s that they put up one of their very best
men. Mr. Goschen I have always held to be one of the really great
debaters of the House of Commons. It is true that he has almost every
physical disadvantage with which an orator could be cursed. His voice is
hoarse, muffled, raucous, with some reminiscences of the Teutonic
fatherland from which he remotely comes. His shortness of sight amounts
almost to a disability. Whenever he has anything to read he has to place
the paper under his eyes, and even then he finds it very difficult to
read it. His action is like that of a distracted wind-mill. He beats the
air with his whirling arms; he stands several feet from the table, and
moves backwards and forwards in this space in a positively distracting
manner. And yet he is a great debater.

[Sidenote: In Opposition.]

But Mr. Goschen, like every other orator of the Opposition, has fallen
on somewhat evil days, and is not at his very best now. "The world,"
said Thackeray long ago, "is a wretched snob, and is especially cold to
the unsuccessful." This applies to that portion of the world which
changes sides in the House of Commons according to the resolves of the
popular verdict. Mr. Goschen, then, is not seen at his best in these
days when all his arguments can receive the triumphant and unanswerable
retort of a majority in the division lobbies. But still, the speech of
Mr. Goschen on April 17th was an excellent one; it was really the first,
since the beginning of this debate, which struck me as giving something
to answer. Acute, subtle, a dialectician to his finger-tips, Mr. Goschen
is best as a critic, and as a bit of criticism, his attack on the Bill
was excellent. Mr. Morley found himself compelled for the first time for
days to take serious notes; here at last were points which it was
necessary to confront. After all the dreary platitudes of many days,
this was a mercy for which to be thankful.

[Sidenote: Randolph dull.]

Lord Randolph Churchill, rising on the following evening, was not at his
best. He has been passing through what Disraeli once called a campaign
of passion in the provinces; and his speeches have been full of the
wildest fury. But all the fire had become extinguished. When Lord
Randolph Churchill makes up his mind to be rational, few people in the
House of Commons can be more rational; but when he makes up his mind to
throw prudence, sense, and reserve to the winds, nobody can rise to such
heights and descend