Gladstone's long oratorical life.
What constitutes the greatest of all Parliamentary triumphs? It is that
without abandoning your own principles, you shall so state a case that
even your bitterest political opponents will rest contented with, and be
ready to accept, your speech as the expression of their views. And this
is just what occurred. Mr. Goschen, I have said, came down to the House
chock-full of attack--I have, indeed, heard that he has confessed to
having been prepared to make a speech of some length. On the other side
of the House there sat Labby--full of that dogged, immutable Radicalism
which will make no distinction between Liberal and Tory when his
principles of foreign policy are at stake; and he was ready to pounce
upon the Prime Minister if he had detected any departure from the narrow
and straight path which leads to Radical salvation. In the background
were the dim forces of Unionism, more eager--perhaps even more
reckless--in readiness to attack Mr. Gladstone than his opponents on the
opposite benches. And behind them and above them, in all parts of the
House, was that countless host of busybodies, bores and specialists who
see in Egypt an opportunity of airing fads, fanaticism, or vanities.
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