The Irish standard., 1902-11-29

but he regards the difference be
tween the different sects of Pro
testantism with lazy and sometimes
with contemptuous Indifference. No
! so Lord Hugh Cecil; for he look:
down upon Non-conformists as errins
: brethren who are guilty of heresy ant
/ schism, with the result that he has
! fought more tenaciously than almos
any other member of the House Of
Commons in the Education Bill de
bates, which are at this moment throw
ing England into something like re
! ligious war.
| The physical man Cecil is like thu
spiritual and mental man. Tall, pain
fully thin, with shambling walk
with face that is not so much yellow
! as pallid and green pale, the poor boy
looks like one Of the starved youns
poets you might expect to find in a cab
aret in MOntmartre. And all his move
ments are those Of neuropath. His
long, thin, pallid fingers shake so audi
bly, that you can hear it across the
I floor of the House Of Commons wher
| he has a question to ask or is about
to make a speech. A young monk worn
out by Hastings and prayers, poet in
search Of dinner, such is the impress.
sion you would get if you saw this son
of England's oldest and most aristo.
cratic houses without knowing who he
was. And yet this young man, pro-
Tossing very unpopular creed, this
frail, emaciated, awkward body, with
out particle Of grace, twisting his
hands when he speaks as though they
We're rs homeless as those of some con-
tortionist of village fair, this young
man has Il power of speech such as no
other man in the House of Commons
can reach. He is the one man in that
assembly where self-restraint in speech
is the almost universal rule, he is the
one man who dares to let himself go,
and who adventures to those heights
Of religious sentiment or passionate
emotion which most men would not
even think of approaching.
[ have heard several perorations
from him which if uttered in a pulpit
might have driven some worldling
from his money-bags into monastery,
Or perhaps, like Charles V, from his
throne, or sent woman from her lover
TO the convent. And such is the power
Of fine oratory that the English House
Of Commons, the least ideal of assem-
blies the least clerical, the least emo
House of Commons, dis
agreeing from all the young mans
opinions and ideals, has listened in
spellbound silence to these perorations,
md when they were finished has
walked from an entranced silence as
men might from strange dream.
But all the same, Lord Hugh Cecil
is one of the causes that are visibly
breaking down the present ministry.
There is at this moment in England
pretty strong current feeling against
'itualism. And this feeling is aggl.n
waited by the fact that the ministers
ire pushing through the House of
Commons a measure which is calc,I-
lated to throw more power than over
into the hands Of the parsons.
And Lord Hugh Cecil. by preaching
in season and out of season the vehc-
ment clcriculum Of which he is the
exponent and by his relationship to
Mr. BafOur, comes into fierce conflict
with this strong Protestant sentiment,
ana turns it not only against a par
ocular parliamentary measure, but also
against the personality Of the prime
and that of the government of
which he is the head. 1t is curious
.hat q young man about thirty years of
!gc. with brilliant abilities. with high
ideals. with extraordinary oratOrical
powers. should he the instrument
which Destiny employs to help in the
destruction of Il government the head
If which is his first cousin, and which
has one of his brothers and one of his |
orothers-in-law in important positions