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vision for all his sons in the adoption of their various trades or callings. John Gladstone, the eldest son, was born at Leith, in the year 1763. He entered his father's business, and on attaining his majority an incident occurred which proved the turning-point in his career. Being commissioned by his father to go to Liverpool, in order to sell a cargo of grain which had arrived at that port, his demeanour and business capabilities so won upon the mind of one of the leading Liverpool corn-merchants, Mr. Corrie, that he desired his father to allow young Gladstone to settle at that port. For some time, accordingly, John Gladstone became assistant in the house of Corrie and Co. however, before his

He was not long here, tact and shrewdness

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helplessly casting about for means of recovery, young Gladstone was up and doing. The ships must not return empty. He made a thorough examination of the American markets, ascertained what goods there were which would be likely to prove acceptable in Liverpool, and, by diat of sleepless energy and activity, he managed to stock the holds of all the vessels. The result was that the house was saved at a very trifling loss. For many years after this the name of John Gladstone was a synonym for enterprise and integrity, first on the Liverpool Exchange, and subsequently in other large towns, as well as in the metropolis.

manifested themselves, and, by-and-by, firm. While many would have been the firm of Corrie and Co. became transformed into that of Corrie, Gladstone, and Bradshaw. An anecdote is related which illustrates not only the harassing nature of the crises through which merchants in English ports are sometimes called upon to pass, but also the prudence and determination by which such crises are frequently met. To the conduct of John Gladstone were due, upon one occasion, the preservation and safety of the firm of which he was soon the most prominent member. The utter failure of the European corn crops was regarded as an excellent opportunity for doing a great stroke of business by Mr. Corrie, who sent Mr. Gladstone to the United States to buy grain. But America, too, had suffered in her crops, and no corn was to be had. While in a condition of great perplexity, Mr. Gladstone received advices from Liverpool to the effect that twenty-four vessels had been engaged to convey to Europe the grain he was dispatched to purchase, but which he had not been successful in procuring. The disastrous news soon became known that there were no cargoes of grain, and that the vessels, instead of being loaded with a rich freight, must return to Liverpool in ballast only. The prospect was ruinous, and the stability of the house of Corrie and Co. was considered irretrievably shattered. But Liverpool

merchants had reckoned without their host. Now was the time for John Gladstone to demonstrate his business capacity and enterprise, by which he was able to save the fortunes of the

The partnership of Corrie, Gladstone, and Bradshaw existed for some sixteen years, and during a portion of this period the firm acted as the Government agents at Liverpool. Upon the dissolution of the concern, Gladstone was the only one who remained in business, and he took into partnership his brother Robert. Their operations became very extensive, and besides opening up a large trade with Russia, they they had large connections as West India merchants and sugar importers. Mr. Gladstone afterwards became chairman of the West India Association, and took great interest in the proposals for increasing the dock accommodation of Liverpool. In course of time all the seven sons of Thomas Gladstone of Leith had settled down in Liverpool. The capacity to look ahead has been one of the principal traits of the Gladstones as merchants,

and when the East India and China trades were thrown open beyond the old limits of the East India Company's monopoly, in 1814, the Liverpool firm of John Gladstone and Co. was the first to dispatch a private vessel to Calcutta.

The first ten years of the present century formed a period of great trial and depression for Liverpool, and, indeed, for every important port of the United Kingdom. In the year 1806, Napoleon, anxious to cripple England, issued a decree declaring all the ports of Great Britain in a state of blockade, and prohibiting the importation into any port under his control of the productions of either Great Britain or her colonies. Alarmed by this bold decree, the British Government replied by issuing orders declaring all the ports, either of France or her allies, or from which the British flag was excluded, in a state of actual blockade, and condemning all vessels trading to them as good and lawful prize, unless they had previously touched at a British port, and paid customs duties to the British Crown. Napoleon retorted, in his Milan decree, by declaring any neutral vessel which had paid tax to the British Government denationalised. The result of this policy of mutual recrimination was most disastrous, especially as affecting English trade with America. Indeed, the posture of affairs is perhaps unexampled in modern warfare. The decrees of the British Government were much more objectionable and embarrassing to the Americans than those of Napoleon, which were

