le in the way of argument, and was
desultory beyond belief. But suddenly there came a passage which lifted
the whole debate into a nobler air. The orator described himself
standing on the Western shores of Scotland, and gazing across towards
the hills of Antrim: "We can see the colour of their fields, and in the
sunset we can see the glancing of the light upon the windows of the
cabins of the people. This is the country, I thought the other day when
I looked on the scene--this is the country which the greatest English
statesman tells us must be governed as we govern the Antipodes." And he
emphasized the last word with a downward sweep of his right hand, which
in a commonplace speaker would have been frankly comic, but in this
great master of oratory was a master-stroke of dramatic art.

Before I close this chapter, I should like to recall a word of
Gladstone's which at the time when he said it struck me as memorable. In
August, 1895, I was staying at Hawarden. Gladstone's Parliamentary life
was done, and he talked about political people and events with a freedom
which I had never before known in him. As perhaps was natural, we fell
to discussing the men who had been his colleagues in the late Liberal
Ministry. We reviewed in turn Lord Spencer, Sir William Harcourt, Lord
Rosebery, Mr. John Morley, Sir George Trevelyan, and Mr. Asquith. It is
perhaps a little curious, in view of what happened later on, that Sir
Henry Campbell-Bannerman was not mentioned; but, with regard to the
foregoing names, I perfectly recollect, though there is no need to
repeat, the terse and trenchant judgment passed on each. When we had
come to the end of my list, the ex-Premier turned on me with one of
those compelling glances which we knew so well, and said with emphasis,
"But you haven't mentioned the most important man of all." "Who is
that?" "Edward Grey--there is the man with the real Parliamentary gift."
I am happy to make the Foreign Secretary a present of this handsome
compliment.

FOOTNOTES:

[42] Mucius Scaevola per multos annos "Princeps Senatus."

[43] Bulwer-Lytton, _St. Stephen's_.

[44] Mr. A. J. Willams, Mr. A. G. Symond, Mr. Walter Wren, Mr. W. L.
Bright, and Mr. J. J. Tylor were some of them; and we used to meet in
Mr. Bright's rooms at Storey's Gate.

[45] "It is an extraordinary big club done in a bold, wholesale, shiny,
marbled style, richly furnished with numerous paintings, steel
engravings, busts, and full-length st