was supported, and closes in a strain the generous people will recognise the of pure and lofty eloquence seldom truth of the facts we present to them. reached in the House of Commons Above all, we are sustained by the -where sparkling personalities and sense of justice which we feel belongs party hits are more keenly relished to the cause we are advocating, and than the luminous enunciation of great because we are determined to follow principles, or touching appeals to noble that bright star of justice beaming from sentiments. In this speech, the orator the heavens whithersoever it may lead." showed himself able to excel in the former, but delighting in the latter. After turning upon Lord John Russell one of his lordship's own most effective perorations, Mr. Gladstone proceeded thus: "My conviction is, that the question of religious freedom is not to be dealt with as one of the ordinary matters that you may do to-day and undo tomorrow. This great principle which we (the opposition) have the honour to represent, moves slowly in matters of politics and legislation, but though it moves slowly, it moves steadily. The principle of religious freedom, its adaptation to our modern state, and its compatibility with ancient institutions, was a principle which you did not adopt in haste. It was a principle well tried in struggle and conflict. It was a principle which gained the assent of one public man after another. It was a principle which ultimately triumphed after you had spent upon it half a century of agonizing struggle. And now what are you going to do? You have arrived at the division of the century. Are you going to repeat Penelope's process, but without Penelope's purpose? The Mr. Gladstone's second important work appeared in 1840, under the title, "Church Principles Considered in their Results." It is virtually the supplement of his former production, developing, and largely arguing, views there only incidentally, if at all expressed; of greater interest to theologians than to politicians. It treats of the institutions or doctrines of the church, as regards their authority and operation especially of the sacraments and of apostolical succession. author's views on the first of these two points may be thus summed up in his own words: "In the midst of all the threatening symptoms of tendency towards unbelief and disorganization with which the age abounds, we are led to regard the sacraments as the chief and central fountain of the vital influences of religion when the church is in health and vigour, as their never wholly obstructed source when she is overspread with the frost of indifference, as their best and innermost fastness, when latent infidelity gnaws and eats away the heart of her creed, and of all her collateral ordinances." On Apostolical Succession he is equally decided. His sense of the value of a question which to many is only one of "vain genealogies," is fairly expressed in the following clause of a sentence, too long for quotation entire :-"It is to us nothing less than a part of our religious obligation to seek the sacraments at the hands of those who have been traditionally empowered to deliver them in their integrity; that is, with the as Show, if you will, the pope of Rome, and his cardinals, and his church, that England as well as Rome has her semper eadem; that when she has once adopted the great principle of legislation which is destined to influence her national character and mark her policy for ages to come, and affect the whole nature of her influence among the nations of the world-show that when she has done this, slowly and with hesitation and difficulty, but still de-surance of that spiritual blessing which, liberately and but once for all, she can no more retrace her steps than the river that bathes this giant city can flow backward to its source. ... We, the opponents of this bill, are a minority, insignificant in point of numbers. We are more insignificant because we have no ordinary bond of union. But I say that we, minority as we are, are sustained in our path by the consciousness that we serve both a generous Queen and a generous people, and that although it may be obstructed by our disqualifications in its passage to our souls, forms the inward and chief portions of those solemn rites." Venturing to transfer ourselves from the "dim religious light" of our author's diction, into the clearer atmosphere of popular phraseology, we may say;-he holds that the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's supper are veritable means of communicating grace, not merely the symbols of its communication; and that Episcopal ministers, historically connected with the apostles, are the only authorised, and therefore effective, administrators of those ordinances. To trace out Mr. Gladstone's corollaries from these propositions, would be to overstep the province of a non-theological magazine; and to impute to him conclusions which he may possibly repudiate, would be to imitate one of the worst though commonest vices of controversy The Maynooth question having been removed out of his way, Mr. Gladstone re-entered the ministry in December, 1845, taking the post of Colonial Secretary, vacated by Lord Stanley on account of Sir Robert Peel's resolution to abolish the corn laws. In the spring of the previous year he had rendered important service to the new policy by the publication of a pamphlet, ("Remarks on Recent Commercial