James Ewing Ritchie - The Real Gladstone: An Anecdotal Biography стр 2.

Dr. Wilkinson, in his Reminiscences of Eton, gives a couplet and its translation by Mr. Gladstone, when a boy at Eton:

As to the Miscellany, with which Mr. Gladstone had so much to do, Sir Francis continues: It would have fallen to the ground but for Mr. Gladstones energy, perseverance, and tact. I may as well remark here that my father as I have said elsewhere, a man of great ability as well as of great experience in life predicted Mr. Gladstones future eminence from the manner in which he handled this somewhat tiresome business. It is not, he remarked, that I think his papers better than yours or Hallams that is not my meaning at all; but the force of character he has shown in managing his subordinates (insubordinates I should rather call them), and the combination of ability and power that he has made evident, convince me that such a young man cannot fail to distinguish himself hereafter. Further, Sir Francis Doyle writes: I cannot take leave of Mr. Gladstones Eton career without recording a joke of his which, even in this distance of time, seems calculated to thrill the heart of Midlothian with horror and dismay. He was then, I must remind my hearers, a high Tory, and, moreover, used to criticise my passion for the turf. One day I was steadily computing the odds for the Derby, as they stood in a morning newspaper. Now, it happened that the Duke of Grafton owned a colt called Hampden, who figured in the aforesaid list. Well, cried Mr. Gladstone, reading off the odds, Hampden, at any rate, I see, is in his proper place between Zeal and Lunacy!

The impression Gladstone made on his schoolfellows at Eton is clearly shown in a letter of Miles Gaskell to his mother, pleading for his going to Oxford rather than Cambridge: Gladstone is no ordinary individual If you finally decide in favour of Cambridge, my separation from Gladstone will be a source of great sorrow to me. And Arthur Hallam wrote: Whatever may be our lot, I am very confident that he is a bud that will blossom with a richer fragrance than almost any whose early promise I have witnessed.

Gladstone, as has already been shown, was one of the principal members of the staff of the Eton Miscellany. He was then seventeen, and in one of the articles signed by him he expressed his fear that he would not be able to direct public opinion into the right channel. He was aware that merit was always rewarded, but he asked himself if he possessed that merit. He dared not presume that he did possess it, though he felt within him a something which made him hope to be able, without much hindrance, to gain public favour, and, as Virgil said, celerare viam rumore secundo. We find Gladstone the Etonian expressing similar hopes in an article on Eloquence. The young author shows us himself and his school-colleagues fascinated by the resounding debates in the House of Commons, and dreaming, boy-like, of making a successful Parliamentary début, perhaps being offered a Government berth a Secretaryship of State, even the post of Prime Minister. While entertaining these ambitious views Mr. Gladstone calmed his mind by taking to poetry. Several poetical pieces, including some verses on Richard Cœur-de-Lion, and an ode to The Shade of Wat Tyler, date from this period.

As a pendant to this fragmentary sketch of Mr. Gladstones schooldays, we may quote the lively description of the young editor given by Sir Francis Doyle in A Familiar Epistle to W. E. Gladstone, Esq., M.P., published in 1841. Sir Francis paints a delightful picture of the rédacteur-en-chef:

Dr. Furnivall, president of the Maurice Rowing Club, lately sent Mr. Gladstone a copy of his letter on Sculls or Oars. The ex-Prime Minister, in returning his thanks for the letter, says: When I was at Eton, and during the season, I sculled constantly, more than almost any other boy in the school. Our boats then were not so light as they now are, but they went along merrily, with no fear of getting them under water.

CHAPTER II

GLADSTONE AT OXFORD

After spending six months with private tutors, in October, 1828, he went up to Christ Church, Oxford, and the following year was nominated to a studentship. As for Gladstone, writes Sir Francis Doyle, in the earlier part of his undergraduateship he read steadily, and did not exert himself to shine as a speaker; in point of fact, he did not attempt to distinguish himself in the Debating Society till he had pretty well made sure of his distinction in the Schools. I used often to walk with him in the afternoon, but I never recollect riding or boating in his company, and I believe that he was seldom diverted from his normal constitutional between two and five along one of the Oxford roads. The most adventurous thing I ever did at Oxford in Mr. Gladstones company, if it really were as adventurous as I find he still asserts it to have been, was when I allowed myself to be taken to Dissenting chapels. We were rewarded by hearing Dr. Chalmers preach on two occasions, and Rowland Hill at another time.

Gladstone seems to have delighted in these escapades. His mother was an occasional attendant on the ministrations of the celebrated Dissenting preacher Dr. Raffles, of Liverpool, and possibly might have taken the future Premier with her. His attendance at church was very regular. He used rather to mount guard over my religious observances, writes Sir Francis Doyle, and habitually marched me off after luncheon to the University sermon at two oclock. Now, I have not the gift of snoring comfortably under a dull preacher; instead of a narcotic he acts on my nerves as an irritant, but with Mr. Gladstone the case was different. One afternoon I looked up, and discovered, not without a glow of triumph, that although the reverend gentleman above me had not yet arrived at his Thirdly, my Mentor was sleeping the sleep of the just. Hullo! said I to myself, no more two-oclock sermons for me. Accordingly, on the very next occasion when he came to carry me off, my answer was ready: No, thank you, not to-day. I can sleep just as well in my arm-chair as at St. Marys. The great man was discomfited, and retired, shaking his head, but he acknowledged his defeat by troubling me no more in that matter.

Cardinal Manning had been the principal leader in the Oxford Debating Society till Mr. Gladstone appeared upon the scene. At once he and Gaskell became the leading Christ Church orators, and the great oratorical event of the time was Mr. Gladstones speech against the first Reform Bill. Most of the speakers, writes Sir Francis Doyle, who was present on the occasion, rose more or less above their ordinary level, but when Mr. Gladstone sat down we all of us felt that an epoch in our lives had arrived. It was certainly the finest speech of his that I ever heard. The effect produced by that great speech led to his being returned to Parliament as M.P. for Newark by the Tory Duke of Newcastle, who is remembered for his question, May I not do what I like with my own?