ne of his invective had been tempered by a
respect for the actual feeling of the House. The necessity for this act
of deference, added to the consciousness that he was in presence of the
man whose acts he so strenuously denounced, were too much for the nerves
of the orator, and he came to an abrupt conclusion, whose confused and
uncertain sentences scarcely warranted the cheers with which his friends
rallied him.

"Sir Horace rose at once to reply. His voice was at first so
inarticulate that we could but catch the burden of what he said,--a
request that the House would accord him all the indulgence which his
state of debility and suffering called for. If the first few sentences
he uttered imparted a painful significance to the entreaty, it very soon
became apparent that he had no occasion to bespeak such indulgence. In a
voice that gained strength and fulness as he proceeded, he entered
upon what might be called a narrative of the foreign policy of the
administration, clearly showing that their course was guided by certain
great principles which dictated a line of action firm and undeviating;
that the measures of the Government, however modified by passing events
in Europe, had been uniformly consistent,--based upon the faith of
treaties, but ever mindful of the growing requirements of the age.
Through a narrative of singular complexity he guided himself with
consummate skill, and though detailing events which occupied every
region of the globe, neither confusion nor inconsistency ever marred the
recital, and names and places and dates were quoted by him without any
artificial aid to memory."

There was in the polished air, and calm, dispassionate delivery of the
speaker, something which seemed to charm the ears of those who for four
hours before had been so mercilessly assailed by all the vituperation
and insolence of party animosity. It was, so to say, a period of relief
and repose, to which even antagonists were not insensible. No man ever
understood the advantage of his gifts in this way better than Upton, nor
ever was there one who could convert the powers which fascinated society
into the means of controlling a popular assembly, with greater assurance
of success. He was a man of a strictly logical mind, a close and acute
thinker; he was of a highly imaginative temperament, rich in all the
resources of a poetic fancy; he was thoroughly well read, and gifted
with a ready memory; but, above all these,--transcendentl