| Show ENDING A CAREER WITH FAILURE Tho wires convey the information that the gladstone government la is pur bink ruing a policy of masterly inactivity no bills billa being ready to present and no settled plan regarding any pressing subject having been adopted the ministers are constantly at work but bat they mom mem to be acting like so 0 o many men in a fog and it in doubt doubtful fal whether there will be any result to their hoir labors the dispatch forecasts the early dissolution of the government and it this should be fulfilled the ex pediment perl peri ment engaged in by the people of great britain in restoring the liberal party to power w will III prove a great fiasco no matter what the outcome of the present situation the lesson lemon is in once more imparted to the people that greatness ness does not abide in a name areat and honorable achievements in the past must stand by them themselves selvis and are in no sense binse a precursor of assured sue loan in the present because conditions situations and the mind of man itself are constantly undergoing change to lay therefore that the gladstone of twenty or even ton ten years yean ago and the gladstone of today are ou on an exact equality or any conditI 94 approaching pro aching it is to mock at the strides of time and stolidly shut our eyes upon the ravages ravage wrought by progress A 11 great men main have their time of prosperity which continues until the pin nacle Is ii reached then the downward course to is entered upon and pursued much more rapidly than the upward one there are no exception to this yet with the myriad of examples before our eyes we persist in looking upon the human mechanism as impervious to the friction of years the mind as having abated none of its ita vigor or brightness although the fountain from which itu its sustenance is drawn is at the very point of exhaustion how often is it the case that the willing animal is harnessed to his load just once more than he could bear it I 1 and he gives up the unequal contest forever at a time when his driver is subjected to serious embarrass mentel cardinal richelieu was for a time the pillar of state to the kingdom of prance france he was by nature for such a calling when he could not prevail by maio main force his reserve faculty of cun CUB ning was exercised with equal success Hebec he became amethe the sine qua conand non and in the stage picture presented when it seemed as though in his declining years a foul conspiracy against the puerile and weak minded monarch was likely to prevail he rallied at the last pio moment ment dragged himself from the jaws of death and crushed the budding treason beneath his bis feet this is how bow we have it presented to us before the footlights and a more effective dramatic spectacle it would be difficult to devise in reality richelieu like many others whose public lives have been prolonged into the domain of inactivity if not senility was too much enamored of his own prowess to bur aur reader it at a time when he could have done so with credit and have thus maintained his bis great reputation throughout the ages to come and being no longer able to engage aati actively vely in 16 the field of diplomacy he sought to sustain himself by means of cumnings and craft alone he became unscrupulous peevish and cruel and finally went down with his greatness obscured his fame sullied aud and himself despised it was not for want of judgment for his bis ass beyond the scope of most mens mange comprehension nor because of falling failing intellect ble bin being abnormally good to the end but for the reason that he was vain and inflated with the greatness of his bin station and the adulation of the courtiers and minions about him these trophies he would not give up and be prolonged his lifes work beyond the time when nature demanded demand ed that he be cease from trouble or troubling ng there are many similar cases conspicuous among them being that of edwin forrest the greatest american tragedian and one of the greatest the world ever produced recounted remounted he Re mounted to giddy heights and had the world of intel intellect leit and culture at his feet he was lionized everywhere and looked up to toby by everybody croesus seemed to have unlocked his vaults and poured the contents out upon the gifted man he rose he reigned he fell and fell it i i i utu itoi fLu lii io ignominiously decadence but bat ing in the gout and other destructive agencies age noie laid their heir deadly clutch upon him but so ao vain rain so 0 o imperious imper ioui 80 0 o U unwilling to give gite up his hig away had he become that in the face of nature contrary to reason and against the remonstrance of friends he persisted in dragging his swollen feet upon the stage and making of the heroes which once breathed and moved and through him the most hideous of caricatures ca oa A few friends clung to him but only a few it was wait because became of what he had bad been no not what he had become thu brokenhearted broken hearted and broken spirit ed ad he ended his career in disgraceful failure when men have achieved a full measure of lifes life s usefulness in a particular calling and are thus thug entitled to honorable retirement or at least to such abatement of actual toll toil as ae will not be utterly inconsistent with their enfeebled condition to persist in going ahead as aa actively as when the heyday of full manhood was upon them la Is unjust to those who depend upon them as well as a themselves who can measure urethe the depth of the misfortune that a great cause will be plunged into if though lack of aggressive neils determination mi and vigor the present government of great britain shall fail it will besuch be bubb a fall as will bury not only the principle for which the grand old man has been so BO long contending but himself his bis immediate friends and those struggling people across the chancel whose hopes and prayers for deliverance from the curse of absolute a seemed so nearly answered it is impossible for the impartial and cultivated mind to contemplate without admiration the spectacle of gladstone with his armor on still fighting the good fight or to come cease wondering at the great mental and physical endurance which he is still in possession of but it must be remembered that he is at the threshold of his eighty third year and that he has been active without ceasing for the full period of time allotted to man in this life the premiership mier ship of the oldest civilized and in some respects foremost nation of all the world is one oae involving the gravest responsibilities and most cease lots leis cares cans we greatly fear that he IP if unequal to the task of injecting into a ministry timid through apprehension and distrustful through fear the vigor and energy which alone can rescue the government from impending misfortune if not dissolution its failure within a few months was predicted by the knowing ones so soon as the result of the late elections WMS was made known and it way may be taken for granted that those same wiseacres wise acres together with all the disappointed and jaundiced politicians are using no effort to prevent it from going down it begins to look as if the great premier had bad undertaken one contest jontef jt too many |
