BYGONES WORTH REMEMBERING

By George Jacob Holyoake

"Look backward only to correct an error of conduct for the next attempt"
George Meredith

Volume II

CONTENTS

CHAPTER XXIV.   CONVERSATIONS WITH MR. GLADSTONE

CHAPTER XXV.   HERBERT SPENCER, THE THINKER

CHAPTER XXVI.   SINGULAR CAREER OF MR. DISRAELI

CHAPTER XXVII.   CHARACTERISTICS OF JOSEPH COWEN

CHAPTER XXVIII.   CHARACTERISTICS OF JOSEPH COWEN

CHAPTER XXIX.   THE PERIL OF SCRUPLES

CHAPTER XXX.   TAKING SIDES

CHAPTER XXXI.   THINGS WHICH WENT AS THEY WOULD

CHAPTER XXXII.   STORY OF THE LAMBETH PALACE GROUNDS

CHAPTER XXXIII.   SOCIAL WONDERS ACROSS THE WATER

CHAPTER XXXIV.   THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH AT SEA

CHAPTER XXXV.   ADVENTURES IN THE STREETS

CHAPTER XXXVI.   LIMPING THRIFT

CHAPTER XXXVII.   MISTRUST OF MODERATION

CHAPTER XXXVIII.    PENAL CHRISTIANITY

CHAPTER XXXIX.   TWO SUNDAYS

CHAPTER XL.   BYWAYS OF LIBERTY

CHAPTER XLI.   LAWYERS' LICENCE

CHAPTER XLII.   CHRISTIAN DAYS

CHAPTER XLIII.   NEW CONVICTIONS WHICH CAME UNSOUGHT

CHAPTER XLIV.   DIFFICULTY OF KNOWING MEN

CHAPTER XLV.   IDEAS FOR THE YOUNG

CHAPTER XLVI.   EXPERIENCES ON THE WARPATH

CHAPTER XLVII.   LOOKING BACKWARDS

CHAPTER XXIV. CONVERSATIONS WITH MR. GLADSTONE

Were I to edit a new journal again I should call it Open Thought. I know no characteristic of man so wise, so useful, so full of promise of progress as this. The great volume of Nature, of Man and of Society opens a new page every day, and Mr. Gladstone read it. It was this which gave him that richness of information in which he excited the admiration of all who conversed with him.

Were Plutarch at hand to write Historical Parallels of famous men of our time, he might compare Voltaire and Gladstone. Dissimilar as they were in nature, their points of resemblance were notable. Voltaire was the most conspicuous man in Europe in the eighteenth century, as Mr. Gladstone became in the nineteenth. Both were men of wide knowledge beyond all their contemporaries. Each wrote more letters than any other man was ever known to write. Every Court in Europe was concerned about the movements of each, in his day. Both were deliverers of the oppressed, where no one else moved on their behalf. Both attained great age, and were ceaselessly active to the last In decision of conviction they were also alike. Voltaire was as determinedly Theistic as Mr. Gladstone was Christian. They were alike also in the risks they undertook in defence of the right. Voltaire risked his life and Gladstone his reputation to save others. Mr. Morley relates of the Philosopher of Ferney, that when he made his triumphal journey through Paris, some one asked a woman in the street "why do so many people follow this man?" "Don't you know?" was the reply. "He was the deliverer of the Calas." No applause went to Voltaire's heart like that Mr. Gladstone had also golden memories of deliverance no one else moved hand or foot to effect, and multitudes, even nations, followed him because of that.

On the first occasion of my going to breakfast with him he was living in Harley Street, in the house in which Sir Charles Lyell died. As Mr. Gladstone entered the room, he apologised for not greeting me earlier, as his servant had indistinctly given him my name. He asked me to sit next to him at breakfast. There were seven or eight guests. The only one I knew was Mr. Walter. H. James, M.P., since Lord Northbourne—probably present from consideration for me. One was the editor of the Jewish World a journal opposed to Mr. Gladstone's anti-Turkish policy. Others were military officers and travellers of contemporary renown. It was a breakfast to remember—Mr. Gladstone displayed such a bright, unembarrassed vivacity. He told amusing anecdotes of the experiences of the wife of the Lord-Lieutenant