in taking and utilising a point, supreme over anybody in the
House of Commons, with the one exception of Mr. Gladstone. Thus when one
or two Liberals made somewhat foolish interruptions on July 27th he
turned upon them and exploited their interruption with an art that was
almost dazzling in its perfection. For instance, when he denounced the
Liberals for accepting some clause as the best that could be proposed by
man, some Liberals cried out, "Under the circumstances." "Under the
circumstances," said Mr. Chamberlain, with that strange, eloquent, deep
swell in his voice, which adds so much to its effectiveness, and then he
took the phrase, repeated it, and reiterated it, and turned it upside
down, until even his bitterest enemy could not help enjoying the
perfection of the skill with which he played upon it.

[Sidenote: Joe smiles.]

Finally he came to the passage in which he drew an elaborate comparison
between Mr. Gladstone and Herod. I had no doubt at the time, and my
impression has since been corroborated by words reported to have been
used by Mr. Chamberlain himself--that he used the word "Herod" in a
moment of happy and almost impish inspiration with a view to provoking
the retort which was so obvious. There was a self-conscious smile on his
face when he uttered the words, and he seemed to be quite prepared, and
almost delighted by the retort which followed so promptly. Furthermore,
when several Tories rose to denounce the interruption he beckoned to
them with his hand; there was a gratified smile on his face; and his
whole air suggested that he was so delighted with the success of his
little manoeuvre that he thought it a pity anybody should spoil it; and
especially as the result was to create such a din as to prevent him from
finishing his final sentence. And he wanted very badly to finish that
sentence; for over and over again, with an obstinacy that suggested the
delighted author, he sought to get the sentence out; and no doubt he was
very disappointed that the guillotine finally fell upon him with that
sentence still unuttered. And there is one other point about this moment
which I see has been completely lost. It is supposed that I and the
others who shouted "Judas, Judas," did so in pure provocation--with
deliberate intent to apply the word to Mr. Chamberlain personally and
with fierce political and personal passion. That was not my impression
of what was meant; and that certainly was not what I meant. I too