And it is in connection with this point a little scene occurs
which brings out many of the points in this remarkable speech, which I
have been trying to make clear. Mr. Bryce disappears from the House;
then he returns: Mr. Gladstone asks him a question; the answer is
apparently not satisfactory, for the Old Man lifts his hands to heaven
in playful exaggeration of surprise. The House, puzzled, does not know
what it means; but the Old Man soon explains. He had sent Mr. Bryce to
the Library to get a copy of the recent Life of Lord Sherbrooke--Robert
Lowe, that was--and Mr. Bryce had brought back the discomforting
intelligence that the book was not there. However, with such a memory as
Mr. Gladstone's, this does not matter, for he is able to point out that
an Australian Legislature had at one time passed a resolution, and
agreed on a petition to the Imperial Parliament, in reference to the
Corn Laws. Just fancy the keenness, the omnivorousness, the promptitude
of that marvellous Old Man, who had read one of the most recently
published works, and had promptly seized on a point bearing reference to
a detail in his Bill.
[Sidenote: A pathetic scene.
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