New-York tribune., 1878-12-18

speech. iuS OfdtOi bthhuo oiiiVo' oAO~1 @~'"
very slightly against the rail. The arrangement
of the nights is bad Of gasjet ran across the
gallery Just above the speakers head. but just be-
hind him, 80 that his face was in shadow. 1t was
only when he turned half round to the chairman
that the light fell full on the broad forehead,
the sunken and glowing eyes, the hard'
strong lines about the mouth, and the pow
erful iaw / have seen Mr.. Gladstone III
many circumstances, and ! know few faces moro
impressive than his. 1t is not like the late Mr.
Websters III feature there IS nothing between the
two men which wonld ordinarily be called resein-
blance but Mr.. Gladstone's face nevertheless re-
minds one ofhe Great ExpouDder's; sydney Smiths
descrpt lon of Webster might well be applied to Mr..
Gladstone He too is steam-eneine in trousers. The
illustration is none the less apt because Of certain
clumslness of movement which occasionally be-
trays itself But at first you none OF that You
see q man intensely in earnest and intensely con-
scious of his power He stands In the spirit OF
an apostle with message TO deliver certain OF It's
truth and certain that he and not some other man
is appointed to deliver it. In consciousness OF
this kind there nothing offensive it is too far re-
moved from concert, and no man Is great III Affairs
without it,
For two hours less ten minutes, Mr. Gladstone
held hIs audience IN the hollow of his hand. Deal
ing ith subjects of different kinds. each full OF
complicated detail he never allowed bis hear
ers to lose the thread of his DISCOURSE Ii is in re-
spect to that faculty of lucid exposition that am
inclined to put him above all other orators which
does not mean that he is to be put above all Others
on the whole He had an audience composed mainly OF
what would here be called lower mddle-class people
small shopkeepers. small manufacturers. well-to-
do artisans-with a sprnkling out of higher grades
1t certainly was not an assembly that could be
called cultivated or that was familiar in advance
with the labyrinth of facts through which he led
them That is what makes the performance so
remarkable. There were passages Of real eloquence.
More than once the orator touched height winch
few but the very greatest orators ever reach
More than once there were sentences penetrated
with pathos,-with feeling so deep that 1T filled
the house The two perorations-fOr two there
were-lacked nothing TO make them impressive ex-
cept the suppression of either Once or twice
came CLEAN Of humor, ever q quality with Mr.
Gladstone. IDvective, irony, satire, honest contempt
sometimes moral aud sometimes intellectual con-
tempt-for certain opponents were not wanting
But from beginning to end the one quality the one
power most marked and admirable in this speech
was its lucidty and strength of statement.
should say of Mr. Gladstone that he could state a
case better than any man in England.
And what case he had to stateI He had to point
ont in terms bounded aud moderate, but signif-
cant the gradual encrOachments of personal rule
upon Parliamentary government. He had to re-
mind his hearers that this Parliament, which
ought to be the guardian of public lib
critics, had shown itself so subservient to Minis
terlal dictates that the time had come to appeal
from Parliament itself to the nation Like Chatham.
whom he resembles in more than one particular,
Mr.. Gladstone finds that he Is set for the
Il 81 tha RI n ba
stItution He had to discuss the Eastern
question and the Treaty of Berlin more. and to
demonstrate afresh the incapaclty, the trlckery,
the reckessness, and the policy of subterfuge and
secrecy which have marked the dealings Of the
Ministry with Russia. He had to expose the
curious art " with which Lord Cranbrook, in
the now too famous paragraph OF bis late dis
patch had contnved to put together three asser-
tions all of which should be literally true. and
which yet should convey an impression absolutely
false. He had to protest, with all the authority
which belongs a public life stretching over fifty
years. against the Jlngo claim lately set up, that
when q Ministry has committed the country TO
war q seal shall be set upon the lips OF every
patriot who believes the has been entered upon
without cause and is to be prosecuted for an
undesirable end. He had, lastly. to put
the momentous question, Is this war
against AfghanIstan just or an unjust
wari aud to answer. that upon the evidence thus
far pubhshed, it was unjust He had TO express his
alarm, lest it should be proved TO be grossly and to-
tally unust and lest because of its gross injustice
if should bring upon England the suffering which
follows upon a tremendous sin; to warn his coun-
trymen that national injustice is the surest road to
national downfall.
That is only a skeleton Of this mastery speech !;
the bones without the flesh and blood, the color.
the movement, the life. which marked 1t through
out. There many passages In 1t should DO glad
to quote. There some which will pass into lit
eratrre az specimens of oratOrical art But quo
tation and no description convey to
the reader the sensation which the passages
produced as delivered In ITSELF the warning against
exultation over mere military is pregnant
with wisdom and perfect IN form:
Recollect what happened in 1889. and the following
years Then, asO imp ogOked you went into Afghan
istan. Then ulso you mastered the diihcues OF the
passes Then, also you made your way 10 Cabul Then.
aso you apparently the master of the country
and When you mad done all that you were not al the
eud-you at the beginning Of your tolls and your
calamiies
And again:
Isr ajust wari This question cannot be settled by
our IOrefathers II was not thus that Lord Chatham
and Mr. Burke understood their duties when
nies 70 subsection. 1t was not thus that the late
Lord Derby understood his duty in 1887, when
war On China. il cannot settled by production
garbled evidence 1t cannot be settled by chorus Of
leading articles that written to-day and that
forgotten, or cODtradice1 dsowned Tomorrow II
cannot settled by military successes, for thank God
the arbitrament Of the sword the sole the
supreme arbitrament III tine affairs of civilized man. 1t
cannot be settled by Parliamentary majorties
Tor ihat responsibility which at the moment I
speak 10 undivided upon ten or twelve men will
next week or the AFTER likely be divided
tween them and Houses of Parliament and WITHIN
no very long peTiod-it may be within very short
periOd-he people of England viii have 10 whether
they will take themselves their share Of that re-
sponsiDity OF guilt and shame.
Altogether, it was a speech for which magnificent