e way they fight their Parliamentary battles. Few people
follow the proceedings closely enough to know when an Opposition
deserves blame for prolonging debate, or a Ministry for abuse of the
closure. So, too, in the United States it would seem that neither the
tyrannical action of a majority nor filibustering by a minority shocks
the nation.

Not only was Northcote's own temper pacific, but he was too sweetly
reasonable and too dispassionate to be a successful leader in
Opposition. He felt that he was never quite a party man. His mind was
almost too judicial, his courtesy too unfailing, his temper too
unruffled, his manner too unassuming. He did not inspire awe or fear.
Not only did he never seek to give pain, even where pain might have
been a wholesome discipline for pushing selfishness--he seemed
incapable of irritation, and bore with vexatious obstruction from some
members of the House, and mutinous attacks from others who belonged to
his own party, when a spirit less kindly and forgiving might have
better secured his own authority and the dignity of the assembly. He
proceeded on the assumption, an unsafe one, as he had too much reason
to know, that every one else was a gentleman like himself, penetrated
by the old traditions of the House of Commons.

While superior to the prejudices of the old-fashioned wing of his
party, he was too cautious and conscientious to join those who sought
to lead it into demagogic courses. So far as political opinions went,
he might, had fortune sent him into the world as the son of a Whig
family, have made an excellent Whig, removed as far from high Toryism
on the one hand as from Radicalism on the other. There was, therefore,
a certain incompatibility between the man and the position. Average
partisans felt that a leader so very reasonable was not in full
sympathy with them. Even his invincible optimism displeased them.
"Hang that fellow Northcote!" said one of them; "he's always seeing
blue sky." The militant partisans, whatever their opinions, desired a
pugnacious chief. That a leader should draw the enemy's fire does him
good with his followers, and makes them rally to him. But the fire of
his opponents was hardly ever directed against Northcote, even when
controversy was hottest. Had he possessed a more imperious will, he
might have overcome these difficulties, because his abilities and
experience were of the highest value to his party, and his character
stood so high that the ma