and devoted wife and mother. She has cheered by her sympathy her
illustrious husband in his defeats as well as in his triumphs, in the
many great undertakings of his political career, and been to him all the
late Viscountess Beaconsfield was to Mr. Gladstone's Parliamentary
rival. As a mother, she nursed and reared all her children, and ever
kept them in the maternal eye, carefully watching over and tending them.
One of the most interesting buildings at Hawarden is Mrs. Gladstone's
orphanage, which stands close to the castle. Here desolate orphans are
well cared for, and find, until they are prepared to enter on the
conflict and to encounter the cares of life, a happy home.

Mrs. Gladstone, although in many respects an ideal wife, was never able
to approach her husband in the methodical and business-like arrangement
of her affairs. Shortly after their wedding, the story runs, Mr.
Gladstone seriously took in hand the tuition of his handsome young wife
in book-keeping, and Mrs. Gladstone applied herself with diligence to
the unwelcome task. Some time after she came down in triumph to her
husband to display her domestic accounts and her correspondence, all
docketed in a fashion which she supposed would excite the admiration of
her husband. Mr. Gladstone cast his eye over the results of his wife's
labor and exclaimed in despair: "You have done them all wrong, from
beginning to end!" His wife, however, has been so invaluable a helpmeet
in other ways that it seems somewhat invidious to recall that little
incident. She had other work to do, and she wisely left the accounts to
her husband and his private secretaries.

The union of Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone has been blessed by eight children,
all of whom save two still survive. There were four sons, the eldest,
William Henry, was a member of the Legislature, and the second, the Rev.
Stephen Edward Gladstone, is rector of Hawarden. The third son is named