After all the dreary platitudes of many days,
this was a mercy for which to be thankful.
[Sidenote: Randolph dull.]
Lord Randolph Churchill, rising on the following evening, was not at his
best. He has been passing through what Disraeli once called a campaign
of passion in the provinces; and his speeches have been full of the
wildest fury. But all the fire had become extinguished. When Lord
Randolph Churchill makes up his mind to be rational, few people in the
House of Commons can be more rational; but when he makes up his mind to
throw prudence, sense, and reserve to the winds, nobody can rise to such
heights and descend to such depths of wild, unreasonable, bellowing
Toryism--always, of course, excepting Ashmead-Bartlett. But when he is
rational he is often dull--when he is unreasonable he is often very
entertaining. The speech of April 18th was a rational speech--it was,
therefore, a dull one. Lord Randolph is not what he was. The voice which
was formerly so resonant has become muffled and sometimes almost
indistinct, and the manner has lost all the sprightliness which used to
relieve it in the olden days. The House of Commons is like the
Revolution--it often swallows its own children.
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