This man lived through two world wars, near nuclear annihilation and met Lenin, but meeting Gladstone was the most terrifying experience of his life. Amazing
@@bawbtherevelator6445 Gladstone's father owned slaves and Gladstone quite early in his life turned his back on that to pursue a classical liberalism and placed individual moral conscience above all. He also critized exploitation of ethnic groups by governments and was widely known for this (see his Bulgarian atrocities writing). I assume you're either very young or like to become attached to simplistic ideas to make yourself feel morally superior. A bit of self guided research and allowing for nuance go a long way. Gladstone was far morally superior in his life to either you or I and did more to empower people than maybe any politician in history. But yeah, because he was born before 1950 he must have been a white supremacist.
I was once acting cabinet minute secretary (not in UK) and got to see senior politicians who cultivated a Gladstonian demeanour. It was all about scaring the cowards which most politicians are. It works until they come up against someone who is actually far tougher than they look and you can't always predict that. It is fascinating to watch.
And what about the presence nowadays of so many women in politics? That must also change the dynamic. Thanks for your comment, unique insight and very interesting.
I had the great pleasure of meeting Gladstones' great great great granddaughter in May 2000. She bought me a drink and I opted for a glass of wine. She owns a bistro in Earls Court called the Troubadour. I don't know after twenty years if she is still there and in the hospitality business. She has a cut glass voice but she always tries to hide it and mingle with the rest of the crowd and customers. I liked her immediately but she is always too busy to get involved with her lineage and politics. I believe it was Gladstone who stood up in a debate on homosexuality in the House of Commons that was very taboo in those early years. In defence of it he said 'I don't care what they do as long as they don't do in the High Street and frighten the horses'. He was such a realist and liberal man way ahead of his time. Peter LONDON
The Scots Prime Minsters Arthur Balfour, Campebll Bannerman, and Gladstone would not tolerate how Great Britain has been let down by Johnson, Mogg, Truss, Sunak and the Tory Party in general, these Scottish PMs had diligence, character, and the trust of the people sad days for GB.
"So yeah, I had dinner with Mr. Gladstone." "NO WAY BRO! What did you say?" "Oh, nothing, I was too scared." "Huh, alright then, what did *he* say?" "'THIS IS VERY GOOD PORT, BUT WHY HAVE THEY GIVEN IT TO ME IN A TINY GLASS?'" "..."
"I had a grandmother who was terrifying in the sort of way that great ladies were in those days...absolutely terrifying. I'd seen her make footman weep". Good grief
Even Gladstone's "eye", as it were, is strikingly intense in photograph alone. He must have been a rare figure in real life. Theres a brief recording of his voice out there, which sounds fitting to his purported presence. Near the end of video, the connection to a certain unique syntax and Cicero is very interesting!
Be careful: there are two Edison recordings purporting to be Gladstone. One is very faint and the other, more commonly-found one, is thought to be an imitation produced by Edison or his representative to make up for the shortcomings of the other.
We need people like Bertie Russell now, not for his specific beliefs but that he was prepared to examine a subject in good faith and was prepared to change his mind, but sadly many people are unquestioning and live up to his view “Most people would rather die than think and many of them do!”
Russel was right about the Ciceronian syntax, you really can't find very many people who can communicate face to face in that way, especially on this side of the millennium let alone when Russel was alive. It's one thing to be able to have a way with words when writing, but to do so while talking requires you to either have a really fast thinking mind, or to have learnt to speak like that from very young
When I saw your comment it seemed so promising, I thought it was going to be a perspective on Russel's final statement on the matter, rather than rehashing what he had said. Any thoughts on that matter?
I think it's clear there has been a decline in education over the last century. It's amazing to hear of people in former days who could speak like Gladstone and knew a dozen languages like Ancient Greek, Latin and Hebrew. Now that sort of education is reserved to a handful of Etonians.
