. Life and times of William E. Gladstone : an account of his ancestry and boyhood, his career at Eton and Oxford, his entrance into public life, his rise to leadership and fame, his genius as statesman and author, and his influence on the progress of the nineteenth century. Review took up the book as the j6rt/«-hirgJi had done, but from the conservative point of view. But the Quarterly,though praising much the work of the young author, did not ratify hisarguments as such. The reviewer asserted that a popular governmentcould not maintain a State religion against the wishes of the people. Ifthe
. Life and times of William E. Gladstone : an account of his ancestry and boyhood, his career at Eton and Oxford, his entrance into public life, his rise to leadership and fame, his genius as statesman and author, and his influence on the progress of the nineteenth century. Review took up the book as the j6rt/«-hirgJi had done, but from the conservative point of view. But the Quarterly,though praising much the work of the young author, did not ratify hisarguments as such. The reviewer asserted that a popular governmentcould not maintain a State religion against the wishes of the people. Ifthe English nation as such should choose to renounce the EstablishedChurch, then the king, the lords and the Commons, singly or in union ofeffort, would be impotent to uphold the Church, and must indeed abandonit to its fate. The writer did not fail to observe that Gladstone had gonebeyond his predecessors in seeking the bottom principles and sources of hisareument. He has, said the reviewer, seen through the weakness andfallacy of the line of reasoning pursued by Warburton and Paley. And hehas most wisely abandoned the argument from expediency, which offerslittle more than an easy weapon to fence with, while no real danger is appre- FIRST APPEARANCE IX LITERATURE. 121. THE SIkAXI) AND ST. MARYS CHURCH, LONDON. hended ; and has insisted chiefly on the claims of duty and truth—the onlyconsideration which can animate and support men in a real struggle againstfalse principles. The writer then proceeded, in the manner of Gladstonehimself, to show that morality in government cannot be maintained withoutreligion. This was a supposedly unassailable proposition with the conserva-tive writers of the last quarter of the eighteenth, and the first half of the nine-teenth centur)-. If the truth of this proposition be granted, then it shouldfollow that the maintenance of religion is a proper function of government,and the support of the Church, in union with the State, the necessarymethod of
Size: 1880px × 1330px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublis, booksubjectstatesmen
