[Sidenote: Johnston of Ballykilbeg.]
A different tone was that which Mr. Sexton assumed to Mr. Johnston of
Ballykilbeg. Mr. Johnston, known to the outer world as a fire-eater of
the most determined order, inside the House is one of the most popular
of men, and with no section of the House is he more popular than with
those Irish Nationalists for whose blood he is supposed to thirst. With
gentle and friendly wit Mr. Sexton dealt with the case of Mr. Johnston
lining the ditch, declaring amid sympathetic laughter that the one
object of any Irish Nationalist who should meet the Orangemen in such a
position would be to take him out, even if he had to carry him to do so.
This reduction of the militancy of Ulster down to the level of playful
satire did much to relieve the House from the tension which the wild
language of Ulsteria had been calculated to provoke. Finally, there came
a beautiful peroration--tender, touching, well sustained--which was
listened to with breathless attention by the House, and produced as
profound a depth of emotion on the Liberal as even on the Irish Benches.
It was a peroration which lifted the great issue to all the heights of
solemnity, nobility, and supreme interest which it reaches in the mouth
of an eloquent orator.
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