And, all the time, no loss whatever of the
massive calm, the imperturbable good-humour, the deadly politeness which
the commercial gentlemen from Ulster have also found can kill more
effectively than the shout of rhetoric, or the jargon of faction, or the
raucous throat of bigotry.
[Sidenote: In the Empyrean.]
At last the Old Man had come to a contrast between the action of the
Tory Government of 1885 and the Liberal with regard to the treatment of
prisoners in Ireland. The history of that period is one upon which Mr.
Gladstone is now able to speak without feeling; but he dragged out from
that period and its hidden recesses the whole story of the negotiations
between Parnell and Lord Carnarvon, and all the other circumstances that
make that one of the most remarkable epochs in the history of English
parties. He was now sweeping all before him. This Lord Randolph felt,
and it was almost timorously he rose to make an interruption. The Old
Man courteously gave way; but it was only to jump up again and pour on
his young opponent a tide of ridicule and answer which overwhelmed him.
Higher and higher he soared with every succeeding moment, and stranger
and more impressive became the aspect of the House.
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