again a fervid note
thrilled the ear and lifted all hearts. But political oratory is action,
not words,--action, character, will, conviction, purpose, personality. As
this eager muster of men underwent the enchantment of periods exquisite in
their balance and modulation, the compulsion of his flashing glance and
animated gesture, what stirred and commanded them was the recollection of
national service, the thought of the speaker's mastering purpose, his
unflagging resolution and strenuous will, his strength of thew and sinew
well tried in long years of resounding war, his unquenched conviction that
the just cause can never fail. Few are the heroic moments in our
parliamentary politics, but this was one.

II

The first reading of the bill was allowed to pass without a division. To
the second, Lord Hartington moved an (M115) amendment in the ordinary form
of simple rejection.(197) His two speeches(198) present the case against
the policy and the bill in its most massive form. The direct and
unsophisticated nature of his antagonism, backed by a personal character
of uprightness and plain dealing beyond all suspicion, gave a momentum to
his attack that was beyond any effect of dialectics. It was noticed that
he had never during his thirty years of parliamentary life spoken with
anything like the same power before. The debates on the two stages
occupied sixteen nights. They were not unworthy of the gravity of the
issue, nor of the fame of the House of Commons. Only one speaker held the
magic secret of Demosthenic oratory. Several others showed themselves
masters of the higher arts of parliamentary discussion. One or two
transient spurts of fire in the encounters of orange and green, served to
reveal the intensity of the glow behind the closed doors of the furnace.
But the general temper was good. The rule against irritating language was
hardly ever broken. Swords crossed according to the strict rules of
combat. The tone was rational and argumentative. There was plenty of
strong, close, and acute reasoning; there was some learning, a
considerable acquaintance both with historic and contemporary, foreign and
domestic fact, and when fact and reasoning broke down, their place was
abundantly filled by eloquent prophecy of disaster on one side, or
blessing on the other. Neither prophecy was demonstrable; both could be
made plausible.

Discussion was adorned by copious references to the mighty shades who had
been the glory