to Mr. Gladstone.
Ill-omened welcomes these for a friend of Labour.

[Sidenote: Sir John Gorst.]

Sir John Gorst occupies a curious position in his own party. He is one
of their very ablest debaters; always speaks forcibly and to the point;
rarely makes a mistake; and has a wonderfully good eye for the weak
points in the armoury of his opponents. He was the really strong man in
the old Fourth Party combination; but somehow or other he does not get
on with his friends, and has been left without Cabinet office at a time
when many inferior men have been able to get ahead of him. He has a
cold, cynical manner; suggests usually the clever lawyer rather than the
sympathetic politician; and altogether seems at odds with the world and
with himself. He made a bold bid, however, for labour legislation;
placed himself in a different position from the rest of his colleagues;
and altogether made one of those speeches which are listened to in
amused curiosity by political opponents, and in ominous silence and with
downcast looks by political friends. Mr. Balfour's face was a study; but
it was a study in the impassibility which politicians cultivate when
they desire to conceal their hatred of a political friend. It is on the
same side of the House that the really violent and merciless animosities
of the Parliamentary life prevail. I should think that Sir John Gorst is
the object of about as bitter a hatred among his own gang as any man in
the House.

[Sidenote: Mr. George Wyndham.]

In the happily-ended coercion days, letters constantly appeared in the
newspapers, signed "George Wyndham." A certain flippancy and cynicism of
tone, joined to a skilful though school-boyish delight in dialectics,
suggested that though the name was George Wyndham, the writer was an
eminent chief. When at last Mr. George Wyndham made his appearance in
the House and delivered himself of his maiden speech, Mr.
Campbell-Bannerman--one of the wittiest men in the House, though you
would take him for a very serious Scotchman without a joke in him, at
first sight--expressed his satisfaction to find that there was such a
person as Mr. Wyndham, as he had been inclined to rank him with Mrs.
'Arris and other mythical personages of whom history speaks. Mr. Wyndham
is a tall, handsome, slight fellow--with an immense head of black hair,
regular features, hatchet but well-shaped face, and a fine nose, Roman
in size, Norman in aquilinity and haughtiness. He is a smart