s a speaker in
and out of the House. I never shall forget the impression that
speech left on my mind. As a mere feat of physical endurance it
was almost unsurpassed; as a feat of parliamentary courage,
parliamentary skill, parliamentary endurance, and parliamentary
eloquence, I believe it will always be unequalled.(346)

As he drew to his close, he looked according to Mr. Forster, "_like an
inspired man_," and I have heard many hearers of cool temperament declare
the passage about the Montenegrins and onwards, to have been the most
thrilling deliverance that could ever be conceived. Here is this noble
peroration:--

Sir, there were other days when England was the hope of freedom.
Wherever in the world a high aspiration was entertained, or a
noble blow was struck, it was to England that the eyes of the
oppressed were always turned--to this favourite, this darling home
of so much privilege and so much happiness, where the people that
had built up a noble edifice for themselves would, it was well
known, be ready to do what in them lay to secure the benefit of
the same inestimable boon for others. You talk to me of the
established tradition and policy in regard to Turkey. I appeal to
an established tradition older, wider, nobler far--a tradition not
which disregards British interests, but which teaches you to seek
the promotion of these interests in obeying the dictates of honour
and justice. And, sir, what is to be the end of this? Are we to
dress up the fantastic ideas some people entertain about this
policy and that policy in the garb of British interests, and then,
with a new and base idolatry, fall down and worship them? Or are
we to look, not at the sentiment, but at the hard facts of the
case, which Lord Derby told us fifteen years ago--viz., that it is
the populations of those countries that will ultimately possess
them--that will ultimately determine their abiding condition? It is
to this fact, this law, that we should look. There is now before
the world a glorious prize. A portion of those unhappy people are
still as yet making an effort to retrieve what they have lost so
long, but have not ceased to love and to desire. I speak of those
in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Another portion--a band of heroes such
as the world has rarely seen--stand on the rocks of Montenegro, and
are ready now,