Legislation,") exhibiting in elaborate detail the beneficial working of the tariff of 1842. Probably none of the converts to the free-trade doctrine made a greater sacrifice of personal and party ties than did Mr. Gladstone. Not only were his father and brothers bigoted protectionists, but the late lord of Cumber so successfully exerted his ducal influence over Newark, as to prevent Mr. Gladstone's re-election; thus depriving the premier of his ablest lieutenant through the memorable parliamentary struggle of 1846. At the general election of 1847, however, Mr. Gladstone was compensated for this temporary exclusion from the House of Commons, by the bestowal of an honour two successive statesmen (Canning and Peel) have prized as nobler than any in the gift of crown or people, and have yielded up as the heaviest penalty of faithfulness to convictionnamely, the representation of Oxford University. How highly he appreciated this honour may be judged from the dedication to his alma mater of the first-born of his intellectual progeny, in these words of filial piety and pride: This "hope" was in some danger of disappointment. The Low-church and Anti-tractarian parties, elated by several consecutive triumphs in the University, vehemently opposed Mr. Gladstone on account of the sentiments advocated in this very work, and in that on "Church Principles." They set up against him, in conjunction with Sir R. H. Inglis, Mr. Round; but Mr. Gladstone triumphed by a majority of some two hundred votes over the latter candidate. In the course of the late parliament, he incurred the risk of displeasing alternately both sections of his supporters-the liberals, by his opposition to University reform, and his speech on Mr. Disraeli's motion for the relief of agricultural distress; the conservatives, by refusing to take office with Earl Derby, in February, 1851, and inflicting on the late Government the only material defeat they experienced through the session of 1852. He was, therefore, exposed to a determined opposition at the last general election; when Dr. Bullock Marsham polled more votes than Mr. Gladstone himself in the previous contest. He has just emerged from a still more vexatious and protracted struggle By taking a very prominent part in the recent free-trade and budget debatesgaining, indeed, the most signal rhetorical success of the whole conflict-and accepting office in the new coalition ministry, he at once exasperated his old opponents, and alienated some of his warmest supporters.* We come now to an episode in Mr. Gladstone's career which has conferred upon his name a world-wide reputation, and gained for him the admiration of millions. In the winter of 1850, he went to Naples, actuated only by such motives as carry thither annually hundreds of our affluent countrymen. He came in contact, however, with circumstances which converted his visit of pleasure into a "mission" noble as was ever undertaken by any knight errant of humanity. Naples had been con 66 pugnable with his motives. spicuous in the tragic drama of Revolu- written letter to Earl Aberdeen, as extion and Reaction. In January, 1846, Foreign Secretary, reciting what he had a constitution was spontaneously granted witnessed, and suggesting a private reto the kingdom of Naples, sworn to by monstrance with the government of the monarch with every circumstance Naples. That remonstrance having of solemnity, accepted by the people proved ineffectual, Mr. Gladstone pubwith universal and peaceful joy. Under lished, in July, 1851, that and a supplethis constitution, a Chamber of 164 mentary letter. Never did pamphlet deputies was elected by about 117,000 create a more profound sensation. Fifvotes. On the 15th of May following, teen or twenty editions sold in less than a collision took place, or was assumed as many weeks; newspapers multiplied to have taken place, between the author- its revelations a million-fold; and ities and the citizens. The former were Lord Palmerston presented copies to all victorious, and made ferocious use of the continental ambassadors, for transtheir victory. Nevertheless, the con- ference to their respective governments. stitution was solemnly ratified, and the Only one English litterateur, Mr. Charles King conjured the people to confide in Macfarlane, could be found to indite an his good faith," his "sense of reli- " Apology" for the power thus formally gion," and his "sacred and spontaneous impeached at the bar of universal oath." On Mr. Gladstone's arrival in opinion; and that performance was Naples, about two years and a half from justly deemed so unsatisfactory by his the date of this address, he heard re- clients, that an "Official Reply" was peated the assertion of an eminent put forth. Mr. Gladstone briefly reNeapolitan, that nearly the whole of joined; and his facts, by almost unanithe Opposition in the Chamber of mous consent, stand equally unimDeputies (the Chamber itself having been abolished) were either in prison That he is " a member of the Conseror in exile. He deemed this statement vative party in one of the great families a monstrous invention; but was con- of European nations," is alleged by vinced, by the sight of "a list in de- Mr. Gladstone as one of his reasons for tail," that it was under the truth-that doing the very thing which has proan absolute majority of the representa- cured for him the sympathetic admiratives were either suffering imprison- tion of English and European liberalment, or avoiding it by self-expatriation. ism. 