@Matt Washer education has improved vastly over time, the average person today is exponentially more educated than the average person a century ago, but it is interesting that the particularly "concentrated" types of education Russell refers to are mostly gone, rich kids don't learn 10 languages today
William Ewart Gladstone, FRS, FSS (29 December 1809 - 19 May 1898) was a British statesman of the Liberal Party. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served for twelve years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four terms beginning in 1868 and ending in 1894. He also served as Chancellor of the Exchequer four times. Gladstone was born in Liverpool to Scottish parents. He first entered the House of Commons in 1832, beginning his political career in the Conservative Party as a High Tory. Gladstone served as a minister in both of Robert Peel's governments, and in 1846 joined the breakaway Peelite faction, which eventually merged into the new Liberal Party in 1859. He was Chancellor under Lord Aberdeen (1852-1855), Lord Palmerston (1859-1865), and Lord Russell (1865-1866). Gladstone's own political doctrine-which emphasised equality of opportunity, free trade, and laissez-faire economic policies-came to be known as Gladstonian liberalism. His popularity amongst the working-class earned him the sobriquet "The People's William". In 1868, Gladstone became Prime Minister for the first time. Many reforms were passed during his first ministry, including the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland and the introduction of secret voting. After electoral defeat in 1874, Gladstone resigned as Leader of the Liberal Party; but from 1876 he began a comeback based on opposition to Turkey's reaction to the Bulgarian April Uprising. His Midlothian Campaign of 1879-80 was an early example of many modern political campaigning techniques. After the 1880 general election, Gladstone formed his second ministry (1880-1885), which saw the passage of the Third Reform Act as well as crises in Egypt (culminating in the Fall of Khartoum) and Ireland, where the government passed repressive measures but also improved the legal rights of Irish tenant farmers. Back in office in early 1886, Gladstone proposed home rule for Ireland but was defeated in the House of Commons. The resulting split in the Liberal Party helped keep them out of office-with one short break-for twenty years. Gladstone formed his last government in 1892, at the age of 82. The Second Home Rule Bill passed through the House of Commons but was defeated in the House of Lords in 1893. Gladstone left office in March 1894, aged 84, as both the oldest person to serve as Prime Minister and the only Prime Minister to have served four terms. He left parliament in 1895 and died three years later. Gladstone was known affectionately by his supporters as "The People's William" or the "G.O.M." ("Grand Old Man", or, according to his political rival Benjamin Disraeli, "God's Only Mistake"). Historians often call him one of the greatest leaders in British history. A.J.P. Taylor has stated, " William Ewart Gladstone was the greatest political figure of the nineteenth century. I do not mean by that that he was necessarily the greatest statesman, certainly not the most successful. What I mean is that he dominated the scene."
Went into parliament to uphold slavery but worried about travelling to parliament on a Sunday. It’s impossible to use modern values to judge the actions and motives of the great men of the past.
One thing you left out is that Gladstone later said what he was doing was wrong and told people that the abolition of slavery was the greatest thing to have happened in the 19th century. He recognised his own wrongs and admitted to it later in life.
Ironically, Russell was a critic of the very education that gave men then such a wonderful control of the English language. Unfortunately the same sickness spreads here, with people questioning the importance of studying, learning, and memorizing pre-Islamic poetry from over 1400 years ago, not realizing that depriving people of a large vocabulary and command of language reduces them to barbarous inability to express themselves, and thus causes them to resort to short swear words and greatly degrades the public discourse. Unfortunately, we have allowed technology to delude us into thinking that we are so much more civilized and intelligent than those before us
Gladstone had declined quite a bit at that age, dont think he had any teeth left. If that was the impression he left on Russell at 88 he must have been quite something in middle age
Ladies left the dinner table first and the men, usually a group of equal size, were then thrown together for a time so this would have been awkward for just two, and one a youth. This practice was not sexist but was intended to give the ladies a window of time to go to the bathroom.
I studied Cicero for 3rd year Latin. A lot of kids who went to Catholic High School did. The only one I ever met who really enjoyed him was Judge Michael Corriero who sits on the program "Hot Bench", Next time I see him I'll have to ask him why.
There is no equivalent of Gladstone in the modern world except perhaps Fidel Castro.Gladstones ovations going on for hours were delivered to men many of whom left school at twelve or fourteen.Nowadays we have a large graduate population but a speech lasting more than five minutes would try the population.
I think you need to go back to school then as he's speaking as clear cut through cut glass and polished an accent as I've ever heard it.. William Ewart Gladstone. May 2022.
Daniel Kelly Yes, I gather. Russell shows his distaste in an oblique way here. Still, slavery is often thought of as belonging to the distant past but here is the voice of a man whose life overlapped with mine yet met a man whose family owned slaves. Truly, we live here in england in a country as the descendents, some of us, of people who brutalised and exploited their fellow human beings in almost inhuman and psychopathic ways. This is not noble, echoing the classical world in some way, it is bestial! We should be wary of revenge .......
@@comprehensiveboycomprehens8786 You say these things like there was some place in the world where people did not brutalize and exploit their neighbors. Instead of focusing on the failings of our ancestors maybe you could take some comfort in the steps that they took to improve the conditions of humanity. White men voted in parliament to end slavery and to extend the vote to women.
