As a statesman，it was the good fortune of Mr.Gladstone that his career was not associated with war.The reforms which he effected，the triumphs which he achieved，were not won by the supreme arbitrament of the sword.The reforms which he effected and the triumphs which he achieved were the result of his power of persuasion over his fellowmen.The reforms which he achieved in many ways amounted to a revolution.They changed，in many particulars，the face of the realm.After Sir Robert Peel had adopted the great principle which eventually carried England from protection to free trade，it was Mr.Gladstone who created the financial system whichhas been admitted ever since by all students of finance，as the secret of Great Britain‘s commercial success.He enforced the extension of the suffrage to the masses of the nation，and practically thereby made the government of monarchical England a s democratic a s that of any republic.He disestablished the Irish church，he introduced reform into the land tenure and brought hope into the breasts of those tillers of the soil in Ireland who had for so many generations laboured in despair.And all this he did，not by force or violence，but simply by the power of his eloquence and the strength of his personality.
Great，however，as were the acts of the man，after all he was of the human flesh，and for him，as for everybodyelse，there were trivial and low duties to be performed.It is no exaggeration to say that even in those low and trivial duties he was great.He ennobled the common realities of life.His was above all things a religious mindessentially religious in the highest sense of the term.And the religious sentiment which dominated his public life and his speeches，that same sentiment，according to the testimony of those who knew him best，also permeated all his actions from the highest to the humblest.He was a man of strong and pure affections，of long and lasting friendship，and to describe the beauty of his domestic life，no words of praise can be adequate.It was simply ideally beautiful，and in the later years of his life，as touching as it was beautiful.May I be permitted，without any impropriety，to recall that it was my privilege to experience and to appreciate that courtesy，made up of dignity and grace，which was famous all the world over，but of which no one could have an appropriate opinion，unless he had been the recipient of it.