That was bad enough; but what is worse
is that the House is beginning to feel it. If you lose confidence in
yourself, the world is certain to pretty soon follow your example. And
so it is now with Mr. Balfour, for when he stood up to speak on March
27th there was the sight--which must have made his soul sink to even
profounder depths of depression--of members leaving the House in troops
and rushing to the lobby, the library, or the smoke-room, rather than
listen to a debater whose rise a few months ago would have meant a
general and excited incursion of everybody that could hear. Starting
thus, Mr. Balfour made the worst of a bad case, his speech was a
failure, and as the American would put it, a fizzle; in short, a ghastly
business.
[Sidenote: The G.O.M.'s outburst.]
It was in the midst of this debate that Mr. Gladstone made his
magnificent and unexpected outburst. He had been paying attention to the
debate--but very quietly, and not at all in a way that suggested an idea
of intervening in it. It was, too, about nine o'clock when Mr. Gladstone
stood up, and anybody acquainted with the House of Commons knows that
nine o'clock is in the very crisis of that dinner hour which nightly
makes the House of Commons a waste and a wilderness.
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