A real
master of Parliamentary craft, like Mr. Gladstone or Mr. Sexton, has
learned the lesson--the lesson which all orators of all ages have
learned--that there is nothing so deadly as moderation; that he destroys
the effectiveness of a passion by tearing it to pieces, and that you are
really effective when you have complete control of your temper, your
voice and your language.
[Sidenote: Mitchelstown.]
Mr. Dillon, rising--pale, high-strung, and nervous--was a sympathetic
sight, and the House was ready to listen to him with the greatest
attention. The Old Man was specially interested. Whenever nowadays, when
his hearing has become somewhat defective, he wants particularly to
hear a speech, he has to change his place; usually, as everybody knows,
he sits exactly opposite the box on the Speaker's table. This evening he
went to the last seat on the Treasury Bench--the seat nearest to the
spot from which Mr. Dillon was about to speak, and with his hand to his
ear he prepared himself to catch every word that Mr. Dillon was about to
utter, and the speech of Mr. Dillon was--in spite of the halting tones
which excitement, unpreparedness, the sense of his responsibility
produced--singularly effective.
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