speeches. He so played his game that by a
few minor concessions he secured nearly all the points he cared for,
and, while sparing the dignity of the Lords, steered his bill
triumphantly out of the breakers which had threatened to engulf it.
Very different was his ordinary demeanour in debate when he was off
his guard. His face and gestures while he sat in the House of Commons
listening to an opponent would express all the emotions that crossed
his mind. He would follow every sentence as a hawk follows the
movements of a small bird, would sometimes contradict half aloud,
sometimes turn to his next neighbour to vent his displeasure at the
groundless allegations or fallacious arguments he was listening to,
till at last, like a hunting leopard loosed from the leash, he would
spring to his feet and deliver a passionate reply. His warmth would
often be in excess of what the occasion required, and quite
disproportioned to the importance of his antagonist. It was in fact
the unimportance of the occasion that made him thus yield to his
feeling. As soon as he saw that bad weather was coming, and careful
seamanship wanted, his coolness returned, his language became
measured, while passion, though it might increase the force of his
oratory, never made him deviate a hand's breadth from the course he
had chosen. The Celtic heat subsided, and the shrewd self-control of
the Lowland Scot regained command.

It was by oratory that Mr. Gladstone rose to fame and power, as,
indeed, by it most English statesmen have risen, save those to whom
wealth and rank and family connections used to give a sort of
presumptive claim to high office, like the Cavendishes and the
Russells, the Bentincks and the Cecils. And for many years, during
which Mr. Gladstone was suspected as a statesman because, while he had
ceased to be a Tory, he had not fully become a Liberal, his eloquence
was the main, one might almost say the sole, source of his influence.
Oratory was a power in English politics even a century and a half ago,
as the career of the elder Pitt shows. During the last seventy years,
years which have seen the power of rank and family connections
decline, it has, although less cultivated as a fine art, continued to
be almost essential to the highest success, and it still brings a man
quickly to the front, though it will not keep him there should he
prove to want the other branches of statesmanlike capacity.

The permanent reputation of an orator de