Mr. Gladstone made a characteristic speech at Penmaen- mawr on
Friday, October 16th, where he is now taking a seaside holiday. A new road has been constructed connecting the station with the centre of the town, and Mr. Gladstone's visit was made the occasion for declaring this thoroughfare open. Mr. Gladstone in his speech commended Penmaenmawr. There was no healthier place or more satisfactory climate in the country. But like so many other people who have praised. quiet seaside places to their friends till they have grown into noisy little Brightons, Mr. Gladstone has evidently in his mind a sense of regret for the departed genii of the mountains and the shore. "Although an increase of these watering-places is in one sense a violation of Nature—it is taking a certain amount of liberty undoubtedly with a mountainous country—yet, on the other hand, we must recol- lect the enormous advantage of allowing to the crowded populations of our vast cities that easy and wholesome access to the sea and the mountains and the fresh breezes which they now so largely enjoy, and which is so good for their health, their taste, and their leisure, and an opportunity of cultivating their mental powers." In sense, style, and language that immense sentence is almost an epitome of Mr. Gladstone's mind. We see the old-fashioned exclusive Tory contending with the modern man of popular sympathies and getting beaten, but not without a struggle.
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