old attitude of easy contempt.

[Sidenote: The outbreak.]

This will account for what would otherwise be inexplicable; namely,
that, having had a week to prepare his defence, Mr. Dillon should on
July 3rd have fallen into a dreadful, and, for the moment, disastrous
blunder. The truth was, Mr. Dillon had never thought of the subject for
more than a few moments between the date of the challenge and Mr.
Chamberlain's renewal of the attack, and, if he had been left free to
exercise his own judgment, would have allowed the whole thing to lapse
into the nothingness into which every such charge finally falls. On this
Monday night Mr. Chamberlain was in his most venomous mood. He had come
down to the House with the set determination to get up a row somehow or
other. There was evil in his eye; there was rancour in his voice; there
was the hoarse rage which always shows in him whenever he feels that he
has been beaten. His judgment is so shallow--his temper so rash and
violent--that some people think he actually counted that the Government
would never have dared to interfere with his obstructive plan of
campaign, and that he would have been permitted to bury the Bill under
the vast hedge of amendments. To him, then, the strong and drastic
action of the preceding week had come as a painful and most exasperating
surprise.

[Sidenote: Joe's weakness.]

It is one of the many bad turns that Joe's temper does him to always
lead him into overdoing his part. The wild outbursts of his venom--the
ferocity which he puts into his personal attacks--these things have the
effect of producing a certain amount of reaction; and thus his blows
often suffer from the very violence with which they are dealt. A real
master of Parliamentary craft, like Mr. Gladstone or Mr. Sexton, has
learned the lesson--the lesson which all orators of all ages have
learned--that there is nothing so deadly as moderation; that he destroys
the effectiveness of a passion by tearing it to pieces, and that you are
really effective when you have complete control of your temper, your
voice and your language.

[Sidenote: Mitchelstown.]

Mr. Dillon, rising--pale, high-strung, and nervous--was a sympathetic
sight, and the House was ready to listen to him with the greatest
attention. The Old Man was specially interested. Whenever nowadays, when
his hearing has become somewhat defective, he wants particularly to
hear a speech, he has to change his place; usually, as everybo