hough his
last work, _The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft_, seemed to usher in the
dawn of a somewhat brighter outlook. His other novels include _Demos_
(1886), _Thyrza_ (1887), _The Nether World_ (1889), _New Grub Street_
(1891), _Born in Exile_ (1892), _In the Year of Jubilee_ (1894), and _The
Town Traveller_ (1898). He _d._ at St. Jean de Luz in the Pyrenees.

GLADSTONE, WILLIAM EWART (1809-1898).--Statesman, scholar, and man of
letters, fourth _s._ of Sir John G., a merchant in Liverpool, was of
Scottish ancestry. He was _ed._ at Eton and Christ Church, Oxf. From his
youth he was deeply interested in religious and ecclesiastical questions,
and at one time thought of entering the Church. In 1832 he entered
Parliament as a Tory, and from the first gave evidence of the splendid
talents for debate and statesmanship, especially in the department of
finance, which raised him to the position of power and influence which he
afterwards attained. After holding the offices of Pres. of the Board of
Trade, Colonial Sec., and Chancellor of the Exchequer, he attained the
position of Prime Minister, which he held four times 1868-74, 1880-85,
1885-86, and 1892-93. His political career was one of intense energy and
activity in every department of government, especially after he became
Prime Minister, and while it gained him the enthusiastic applause and
devotion of a large portion of the nation, it exposed him to a
correspondingly intense opposition on the part of another. The questions
which involved him in the greatest conflicts of his life and evoked his
chief efforts of intellect were the disestablishment of the Irish Church,
the foreign policy of his great rival Disraeli, and Home Rule for
Ireland, on the last of which the old Liberal party was finally broken
up. In the midst of political labours which might have been sufficient to
absorb even his tireless energy, he found time to follow out and write
upon various subjects which possessed a life-long interest for him. His
first book was _The State in its Relations with the Church_ (1839), which
formed the subject of one of Macaulay's essays. _Studies on Homer and the
Homeric Age_ (1858), _Juventus Mundi_ (1869), and _Homeric Synchronism_
(1876), _The Impregnable Rock of Holy Scripture_ (1890), _The Vatican
Decrees and Vaticanism_ (1874-75), and _Gleanings of Past Years_ (1897),
8 vols., were his other principal contributions to literature. G.'s
scholarship, though sound and ev