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 Justly proud as are his countrymen of his exalted character, his unerring judgment, his success unsurpassed in the world's history in battling for eight long years with a mighty nation, with a comparative handful of men; and in bringing into existence what in scarce one short century has become one of the greatest nations of the earth; they will find, the more they know him, that Mr. Gladstone's remarkable estimate of him is a just one; and that in all respects the verdict of his contemporaries is true to-day, and will remain true as long as our nation lives, that he was, indeed, "First in war; first in peace; and first in the hearts of his countrymen."