tifully solemn anthem with all the sadness of
death, and none of the exultant joy of resurrection, and then you will
get some faint idea of the pent-up emotion which filled every
sympathetic heart in the great assembly as the Old Man finally came to
the closing words of his great speech. It was not so much a peroration
as an appeal, a message, a benediction.

At first, when the Old Man sat down, the pause followed that speaks of
emotion too deep for prompt expression, and then once again a rush to
their feet by the Irishry and the Liberals, loud cheering, and the
waving of hats, and all those other manifestations of vehement feeling
which alone Mr. Gladstone is privileged to receive. The Tories had kept
very quiet; had conducted themselves on the whole very well. Once or
twice came a high sniff of disgust, and now and then a younger member
could not restrain himself from an exclamation. But, altogether, the
Opposition was under the same spell as the rest of the House, and
listened patiently to the end.

[Sidenote: Mr. Sexton.]

I may pass over all that occurred on that Monday evening, with the
single exception of the very remarkable speech of Mr. Sexton. It was
well known that Mr. Sexton had taken a prominent part in laying before
Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues the views of the Irish party as to what
would constitute a satisfactory Bill to the Irish people; and Mr. Sexton
was authorised by his colleagues to state their views to the House. This
he did slowly, deliberately, without the least attempt at oratory, but
in language extraordinarily lucid, delicately shaded, touching on points
with exquisite art. And what he said came to this; that the Bill was a
good Bill; that in his opinion it could be accepted by the Irish people
as a satisfactory settlement of their demands; but that in two points it
needed careful watching, and perhaps considerable amendment: the
financial settlement and the future of the Land Question.

[Sidenote: Mr. Balfour.]

The Leader of the Opposition had not, so far, shone in his new position,
and people were not slow in coming to the conclusion that he required
the stimulus and the strength of a solid majority behind him to bring
out his peculiar talents. At all events, his first speech following the
introduction of the Home Rule Bill was a ghastly failure. It was
listened to in almost unbroken silence from the beginning to the
end--not that the speech had not plenty of cleverness in it, th