The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-07-04
GLADSTONE IN DEFEAT.
Pen-Picture of the Premier Taken on the
Night the Home-Rule Bni Was Beaten

the surface. He had held cup after cup of gall
to the old Minister'S Inns closely that he must
have tasted the bitterness of the contents. Mr..
Parnell's speech had, indeed. contained
some honey; and from his hands containing
the olive branch had fallen a few flowers
upon the old mans knees. The speech
of Joseph Cowen, with its broad, flat vowels and
sweet, finished periods, like strains of perfect
melody from ily-rnade instrument, had at
tuned his more powerful and perfect organ into
fine rhythm. The prosy emptiness of Sir
Michael Hicks Beach had been relieved at inter
walls with mere falsehood about the motives of
the Minister. aggravating him beyond possible
nildness, even toward void waste of language
but more than all other influences acting
upon his powers, Mr.. Gladstone was
filed with that intense emotion which
great occasion, rising toward the plane
of moral sublimity. engenders in faculties adapt
ed for it, He had been, indeed, so rritated by
Mr. Goschen, that several times he mad abruptly
turned completely round on the bench and given
the retort of untruth, sheathed in the courtesy
of fine manners, and, more than once exasper
ated by Sir Michaeps paltry insolence, he leaned
all the way across the wide table, extending his
arms almost to the speakers breast, and smote
him sharply with fat contradiction. but with
the mitigating air of a father chastising a
froward boy These incidents were but bubbles;
but when he rose to speak, it was clear that the
deeps We're to be stirred.
He almost leaped upon his feet. his figure Wis
IDLY trembling with power and agitated with in
scope There was something loonne in the way
he moved his head about and darted his ganees
upon his opponents, who were in front of him,
behind him, above the gangway and below the
gangway, glowering upon him from all sides
and crowding in upon his liberty, as if keeping
him at bay Never did his deep, thought
full eyes shine out more keenly, never rose
his clear, smooth, resonant voice more melodi
ously than when, with well-chosen words.
he thrust the obstacles before him out of his
way. and cleared the arena for his freer action.
Those who have listened to him for quarter of
a century, assured me that he had never pre-
sented a finer or moro imposing 'front.' and
that for ten years he had never dis
played better quality of voice or greater
endurance of the tremendous emotional
strain and physical exhaustion which
are inseparable from such efforts. AS he pro-
ceeded fairly to the main matter of his discourse
he obtained full command of his gifts. He stood
erectly, as if young and 1.-THE again he looked
abroad over the breathless House dauntlessly as
an eagle over the abysses beyond its eyre; he
threw his voice in full mellow tone throughout
the chamber, so that every word was heard with
distinctness, even as the words came in through
all the tiny intervals of the lattice that fronts
the ladies' gallery.
No enc who merely reads that speech can form
the faintest idea of It's intense power, its pro
found passion. its splendid pathos, as he en-
treated Engshmen TO be at least just to Ire.
land; its sublime confession of crime and sin,
with which. alas, his own fingers had been some
the sister; its ingenious and superb argument
that the safety of the empire required this
atonement; its solid presentation of facts Gov
ering the whole scope of the subject in its ma
terial, economic ard political phases; its mas
terly disposal of the cry of separation, and, per
haps most incisive of ALL its fatal assaults upon
his enemies
Live though he may to an age greater than
Methusalehs. and grow holier than Melchisedek
was holy Mr.. Chamberlain can never remove
ha Hra nf hat ,;1kxk hxyxt no
magic hand of this old man. He cut the traf
ticker off relentlessy and never can word of
friendship pass between them. Achilles spoke
again to 2e traitor, who in relations of friend
ship had robbed him of his reward: Hateful to
me are his gifts and himself value not a hair
The fanciful description Of the tricky mariner
who had set his sail for any wind and turned
his rudder for any current, was not the
most effective part of the picture. The
shame OF his whilom colleagues course was more
powerfully exposed and more remorselessy
deepened in another passage of the speech. Mr..
Chamberlain has undertaken to assume to speak
AS the bosom friend the chosen confidant of Mr..
Gladstone, especially concerning the home-rule
BILL and his patriotic attitude has been publicly
that of man, who, having been fully con-
suited, rejected proposal whose terms had
been submitted for his consideration. That
assumption, for Mr.. Chamberlain never was
consulted about the bill, Mr. Gladstone dis
PEELED in q passage OF vehement anger, which
thrilled the House and turned the smile upon
the milky face of Mr.. Chamberlain into white
impotency
1t has been charged that the home rule bill
was in origin the bill of man. The reply to
that gave Mr. Gladstone his opportunity to un-
cover Mr.. Chamberlain's pretensions He pro-
ceeded to affirm that Mr. Chamberlain was kept
in total ignorance of its origin, and that in it's
preparation he Mr.. Gladst0ne) had sought only
the counsel of shis nearest political friends"
those in whose purity of patriotism,
unselfshness of purpose, and capac
lty of craftsmanship he had confidence.
This whitening sentence was spoken in strenu-
Gus and hoarse whisper. so that every ear was
bent to catch it's deadly words, and when he
rested for breath after it. the feeling throughout
the eager and excited auditory resembled that
which ensues when Salvini has throttled Iago
and drawn his foot away after planting it on the
false friends breast. The passage was the most
dramatic in the speech, and a sob of relief was
heard in the House when the victim was per-
mitted to rise and GO
The solid matter of the speech was that illus
trating the prudence of home rule by the exam
pies of other countries, and in opening the way
for this he called upon the opponents of the bill
to rseution solitary instance in which the in
dependence of Legislatures was followed by the
severance of countries. He cited Belgium and
Holland. Denmark and the Duchess Tur-
key and Crete, Russia and Finland Gal
licia and Austria, Great Britain and her
colonies The force of his logic irresisti-
BILE, and the opposition remained silent Not
less pertinent was his candid avowal of the rea-
son for Protestant loyalty in Ireland. Eng
land had given that portion of the people Of her
sister island ample grounds for attachment,
while she had applied to the rest all the tor
ments in her power to insure their &sloyalty.
Nor had the opponents of the bill word of
interruption for his summary of the acts
by which, since the legislative union, eighty
five years ago, England had persisted in
the course which kept the mass of the Irish peo-
pie disloyal He delivered palpabls hit upon
his critics when he reproaehed them with de-
scribing the Irish Church act as sacrilege, and
the land acts as confscation, while in the next
breath they recalled these proof that the i'm
perial Parliament was prepared TO do justice to
Ireland He declared that the emancipation
bill was passed under the influence of abject
terror, and several times limited that if home
rule be withheld those responsible for the in
Justice may have serious cause to rue il.
The speech was full of compact passages,
which will be quoted in the future history of the
subject He pronounced this the first time that