ill
his own health rather suddenly collapsed in November, 1907. He
resigned office on the 6th of April, 1908, and died on the 22nd.

His brief Premiership had not been signalized by any legislative
triumphs. He was unfortunate in some of his colleagues, and the first
freshness of 1906 had been wasted on a quite worthless Education
Bill. But during his term of office he had two signal opportunities
of showing the faith that was in him. One was the occasion when, in
defiance of all reactionary forces, he exclaimed, "La Duma est morte!
Vive la Duma!" The other was the day when he gave self-government to
South Africa, and won the tribute thus nobly rendered by General
Smuts: "The Boer War was supplemented, and compensated for, by one
of the wisest political settlements ever made in the history of
the British Empire, and in reckoning up the list of Empire-builders
I hope the name of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, who brought into
being a united South Africa, will never be forgotten."

II

IN HONOUR OF FRIENDSHIP

I

_GLADSTONE--AFTER TWENTY YEARS_

The 19th of May, 1898, was Ascension Day; and, just as the earliest
Eucharists were going up to God, William Ewart Gladstone passed out
of mortal suffering into the peace which passeth understanding. For
people who, like myself, were reared in the Gladstonian tradition,
it is a shock to be told by those who are in immediate contact with
young men that for the rising generation he is only, or scarcely,
a name. For my own part, I say advisedly that he was the finest
specimen of God's handiwork that I have ever seen; and by this
I mean that he combined strength of body, strength of intellect,
and spiritual attainments, in a harmony which I have never known
equalled. To him it was said when he lay dying, "You have so lived
and wrought that you have kept the soul alive in England." Of him
it was said a few weeks later, "On the day that Gladstone died
the world lost its greatest citizen." Mr. Balfour called him "the
greatest member of the greatest deliberative assembly that the
world has ever seen"; and Lord Salisbury said, "He will be long
remembered as a great example, to which history hardly furnishes
a parallel of a great Christian statesman."

I have written so often and so copiously of Mr. Gladstone, who was
both my religious and my political leader, that I might have found
it difficult to discover any fresh aspects of his character and work;
but the Editor[*