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Richard B. Cook. The Grand Old Man
The Grand Old Man
Table of Contents
PREFACE
CHAPTER II
AT ETON AND OXFORD
CHAPTER III
EARLY PARLIAMENTARY EXPERIENCES
CHAPTER IV
BOOK ON CHURCH AND STATE
CHAPTER V
TRAVELS AND MARRIAGE
CHAPTER VI
ENTERS THE CABINET
CHAPTER VII
MEMBER FOR OXFORD
CHAPTER VIII
THE NEAPOLITAN PRISONS
CHAPTER IX
THE FIRST BUDGET
CHAPTER X
THE CRIMEAN WAR
CHAPTER XI
IN OPPOSITION TO THE GOVERNMENT
CHAPTER XII
HOMERIC STUDIES
CHAPTER XIII
GREAT BUDGETS
CHAPTER XIV
LIBERAL REFORMER AND PRIME MINISTER
CHAPTER XV
THE GOLDEN AGE OF LIBERALISM
CHAPTER XVI
THE EASTERN QUESTION
CHAPTER XVII
MIDLOTHIAN AND THE SECOND PREMIERSHIP
CHAPTER XVIII
THIRD ADMINISTRATION AND HOME RULE
CHAPTER XIX
PRIME MINISTER THE FOURTH TIME
CHAPTER XX
IN PRIVATE LIFE
CHAPTER XXI
CLOSING SCENES OF A LONG AND EVENTFUL LIFE
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Richard B. Cook
Or, the Life and Public Services of the Right Honorable William Ewart Gladstone, Four Times Prime Minister of England
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In a paper on "Eloquence," in the same volume, he shows that even then his young mind was impressed by the fame attached to successful oratory in Parliament. Visions of glory and honor open before the enraptured sight of those devoted to oratorical pursuits, and whose ardent and aspiring minds are directed to the House of Commons. Evidently the young writer himself "had visions of parliamentary oratory, and of a successful debut in the House of Commons, with perhaps an offer from the Minister, a Secretaryship of State, and even the Premiership itself in the distance." But then there are barriers to pass and ordeals to undergo. "There are roars of coughing, as well as roars of cheering" from the members of the House, "and maiden speeches sometimes act more forcibly on the lungs of hearers than the most violent or most cutting of all the breezes which AEOLUS can boast." But the writer draws comfort from the fact that Lord Morfeth, Edward Geoffrey, Stanley and Lord Castlereagh who were all members of the Eton college debating society were then among the most successful young speakers in Parliament. This sounds more like prophecy than dreams, for within a very few years after writing this article the writer himself had passed the dreaded barrier and endured the ordeal, and had not only made his appearance in the House of Commons, but had been invited to fill an honorable place in the Cabinet of the Ministry then in power.
Another contribution of Mr. Gladstone's to the Miscellany, and perhaps the most meritorious of the youthful writer's productions, was entitled, "Ancient and Modern Genius Compared," in which the young Etonian editor ardently and affectionately apostrophized the memory of Canning, his father's great friend and his own ideal man and statesman, who had just then perished untimely and amid universal regret. In this article he first takes the part of the moderns as against the ancients, though he by no means deprecates the genius of the latter, and then eloquently apostrophizes the object of his youthful hero-worship, the immortal Canning, whose death he compares to that of the lamented Pitt. The following are extracts from this production:
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