3-082-978 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Opening of the Baltic Canal: Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone, on board the "Tantallon Castle", bidding farewell to friends, 1895. 'A decided éclat has been given by the presence of Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone to the large party of guests who, at the invitation of Sir Donald Currie, went on board the Tantallon Castle to witness the opening of the Baltic Canal. A man who has been Prime Minister cannot voluntarily divest himself of the importance which attaches to all he afterwards says and does. Accordingly it was not surprising that great interest has been taken by our Continental neighbours in the progress of the Tantallon Castle and in its most distinguished passenger...By four o'clock on June 13 the steamer arrived in the Elbe, and thereafter the visitors went to Hamburg. The veteran statesman was unable to attend a civic banquet, but at a dinner given on board the Tantallon Castle by Sir Donald Currie the health of Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone was proposed by the Burgomaster of Hamburg, who, by a diverting slip of the tongue, described Mr. Gladstone as the "Right Reverend." Few blunders were ever so apt. Mr. Gladstone replied in a speech full of friendly feeling towards the German nation'. From "Illustrated London News", 1895.