
3
Tilney Bassett (ed.),
Gladstone’s Speeches
, pp. 109–54.
4
Diaries
, p. 304–6.
5
Ibid
., IV, p. 305.
6
Ibid
., pp. 306–7.
7
Ibid
., pp. 307–8.
8
Ibid
., p. 322.
9
Morley,
Life of Gladstone
, I, p. 400.
10
Ibid
., p. 411.
11
Diaries
, IV, pp. 317–18.
12
Chadwick,
The Victorian Church
, I, p. 296.
13
Letters of Queen Victoria
, 1st Series, II, pp. 325–6.
14
Walpole,
Life of Lord John Russell
, II, pp. 120–1.
15
Chadwick,
The Victorian Church
, I, p. 303.
16
Commons Hansard for 25 March 1851.
17
Letter from Gladstone to Richard Gressell, his Oxford University constituency chairman.