Transcribed from the 1898 T. Fisher Unwin edition by DavidPrice,

THE REAL GLADSTONE.

An Anecdotal Biography.

BY
J. EWING RITCHIE
(CHRISTOPHER CRAYON),

AUTHOR OF‘CITIES OF THE DAWN,’ ‘CRYING FOR THELIGHT,’ ETC.

LONDON:
T. FISHER UNWIN,
PATERNOSTER SQUARE.

NEW YORK: G.P. PUTNAM’S SONS.
1898.

p.iiiPREFACE.

In this little work I have aimed to write, not a history or abiography, not a criticism or a eulogy, but merely to give a fewscattered notes, gathered from many quarters, for the generalpublic, rather than for the professional politician.  LordRosebery is reported to have said that it will require manywriters to give a complete biography of Mr. Gladstone.  Hemay be right; but the evil of it will be, the work, ifexhaustive, will be exhausting.  Especially will it be so inthese busy times, when yesterday’s biographies become staleto a public forgetful of the past, caring only for the present,oblivious of the morrow.  It is almost an impertinence tospeak of the many claims Mr. Gladstone has on a people whom hehas served so long.  All I claim to do is to give a few datawhich may help them to estimate the

         ‘Heroicmind
Expressed in action, in endurance proved’—

in short, more or less imperfectly, ‘The RealGladstone.’

Clacton,
      May, 1898.

p.vCONTENTS