Gladstone

Gladstone, like Richelieu, cannot write. Nothing can be more unmusical, more involved, or more uncouth than all his scribblement.

—Disraeli, Benjamin, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield

It would be inaccurate to say that Churchill and I conversed. Like Gladstone speaking toVictoria, he addressed me as though I were a one-man House of Commons.

—Manchester,William Raymond

Mr Gladstone read Homer for fun, which I thought served him right.

—Churchill, Lord Randolph Henry Spencer

Posterity will do justice to that unprincipled maniac Gladstoneöan extraordinary mixture of envy, vindictiveness, hypocrisyand superstition and with one commanding characteristic.Whether Prime Minister or Leader of the Opposition, whether preaching, praying, speechifying, or scribblingöneveragentleman.Heisso vain that he wants to figure in history as the settler of all the great questions; but a parliamentary Constitution is not favourable to such ambitions. Things must be done by parties, not by persons using parties as tools.

—Disraeli, Benjamin, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield