 He was President of the Chemical Society during 1877–79, and in 1898 he was one of the six past presidents of that Society who had been Fellows for upwards of fifty years, and in whose honour a banquet was given under the chairmanship of the President, Professor James Dewar.Gladstone was very fond of London and seems never to have wished to live out of the metropolis.He spoke French readily, and frequently attended the summer meetings of the Association Francaise pour l'Avancement des Sciences, and was also at one or two meetings of the Swiss Association.