[Sidenote: and Tragedy.]

And then came the other and the tragic note. Again I have to quote the
exact words to convey the impression and explain the description:--

"If I were in the position of one of those gentlemen--if I had seen the
wrongs and the sufferings of Ireland in former times, if the iron had
entered into my soul as it had entered into theirs, it would have been
impossible. I should not have been more temperate possibly than some of
them under those circumstances of the language I used. (Cheers.)"

It was when he uttered the words, "if the iron had entered into my
soul," that Mr. Gladstone ventured on the bold gesture of striking his
hand against his breast--a simple gesture, and not an uncommon gesture
in itself--but you should have heard the resonant and thrilling
voice--you should have been under the entrancing and almost bewildering
spell beneath which at this moment all the imagination and emotion of
the House lay supine, helpless, and drugged--to have understood the
shiver of feeling which passed through everybody. And so he went
on--rising higher and higher--a deeper harmony in every note--a more
splendid strength in every sentence--till you almost thought you were
looking at some great bird--with the strength and splendour of the
eagle, the full-hearted and passionate melody of the lark--as it soared
on, on its even and well-poised wing, higher and higher to the dim and
blue ether of the upper air.

[Sidenote: A strange scene.]

Right to the last word, there was the same unbroken, passionate strength
and fervour, so that when it was all ended the House gave a start as
though it had to rouse itself from some splendid vision. And then came
that rude and quick awakening which, in the world of actualities, always
bursts in upon the most solemn and moving hours. At about half-past
eight every evening the Speaker or Chairman--whichever is in the
chair--gets up and goes out to tea. Before doing so the presiding
officer calls upon the next speaker, and when the speaker has been
named, cries "Order, order!" and promptly disappears into the room where
his meal is laid. Scarcely had Mr. Gladstone sat down when Mr. Mellor
called upon Sir Richard Temple, then cried "Order, order!" and, almost
within a couple of seconds after Mr. Gladstone had concluded, had
vanished from the House. This was immediately followed by the stampede
of the rest of the House--for by half-past eight everybody was famished
with