Gladstone justifies his
speech-making by improving every hour. It would scarcely seem credible
that a man with more than half-a-century of speech-making and triumphs
behind him would have been capable of making any change, and especially
of making a change for the better. But the peculiarity of Mr. Gladstone
is that even as a speaker he grows and improves every day. I have been
watching him closely now for some sixteen years in the House of Commons,
and I thought that it was impossible for him to ever reach again the
triumphs of some of his utterances. I have heard people say, too, that
they felt it pathetic to hear him deliver his speech on the introduction
of the Home Rule Bill, and to remember the vigour with which his
utterances on that occasion stood in such a contrast. This was
superficial and false criticism. It is quite true that the old resonance
of the voice is not there, and it is true that now and then he shows
signs of physical fatigue, and that recently after his cold there were
some days when his voice was little better than a very distinct, but
also a very pathetic, whisper. But there is another side. Age has
mellowed his style, so that now he can speak on even the most
contentious subject with a gentleness and a freedom from anything like
venom--with an elevation of tone--that make it almost impossible for
even his bitterest opponent to listen to him without delight and, for
the moment at least, with a certain degree of assent.
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