Part 24 (1/2)
There was no sermon. The service was simple and solemn. The final paean of victory over death and the grave from Paul's great epistle was read, and the last hymn sung was, ”Oh G.o.d! Our Help in Ages Past.” The dean read the appointed appropriate service, committing the body to the earth, and then the Archbishop of Canterbury, in a loud voice, p.r.o.nounced the benediction. The family and others near the grave kneeled during the concluding ceremonies, and then Mrs. Gladstone was helped from her knees to her unoccupied chair at the head of the grave.
After the benediction came one of the saddest moments of the day. Mrs.
Gladstone stood, with great courage and composure, throughout the service, supported on the arms of her two sons, Herbert and Stephen, and with other members of her family near the grave. Her face was lifted upward, and her lips were moving as though repeating the lines of the service. She also kept standing during the one official feature of the service; ”The Proclamation by Garter, by Norroy, King of Arms, of the Style of the Deceased,” as the official programme had it, and in which the various offices which Mr. Gladstone had held in his lifetime, were enumerated. Then, when the final word was spoken, the widow, still supported by her sons, approached the edge of the grave and there took a last, long look and was conducted away. Other relatives followed, and then most of the members of Parliament. Finally the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York and other pall-bearers defiled past the grave, took a last view of the coffin in the deep grave, and when they had been escorted down the nave to entrance, the people slowly departed.
The ”Dead March” from ”Saul” and the ”Marche Solennelle” of Schubert was played as the congregation slowly wended its way out of the sacred edifice.
Perhaps the most solemn function of all, witnessed by none but the Gladstone family and the officials, was when the casket was opened shortly after midnight on Thursday to allow the Earl Marshal to verify with his own eyes that it really contained the remains of the dead statesman. It was said that the old man's face, seen for the last time by the Duke of Norfolk, who is responsible to England for his sacred charge, was more peaceful and younger looking than it had seemed for years. At the very last moment a small gold Armenian cross, a memento of that nation for which the great statesman worked so zealously, was placed by his side. Then all was sealed.
As the deceased statesman was undoubtedly the greatest parliamentarian of our time, the following concise expressions with regard to his character and influence have been collected from a number of representative members of different political parties in both Houses of Parliament:
The Marquis of Londonderry said: ”What impressed me about Mr. Gladstone was his extraordinary moral influence.”
Lord George Hamilton: ”I doubt whether we ever had a parliamentarian who equalled Mr. Gladstone.”
The Marquis of Lorne: ”I share the universal regret at Mr. Gladstone's death as a personal loss.”
Sir John Gorst: ”One feature, which greatly distinguished Mr. Gladstone, was his remarkable candour in debate. He never affected to misunderstand his opponents' arguments, and spared no pains in trying to make his own meaning understood.”
Sir Charles Dilke: ”I think Mr. Gladstone's leading personal characteristic was his old-fas.h.i.+oned courtesy. Whilst a statesman, his absolute mastery of finance, both in its principles and details, was incomparably superior to that of any of his contemporaries.”
Mr. Thomas Ellis, the chief Liberal Whip, confessed that the greatest interest of his life in Parliament was to watch Mr. Gladstone's face.
”It was like the sea in the fascination of its infinite variety, and of its incalculable reserve and strength. Every motion in his great soul was reflected in his face and form. To have had opportunities of watching that face, and of witnessing one triumph after another, is a precious privilege, for some of the charms of his face, as of his oratory and character, were incommunicable. He more than any man helped to build up and shape the present commercial and political fabric of Britain, but to struggling nations his words and deeds were as the breath of life.”
Sir Joseph Pease: ”His memory will be kept green by a grateful country.
Death soon buries the battle-axe of party, and he who devoted a long life and immense intellectual power, coupled with strong convictions on moral and Christian ethics, to the well being of his country and the world, will never be forgotten by the English people.”
Mr. James Bryce, author of ”The American Commonwealth”: ”This sad event is the most n.o.ble and pathetic closing of a great life which we have seen in England in historical memory. I cannot recall any other case in which the whole nation has followed the setting of the sun of life with such sympathy, such regret, and such admiration.”
Lord Kinnaird: ”Few men in public life have been able to draw out such personal love and devotion from his followers and friends. In the midst of an ever-busy life he was always ready to take his part in the conflict of right against wrong, of truth against error, and he earned the grat.i.tude of all patriots, for he was never ashamed of contending that no true progress could be made which left out of sight the moral well-being of the people.”