Little by little, however, at each succeeding election the Liberal party gained strength, not only in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, but even in England also, and their power in Parliament increased; until, in 1893, after a long and memorable contest, the Commons passed Mr. Gladstone’s Home Rule bill by a pronounced majority.  Then it was thrown out by the Lords, with very brief consideration.  This, and other overrulings of the Lower House by the Peers, aroused deep feeling throughout the nation.  In March, 1894, the venerable Gladstone, whose impaired hearing and sight warned him that a man of eighty-five—­even though a giant—­should no longer bear the burdens of empire, retired from the premiership, his last speech being a solemn intimation of the issues that must soon arise if the House of Lords persisted in obstructing the will of the people, as expressed in the acts of their immediate representatives in the House of Commons.

But, whatever the outcome of the Irish question, the claim of William Ewart Gladstone to a high rank among the ruling statesmen of Modern Europe cannot be gainsaid.  Moreover, as his influence has been so forceful a part of the great onward-moving modern current of democratic enlargement,—­and in Great Britain one of its most discreet and potent directors,—­his fame is secure; it is unalterably a part of the noblest history of the English people.[5]

[Footnote 5:  Mr. Gladstone died May 19, 1898.  Perhaps at once the most intimate and comprehensive account of him is “The Story of Gladstone’s Life,” by Justin McCarthy.]

AUTHORITIES.

There is no exhaustive or satisfactory work on Gladstone which has yet been written.  The reader must confine himself at present to the popular sketches, which are called biographies, of Gladstone, of Disraeli, of Palmerston, of Peel, and other English statesmen.  He may consult with profit the Reviews of the last twenty-five years in reference to English political affairs.  For technical facts one must consult the Annual Register.  The time has not yet come for an impartial review of the great actors in this generation on the political stage of either Europe or America.