ney for such a purpose under the Bill. "Ah, but"--interrupted the
incautious Wolmer--"could they not send envoys who were unpaid?" "No,"
promptly responded the Old Man, "because they had no power under the
Bill to 'accredit' envoys, and a foreign Power could not receive an
envoy who was not accredited." All this argument--broad, acute,
tranquil--was delivered in a voice that now and then was painfully low,
and sometimes you had to strain your ears. But then it was worth your
while to strain your ears, so that you might master all the supremacy of
the art and skill and knowledge of the whole speech.

For instance, he puts the question to Lord Wolmer, if he seriously means
that the Irish Legislature is not to have the right to petition? Lord
Wolmer answers that the Irish members will be in the Imperial
Parliament. "Ah! that's an argument, not an answer," says the Old Man;
and then, with the spring of a tiger, he pounces on the hapless Wolmer
with the question: "Is the right of petition, then, to be taken away in
every case where there is representation?"--a question which, with
petitions pouring in by the thousand to the House of Commons from the
Ulstermen and others, a Unionist like Lord Wolmer finds it impossible to
answer. And it is in connection with this point a little scene occurs
which brings out many of the points in this remarkable speech, which I
have been trying to make clear. Mr. Bryce disappears from the House;
then he returns: Mr. Gladstone asks him a question; the answer is
apparently not satisfactory, for the Old Man lifts his hands to heaven
in playful exaggeration of surprise. The House, puzzled, does not know
what it means; but the Old Man soon explains. He had sent Mr. Bryce to
the Library to get a copy of the recent Life of Lord Sherbrooke--Robert
Lowe, that was--and Mr. Bryce had brought back the discomforting
intelligence that the book was not there. However, with such a memory as
Mr. Gladstone's, this does not matter, for he is able to point out that
an Australian Legislature had at one time passed a resolution, and
agreed on a petition to the Imperial Parliament, in reference to the
Corn Laws. Just fancy the keenness, the omnivorousness, the promptitude
of that marvellous Old Man, who had read one of the most recently
published works, and had promptly seized on a point bearing reference to
a detail in his Bill.

[Sidenote: A pathetic scene.]

And then came the pathetic scene, in which again Mr.