'Your deviation from the ConThe knowledge of this terrible fact led servative principles of finance will be him on to the investigation of other followed by a late but ineffectual repentand yet more horrible statements-that ance," was his final appeal against the there were ten, twenty, thirty thousand budget of a tory minister. These circumpolitical prisoners in the kingdom of stances are strikingly significant-the Naples; that many of these unhappy explanation of his apparently vacillating persons were of eminent station and of career, and of his present anomalous unimpeachable loyalty; that few or position. He is emphatically a Consernone of the detenus had been legally ar- vative-Liberal-Conservative in convicrested or held to trial; that, neverthe- tion and sentiment, Liberal by the preless, they were suffering intolerable science of his intellect and the generwretchedness-sickness, hunger, suffo- osity of his nature. One of the herecation, and irons; that, in short, the ditary princes of commerce, he is also government was “ the negation of God one of the elected chiefs of the republic erected into a system." Having with of letters; having early set himself to his own eyes tested as many of these win distinction in the quiet walks of statements as admitted of verification, scholarship, and in the noisy arena of and found the horribleness of reality to intellectual strife. Content with no less exceed the horribleness of rumour, than a triple crown, he would add to Mr. Gladstone determined-despite his the reputation of the schoolman and strong conservative prejudices against the philosopher, that of the politician. interfering in the affairs of other na- He enters the senate as the champion tions, and especially of even seeming to of prescriptive power, at the moment side with republicans-to make an ef- when innovation is elate with triumph, fort for the abatement of such gigantic and impatient for renewed struggle;— atrocities. Immediately on his return yet in the only decisive struggle which to England, therefore, he addressed a has since occurred, he bled and con 66 quered in the rearguard of progress. He asserts the principle of authority in religious faith, and of unity in political institutions, with a rotund positiveness from which even its veteran devotees recoil; nevertheless, he surrenders one by one every remnant of the times when that principle obtained, with a promptitude shocking to many of its professed opponents. He submits to toil and sacrifice to aid in the abolition of a system, for the loss of which he is afterwards not sure those who benefited by it should not be compensated;-yet when that very position is embodied in a Government, his is the hand put forth to overturn it, and no one attributes to him an unworthy motive. He avows himself in virtual alliance with the established governments of Europe,-yet has done more to make them hateful, and therefore feeble, than any one of the revolutionary chiefs. He framed a theory of social relations which requires in the members of a Government something like a common faith and a corporate conscience; yet takes his seat in the Queen's councils with men whose religious views are the antipodes of his own, and whose conscience has dictated conduct quite the opposite of his, on questions of the highest moment ;— still no one calls him unprincipled. Though a man of nicest honour, he clings to a society in which he is insulted by some, and can have little congeniality with any,-because, all are agreed, he loves the name it bears, and the cause it represents. Holding, as Mr. Gladstone does, that government is not a human arrangement, necessitated by human imperfection, but a divinely appointed power,-though designed for the general good, not originating in the general will, he is necessarily a Conservative. Believing, too, that it is the function of the understanding, not to develop, but only to apply, religious truth-that there is efficacy in outward rites duly administered, deeper than our conciousness, and lasting as our existence-that to a class of men is committed the influences to which it is unspeakably important that all men should be subjected-his sympathies are engaged, beyond the utmost compulsion of the intellect, to that side of public affairs which we are agreed to call the aristocratic. Further, the natural bias of his mind, strengthened by the direction of his studies, is towards an undue reverence for the past. Thus we find, that all his arguments are based, in theology, upon revelation-in politics, upon precedent; all his appeals addressed to the religious prepossessions or histo rical knowledge of those whom he would persuade. He never takes his stand upon the immutable facts of our nature, the inalienable rights of mannever rises to those prophetic heights whence pictures of social perfection may be discerned. But over against all this must be set that rectitude of intellect which makes him anxious to understand both sides of a controversy,-that keenness of perception, which detects the entrance of a question upon what he calls its "fluent state "-and that delicacy of conscience which will permit him to inflict no known injustice, nor gain for his party any unfair advantages. A philosopher among statesmen, he is also a purist among politicians. It would be most hazardous to predict the career of