Sir Edward Clarke ventured an
interruption; he was crushed in a sentence. It was an admirable specimen
of destructive criticism, and it hugely and palpably delighted Mr.
Gladstone.
[Sidenote: Mr. Asquith.]
Mr. Asquith had intended to speak on April 14th, evening, but the
portentous and prolix Courtney had shut him out, and he had to wait till
the following evening. The change was, perhaps, desirable, for Mr.
Asquith had thus the opportunity of addressing the House when it was
fresh, vital, and impressionable. In these long debates the evenings
usually became intolerably dull and oppressive. Though Mr. Asquith was
an untried man when he went into office, in two speeches he succeeded in
placing himself in the very front rank of the debaters and politicians
in the House. Let me say at once that the speech was a remarkable
triumph, and placed Mr. Asquith at a bound amid not only the orators,
but the statesmen of the House of Commons--the men who have nerve,
breadth of view, great courage, enormous resource.
[Sidenote: Joe's dustheap.]
One of the discoveries of the speech must have been particularly
unpleasant to Mr. Chamberlain. The gentleman from Birmingham has at last
found a man who does not fear him--who has a much finer mind--wider
culture--who has judgment, temper, and a vocabulary as copious and as
ready as that of Mr.
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