him.'

JOHN GLADSTONE

It was John Gladstone's habit, we are told, to discuss all sorts of
questions with his children, and nothing was ever taken for granted
between him and his sons. 'He could not understand,' says the
illustrious one among them, 'nor tolerate those who, perceiving an
object to be good, did not at once and actively pursue it; and with all
this energy he joined a corresponding warmth and, so to speak, eagerness
of affection, a keen appreciation of humour, in which he found a rest,
and an indescribable frankness and simplicity of character, which,
crowning his other qualities, made him, I think (and I strive to think
impartially), the most interesting old man I have ever known.'[13]

To his father's person and memory, Mr. Gladstone's fervid and
affectionate devotion remained unbroken. 'One morning,' writes a female
relative of his, 'when I was breakfasting alone with Mr. Gladstone at
Carlton House Terrace something led to his speaking of his father. I
seem to see him now, rising from his chair, standing in front of the
chimneypiece, and in strains of fervid eloquence dwelling on the
grandeur, the breadth and depth of his character, his generosity, his
nobleness, last and greatest of all--his loving nature. His eyes filled
with tears as he exclaimed: "None but his children can know what
torrents of tenderness flowed from his heart."'

The successful merchant was also the active-minded citizen. 'His
force,' says his son, 'soon began to be felt as a prominent and then a
foremost member of the community.' He had something of his descendant's
inextinguishable passion for pamphleteering, and the copious effusion of
public letters and articles. As was inevitable in a Scotsman of his
social position at that day, when tory rule of a more tyrannic stamp
than was ever known in England since the Revolution of 1688, had reduced
constitutional liberty in Scotland to a shadow, John Gladstone came to
Liverpool a whig, and a whig he remained until Canning raised the flag
of a new party inside the entrenchments of Eldonian toryism.

In 1812 Canning, who had just refused Lord Liverpool's proffer of the
foreign office because he would not serve under Castlereagh as leader in
the House of Commons, was invited by John Gladstone to stand for
Liverpool. He was elected in triumph over Brougham, and held the seat
through four elections, down to 1822, when he was succeeded by
Huskisson, whom he