or half an hour, or, say, three-quarters,
he would have made damaging speech; as it is, he wearies House to death,
swamps us all and himself in waste of verbiage, and the people he
attacks escape in the general misery. In other words, his carbon of
burning vanity, uniting with the oxygen of opportunity, forms a speech
two hours and three-quarters long; which is a narcotic poison."

Mr. G., with the ardour of youth, and the training of an athlete,
proposed to himself to hear what SEXTON had to say. Accordingly took up
convenient seat below Gangway. Stayed there an hour. Then walked back an
altered man; shattered; aged; almost in a state of coma.

"Well, you ought to have known better," I said, somewhat sharply, having
no sympathies with these vagaries.

"And I was so well and strong when I entered the House," Mr. G. said,
wearily. "Quite elate with my correspondence with TYNDALL. Didn't you
think that a nice turn in the concluding sentence?--'My only desire is
to meet you on the terms on which, long ago, we stood when, under my
roof, you gallantly offered to take me up the Matterhorn, _and
guaranteed my safe return_! Wouldn't trust myself on the Matterhorn with
TYNDALL now;" and Mr. G., warily shaking his head, walked forth in
search of rest and refreshment.

_Business done._--Mr. G.'s Amendment to OLD MORALITY'S Resolution on
Parnell Commission Report negatived by 339 votes against 268.

_Tuesday._--This has been GRANDOLPH'S night. Broke the silence of the
still young Session with memorable speech; been in diligent attendance
on Debate; sat through interminable speeches with patience only excelled
by Mr. G.; sometimes looked as if were about to deliver his soul; but
succeeded in bottling it up. To-night soul drove out the cork; burst
the bottle, so to speak.

GRANDOLPH a man of many phases. Tonight presented himself in his highest
character; a statesman; a champion of constitutional principles at
whatever expense to prospects and sensibilities of his most revered
friends on Treasury Bench and elsewhere. Quite a new style of speech for
GRANDOLPH, testifying to remarkable range of his genius. Nothing
personal: free from acrimony; inspired with profound, unfeigned,
reverence for constitutional principles. Here and there a touch of
pathos as he recalled former times when, as DIZZY said of PEEL on a
famous occasion, "they had been so proud to follow one who had been so
proud to lead them."

[Illustration: The Reverbe