It has been so in other
countries; I trust it may be so in this country. I think it is a subject
of sorrow, and almost of scandal, when those families who have either
acquired or recovered wealth and station through commerce, turn their
backs upon it and seem to be ashamed of it. It certainly is not so with
my brother or with me. His sons are treading in his steps, and one of my
sons, I rejoice to say, is treading in the steps of my father and
my brother."
George W.E. Russell, in his admirable biography of Mr. William E.
Gladstone, says, "Sir John Gladstone was a pure Scotchman, a lowlander
by birth and descent. Provost Robertson belonged to the Clan Donachie,
and by this marriage the robust and business-like qualities of the
Lowlander were blended with the poetic imagination, the sensibility and
fire of the Gael."
An interesting story is told, showing how Sir John Gladstone, the father
of William E. Gladstone, came to live in Liverpool, and enter upon his
great business career, and where he became a merchant prince. Born at
Leith in 1763, he in due time entered his father's business, where he
served until he was twenty-one years old. At that time his father sent
him to Liverpool to dispose of a cargo of grain, belonging to him, which
had arrived at that port.
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