WHEN writing of Mr. Gladstone I referred to the two preoccupations of his life, the State and his family. It would be difficult to say which held the first place in his mind; and he may never have asked that question of himself. In the light of present-day advanced (?) thought it would not be impossible to give to the family again its rightful place. The State is not an entity, as some theorists would make us believe, but an abstraction only. It is to society what currency is to trade, a convenience and nothing more. It may be very truly said that a perfect statesman gives his head to the State, and his heart to his family. By so doing he will gather the double reward of gratitude from the people whom he served with his head, and the affection of the family to whom he gave his heart.
When his powers were nearly spent, and his dominant self-reliance almost gone, Mr. Gladstone found in his third son, Henry, a pillar of strength upon whom he could lean with that complete abandonment of self that bespeaks perfect confidence as well as affection. How many times in the year the voice of one of the family rang out from the little church at Hawarden the command and promise, "Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee"! If ever a command were obeyed and a promise fulfilled it was here,
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