on the political thought and the social thought
of the generation in which he lived, and he will be long
remembered not so much for the causes in which he was engaged or
the political projects which he favoured, but as a great example,
to which history hardly furnishes a parallel, of a great Christian
man.

Mr. Balfour, the leader in the Commons, specially spoke of him as "the
greatest member of the greatest deliberative assembly that the world has
seen," and most aptly pointed to Mr. Gladstone's special service in
respect of that assembly.

One service he did, in my opinion incalculable, which is
altogether apart from the judgment that we may be disposed to pass
upon particular opinions, or particular lines of policy which Mr.
Gladstone may from time to time have advocated. Sir, he added a
dignity, as he added a weight, to the deliberations of this House
by his genius, which I think it is impossible adequately to
replace. It is not enough for us to keep up simply a level, though
it be a high level, of probity and of patriotism. The mere average
of civic virtue is not sufficient to preserve this Assembly from
the fate that has overcome so many other Assemblies, products of
democratic forces. More than this is required; more than this was
given to us by Mr. Gladstone. He brought to our debates a genius
which compelled attention, he raised in the public estimation the
whole level of our proceedings, and they will be most ready to
admit the infinite value of his service who realise how much of
public prosperity is involved in the maintenance of the worth of
public life, and how perilously difficult most democracies
apparently feel it to be to avoid the opposite dangers into which
so many of them have fallen.

Sir William Harcourt spoke of him as friend and official colleague:--

I have heard men who knew him not at all, who have asserted that
the supremacy of his genius and the weight of his authority
oppressed and overbore those who lived with him and those who
worked under him. Nothing could be more untrue. Of all chiefs he
was the least exacting. He was the most kind, the most tolerant,
he was the most placable. How seldom in this House was the voice
of personal anger heard from his lips. These are the true marks of
greatness.

Lord Rosebery described his gifts and powers, his c