TheVictorians

"We had always been convinced that Victorianism was a myth, engendered by the long life of the sovereign and of her most illustrious subjects. We were constantly being told that the Victorians did this, or the Victorians thought that, while my own difficulty was to find anything on which they agreed: any assumption which was not at some time or other fiercely challenged. 'Victorian History'.


GIadstone a source of strength, if of weakness also. Given beliefs as ...

GIadstone a source of strength, if of weakness also. Given beliefs as intense as those of Mr Gladstone, together with his gifts of mind; and the history of his life, of his influence, and of the passionate antagonisms which he aroused, becomes intelligible.

For to a profound persuasion of the essential rightness' of his aims and methods he added gifts which have never in English history been found in combination-extraordinary physical strength and endurance, an absolutely unrivalled memory, dialectic of the highest order, end a copiousness of speech which on occasions could rise to eloquence of the most impressive kind. To these add a boundless capacity for work, a power of rapid acquisition beyond anything of which his colleagues had had experience, a personal magnetism which, when he chose to exercise it, was irresistible, and that rare combination, an equal grasp of principles and of details.

At last,

at eighty-four years of age, he

laid down the burden of power, and after four years more he has died in that beautiful home at Llawarden which he loved so well and which, thanks to him / her, has become a familiar name wherever our language is spoken. From The Times, 20 May 1898: There is much in what we see around us that we may easily and rightly wish to as improved.

The laudatorier may even contend that we have lost some things that ha better have been preserved. But no

permissible deductions can obscure the fact that

the petrel in question has been one of intellectual upheaval of enormous social and economic progress, and upon the whole, of moral and spiritual improvement, it is also true, unfortunately, that the impetus has to some extent spent itself.

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At the close of the reign we are finding ourselves somewhat less ...

At the close of the reign we are finding ourselves somewhat less secure of our position than w could desire, and somewhat less abreast of the probl

From The Times, 23 January 1901: But she would have seen, too, ...