He was
probably the greatest British statesman and leaves behind a record of a
career unequalled in the annals of English politics. For the magnitude
of his national labors and integrity of his personal character, Irishmen
will remember him gratefully."
The _Daily Chronicle_ heads its editorial with a quotation from
Wordsworth:
"This is the happy warrior: this is he:
That every man in arms should wish to be."
The editorial says: "A glorious light has been extinguished in the land;
all his life lies in the past, a memory to us and our children; an
inspiration and possession forever. The end has come as to a soldier at
his post. It found him calm, expectant, faithful, unshaken. Death has
come robed in the terrors of mortal pain; but what better can be said
than that as he taught his fellows how to live, so he has taught them
how to die?
"It is impossible at this hour to survey the mighty range of this
splendid life. We would assign to him the title. 'The Great Nationalist
of the Nineteenth Century;' the greatest of the master-builders of
modern England. Timidity had no place in Mr. Gladstone's soul. Ho was a
lion among men, endowed with a granite strength of will and purpose,
rare indeed in our age of feeble convictions.
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