[Sidenote: The peroration.]
And Mr, Gladstone's power increased with his power over the House. It
looked as if you were watching some mighty monarch of the air that rises
and rises higher, higher into the empyrean on slow-poised, even almost
motionless, wing. Leaving behind the narrow issues of the particular
motion before the House, Mr. Gladstone entered on a rapid survey of the
mournful and touching relations between English officialism and Irish
National sentiment. From the dead past, he called up the touching,
beautiful, and sympathetic figure of Thomas Drummond, and all his
efforts to reconcile the administration of the law with the rights and
sentiments of the Irish people. The time for cheering had passed. All
anybody could do was to listen in spellbound silence, as sonorous
sentence rolled after sonorous sentence. And then cams the end, in a
softer and lower key. It was a direct personal allusion to Mr. Morley.
It was the whole weight of the Government and of its head thrown to the
side of the Chief Secretary in the new policy in Ireland. "We claim,"
said Mr. Gladstone, "to be partakers of his responsibility, we appeal to
the judgment of the House of Commons, and we have no other desire except
to share his fate.
Pages:
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173