And sure enough he made on that day the appalling statement
that he had used certain language for the purpose of deceiving the House
of Commons. He said to me that he liked to speak in an empty House
because then he had time to collect his thoughts. Joe Biggar, his
associate, was also able to speak in any circumstances with exactly the
same ease of spirit. To him, speaking was but a means to an end, and
whether people listened to him or not--stopped to hang on his words or
fled before his grating voice and Ulster accent--it was all one to him.
Two other men have the power of speaking always with the same interest
and self-possession. These are Sir Charles Dilke and Mr. O'Connor Power.
[Sidenote: The Sensitiveness of Mr. Balfour.]
But Mr. Balfour is like none of these men. He requires the glow of a
good audience--of a cheering party--of the certainty of success in the
division lobby--to bring out his best powers. The splendid, rattling,
self-confident debater of the coercion period now no longer exists, and
Mr. Balfour has positively gone back to the clumsiness, stammering, and
ineffectiveness of the pre-historic period of his life before he had
taken up the Chief Secretaryship.
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