a man so thoroughly individual; but, reviewing the incidents of a career chequered but unblemished, we may confidently anticipate, that as that future lengthens out it will yield only honour to him, and chiefly service to his country. W. W. WILLIAM CHARLES MACREADY. THE father of the subject of the present | became a stage manager and sometimes biography, William Macready, was an got engagements in London; it was author, actor, metropolitan and provin- during the time he was a member of cial manager. He was a native of the Covent Garden company, his celeDublin, where he was bred to the busi- brated son was born on March 3, 1793, ness of an upholsterer, which he de- at a house in Charles Street, Fitzroy serted for the stage, for which during Square. his apprenticeship he had imbibed a taste. After various vicissitudes he His father, it would appear, however successful he might have been himself E 66 His On the announcement of Mr. Macready's name for re-appearance it was received with three distinct rounds of applause-the foreign and absurd custom of calling before the curtain being not then in vogue. Mr. Hazlitt, who was then considered the first theatrical critic, thus speaks of him. We quote the passage, as it will serve to give our readers an insight into Macready's powers at the time: upon the stage, did not intend his son distinguished theatrical critics profor the same profession; but he de-nounced him to be the best actor that termined to give him a first-rate edu- had appeared since J. P. Kemble; and cation, and some say, intended him for "The Theatrical Inquisitor," a journal the church, but others with more truth of the day, thus speaks of him: Mr. assert that he was brought up with the Macready's performance of Orestes is intention of practising at the bar. For in many parts very fine; not being this end he, after having been the usual used to a large theatre, allowance must time at a private academy, was removed be made for his voice being occasionto Rugby school in Warwickshire, and ally too low-some of his tones remind received his education under the cele- us of Mr. Elliston, who we apprehend brated Dr. Arnold, an accomplished has been Mr. Macready's model. Those scholar and gentleman, whose early who recollect Mr. Holman in Orestes, death must be regretted as a public will be delighted with the superiority of loss. Certain circumstances (probably this young man's performance. his father's failure, the elder Macready love, his apprehensions, his hope, and having become a bankrupt at the Man- his despair, were admirably depicted, chester Theatre in the year 1809,) and his mad scene was a natural picaltered the determination of his after ture of insanity." life. The law was abandoned, and before he had attained the age of 17, William Charles Macready made his debut at Birmingham in the year 1810. His success was great, and determined him upon the course he had taken; after fulfilling his engagement at Birmingham, he visited the principal towns in which his father managed, and in 1813 and 1814, performed with undiminished success at Newcastle, Dublin, and Bath, where he immediately became a great favourite. His fame preceded him to the metropolis, and he was solicited by the proprietors of Covent Garden Theatre to accept an engagement, this temptation he wisely declined. Most people have probably forgotten that Mr. Mac-favourable impression upon the audience ready, not satisfied with following his His voice is powerful in the highest defather as an actor, attempted authorship gree, and at the same time possesses great as well, and produced on May 20, 1814, harmony and modulation. His face is at Newcastle, a romantic play founded not equally calculated for the stage. on Sir Walter Scott's poem of "Rokeby," He declaims better than anybody we the principal part in which he per- have lately heard. He is accused of formed himself. We may add en passant being violent, and of wanting pathos. that another actor, Mr. George Ben-Neither of these objections is true. His nett, has produced a play from the same manner of delivering the first speeches source called "Retribution." After an of the play was admirable, and the engagement at Bath, overtures were want of increasing interest afterwards made him by the managers of Drury was the fault of the author rather than Lane Theatre, amongst whom were the actor. The fine suppressed tone in Lord Byron and the Hon. Mr. Kin- which he assented to Pyrrhus's comnaird; the theatre being governed by mand, to convey the message to Heramateurs. This engagement was never mione was a test of his variety of power, concluded, and Mr. Macready remained and brought down repeated acclamain the provinces. At last on Monday, tions from the house. We do not lay the 16th September, 1816, the rising much stress on his mad scene, though actor had the honour of making his that was very good in its kind; for mad first appearance before a London audi- scenes do not occur very often, and ence at Covent Garden Theatre, as when they do, had in general better be Orestes in Phillips's tragedy of "The omitted. We have not the slightest Distressed Mother." Hazlitt and other hesitation in saying, that Mr. Macready "A Mr. Macready appeared at Covent Garden Theatre, on Monday and Friday, in the character of Orestes, in 'The Distressed Mother,' a bad play for the display of his powers, in which, however, he succeeded in making a decidedly |