practically inoperative. England enjoyed the empire of the sea, while Napoleon had little or no power to carry his edicts into execution. Diplomacy set to work, but the breach between the United States and England could not be healed. These disputes with America, combined with the harassed condition of the commercial relations between the two countries, led to great popular discontent in 1807. As one effect of the policy of the British Government, it may be stated that in the course of twelve months the commerce of Liverpool declined to the amount of 140,000 tonsnearly one-fourth of the entire tradeand there was a decrease of no less than £22,000 in the dock dues. Liverpool merchants trading with America of course felt the strain severely, and John Gladstone was amongst those who signed a requisition demanding a public meeting for the purpose of petitioning Parliament against the Orders in Council. Liverpool was divided in opinion, but a petition was presented to the House of Commons, emanating from the town, and praying for a conciliatory policy towards hostile and neutral states, and especially in reference to the United States of America. In the year 1812—that is, after trade had been seriously crippled, and we had been precipitated into a war with America-the obnoxious orders were rescinded, on the advice of Lord Castlereagh.

Mr. John Gladstone's earnestness was conspicuous in everything he undertook. He was an ardent and

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THE HOUSE IN RODNEY STREET, LIVERPOOL, IN WHICH MR. GLADSTONE WAS BORN.
(From a Photograph by Messrs. Brown, Barnes, and Bell.)

were those which we usually associate
with the name of Liberal Conservative.
He presided over a meeting called in
Liverpool in 1812 for the purpose of
inviting Canning to become a can-
didate for the borough. The election
which ensued was a most exciting one,

ness to stand. At an open-air meeting held in Castle Street, Mr. Gladstone delivered an address, in the course of which he reviewed the commercial state of the country, and described in the most flattering and glowing terms Canning's public and private

character. Mr. Gladstone agreed to support Henry Brougham as the colleague of Canning, and was most anxious for the return of these celebrated men. The other candidates were General Gascoyne-who belonged to a family of large property near the town-and a Mr. Creevey, a Radical of an advanced type. Unfortunately, by one of those fits of perversity which sometimes characterised Brougham, the great advocate threw in his lot with Creevey. In Brougham's Memoirs it is naïvely recorded, in connection recorded, in connection with this election, that 'two or three men were killed, but the town was quiet'-a striking commentary upon the general character of the election of the period. The alliance between Brougham and Creevey threw Mr. Gladstone into the arms of the acknowledged Conservatives, and he now supported Canning and Gascoyne. Brougham and Creevey were defeated. After the election the successful candidates were chaired and carried in procession through the streets. The procession finally halted at Mr. Glad stone's house in Rodney Street, from the balcony of which Mr. Canning addressed the populace.

The speech which Mr. Canning made on this occasion might almost have been delivered by William Ewart Gladstone at a later period, when he was called upon to defend his seat for Oxford University. There is a strong community of interest and feeling observable in these two distinguished statesmen. 'It has been attempted,' said Mr. Canning(and the circumstances, with change of

scene, carry us forward almost half a century to more than one episode in Mr. Gladstone's life) to deter you from the choice which you have done me the honour to make by saying that I have been in office, and am likely to be in office again. I have been in office. How soon, if ever, I may be in office again I neither know nor do I care, for any other reason than as it might afford me greater opportunities of promoting the interests of the country, of which your interests constitute so essential a part.' Asking what was meant by the above imputation, the speaker continued:- Are the gentlemen who urge it so little read in the principles, the democratic principles, of the British constitution as not to know it is one of the peculiar boasts of this country, one of the prime fruits of its free constitution, and one main security for its continuing free, that men as humble as myself, with no pretensions to wealth, or title, or high family, or wide-spreading connections, may yet find their into the cabinet of their Sovereign through the fair road of public service, and stand there upon a footing of equality with the proudest aristocracy of the land?' Mr. Canning's concluding observations still more emphatically recall incidents in Mr. Gladstone's history, when he declined office for the same conscientious reasons:- -'If I have held office, I hope I have held it honourably; I will never hold it again but upon the same terms. It is entirely my own fault, gentlemen, that I am not now addressing you with the seals of Secretary of State in my pocket.

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