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Show THE GREAT PREMIERS. - Gladstone is seventy-one years old, Beaconsfield seventy-five. Respect for intellectual force, admiration for political enterprise, a knowledge of the difficulties of senatorial success, their long party warfare, and the fact that they are both beyond the "allotted age of man," give Gladstone and Beaconsfield almost a friendly sentiment of respect for each other. Gladstone has said harder things of Beaconsfield than the rival statesman has said of him. But the liberal chief is more impulsive than the conservative leader. Beaconsfield, on the other hand, is more polite than Gladstone, and has a firmer grip on his own feelings. Some people will find a clue to the character of both in the remark that Gladstone made a few years ago on his great defeat and retirement from public life. I forget the exact words, but the meaning was that he would have time for reflection and preparation for the next world. When Beaconsfield was beaten he said, "Ah! I shall now have time to see the roses bloom at Ilughendon." |