Chamberlain,
is most happy when it hears a man talking of something which he
understands thoroughly.
[Sidenote: Joe as a Jingo.]
Mr. Chamberlain spoke, as I have said, in the debate. It was a very
characteristic speech. I know people think I am prejudiced about this
gentleman. Not in the least. I recognize that he has many splendid
qualities for political life. They are not qualities which I think
highest either in the oratorical or the intellectual sense. He also has
staying power, and has gone through seven terrible years. There is the
trace of all the bitterness of that struggle in his face--which has lost
in these years the almost boyish freshness of expression and outline,
which bears in every deep line a mark of the ferocity of the passions by
which his breast has been torn. He is one of the many men in the House
of Commons that give one the impression of being hunted by the worst and
most pitiless of all furies--violent personal passion--especially for
power, for triumph, for revenge. But still, there he is--ready as ever
to take part in the struggle--still holding the position he held seven
years ago--with no sign of weakening or repentance, though there be
plenty of the hunger of baulked revenge.
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