Moreover, the native chivalry of his disposition,
the curious simplicity which has remained his central characteristic, in
spite of all the experiences of the baser side of human nature which
must have been crowded into all that half a century of official and
Parliamentary life--that unwillingness to see anything but deplorable
error in his most rancorous, meanest, and most malignant opponent--all
these things make it difficult for him to understand the ugly realities
whose serpent heads show themselves plainly to almost every other eye
but his.
There is a dispute among the authorities as to the incidents of that
Thursday night--some, even among those friendly to the Prime Minister,
declaring that there was nothing unusual in the interruptions of that
night. My own recollection is clear that there was a great deal of
noise, and that it was so bad that Mr. Chamberlain tried to explain it
away, and was careful to absolve himself and his friends from all
responsibility for it. In the general body of the Liberal party there is
no doubt whatsoever about that business. Liberal after Liberal came up
to me afterwards, in allusion to a few remarks I felt it my duty to
make, to declare their entire agreement with the view I had put
forward--that the description of the _Daily News_, though consciously
and obviously written in the vein of parody, was a fair and just
description of what had taken place.
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