strong advocate for certain reforms at home in 1818, and in 1823 on the
seas, and for Greek independence in 1824. "On the 14th of February,
1824, a public meeting was held in Liverpool Town Hall, 'for the purpose
of considering the best means of assisting the Greeks in their present
important struggle for independence.' Mr. Gladstone spoke impressively
in favor of the cause which had already evoked great enthusiasm amongst
the people, and enlisted the sympathies and support of Lord Byron and
other distinguished friends of freedom."

It was in 1818 that he addressed a meeting called "to consider the
propriety of petitioning Parliament to take into consideration the
progressive and alarming increase in the crimes of forging and uttering
forged Bank of England notes." The penalties for these crimes were
already heavy, but their infliction did not deter men from committing
them, and these crimes increased at an enormous rate. Resolutions were
passed at the Liverpool meeting, recommending the revision and amendment
of existing laws.

Then again, so late as the year 1823, the navigation between Liverpool
and Dublin was in a lamentable condition, and human life was recklessly
imperiled, and no one seemed willing to interfere and to interest
himself in the interests of humanity. It was then that he again came to
the front to advocate a just cause. To illustrate the dangers to vessels
and passengers, the case of the sloop _Alert_ may be cited. It was
wrecked off the Welsh coast, with between 100 and 140 persons on board,
of whom only seventeen were saved. For the safety and rescue of all
those souls on board this packet-boat there was only one small shallop,
twelve feet long. Mr. Gladstone was impressed with the terrible nature
of the existing evil, and obtained an amendment to the Steamboat Act,
requiring imperatively that every passenger vessel should be provided