I have now come down, at last, to a great writer of English prose who is
still with us.
Lord Morley at the present day is, I think, universally recognised as the
greatest living man of letters in the British Empire; he has crowned a
long record of distinguished literary achievement with his _Life of
Gladstone_, which has taken its place among the noblest biographies of
the world, where it is destined to remain into the far future acclaimed
as a masterpiece. In his description of the veteran statesman launching
in the House of Commons his great project of Home Rule for Ireland, he
has surprised himself out of his own reserve, and painted the scene for
succeeding generations in colours that can never die:--
"No such scene has ever been beheld in the House of Commons.
Members came down at break of day to secure their places; before
noon every seat was marked, and crowded benches were even arrayed
on the floor of the House from the Mace to the Bar. Princes,
ambassadors, great peers, high prelates, thronged the lobbies. The
fame of the orator, the boldness of his exploit, curiosity as to
the plan, poignant anxiety as to the party result, wonder whether
a wizard had at last actually arisen with a spell for casting out
the baleful spirits that had for so many ages made Ireland our
torment and our dishonour--all these things brought together such
an assemblage as no minister before had ever addressed within
those world-renowned walls.
"The Parliament was new. Many of its members had fought a hard
battle for their seats, and trusted they were safe in the haven
for half a dozen good years to come. Those who were moved by
professional ambition, those whose object was social advancement,
those who thought only of upright public service, the keen party
of men, the men who aspire to office, the men with a past and the
men who looked for a future, all alike found themselves adrift on
dark and troubled waters. The secrets of the Bill had been well
kept. To-day the disquieted host were first to learn what was the
great project to which they would have to say that Aye or No on
which for them and for the State so much would hang.
"Of the chief comrades or rivals of the minister's own generation,
the strong administrators, the eager and accomplished debaters,
the sagacious leaders, the only survivor now comparable to him, in
eloquence or in influence, was Mr. Bright. That illustrious man
seldom came into the House in those distracted days; and on this
memorable occasion his stern and noble head was to be seen in dim
obscurity.
"Various as were the emotions in other regions of the House, in
one quarter rejoicing was unmixed. There, at least, was no doubt
and no misgiving. There, pallid and tranquil, sat the Irish
leader, whose hard insight, whose patience, energy, and spirit of
command, had achieved this astounding result, and done that which
he had vowed to his countrymen that he would assuredly be able to
do. On the benches round him genial excitement rose almost to
tumult. Well it might. For the first time since the Union the
Irish case was at last to be pressed in all its force and
strength, in every aspect of policy and of conscience by the most
powerful Englishman then alive.
"More striking than the audience was the man; more striking than
the multitude of eager onlookers from the shore was the rescuer,
with deliberate valour facing the floods ready to wash him down;
the veteran Ulysses, who, after more than half a century of
combat, service, toil, thought it not too late to try a further
'work of noble note,' In the hands of such a master of the
instrument the theme might easily have lent itself to one of those
displays of exalted passion which the House had marvelled at in
more than one of Mr. Gladstone's speeches on the Turkish question,
or heard with religious reverence in his speech on the Affirmation
Bill in 1883.
"What the occasion now required was that passion should burn low,
and reasoned persuasion hold up the guiding lamp. An elaborate
scheme was to be unfolded, an unfamiliar policy to be explained
and vindicated. Of that best kind of eloquence which dispenses
with declamation this was a fine and sustained example. There was
a deep, rapid, steady, onflowing volume of arguments, exposition,
exhortation. Every hard or bitter stroke was avoided. Now and
again a fervid note thrilled the ear and lifted all hearts. But
political oratory is action, not words--action, character, will,
conviction, purpose, personality. As this eager muster of men
underwent the enchantment of periods exquisite in their balance
and modulation, the compulsion of his flashing glance and animated
gesture, what stirred and commanded them was the recollection of
national service, the thought of the speaker's mastering purpose,
his unflagging resolution and strenuous will, his strength of thew
and sinew well tried in long years of resounding war, his
unquenched conviction that the just cause can never fail. Few are
the heroic moments in our parliamentary politics, but this was
one."
I will not trench upon politics in these letters; but I may hazard the
belief that could those who rejected this noble effort, by the greatest
statesman of the age, to assuage the everlasting Irish conflict, have
looked into the future, few of them but would have supported it with
relief and thanksgiving.
It is generally perhaps a blessing that the curtain that covers the future
is impenetrable; but in this case, had it been lifted for us to gaze upon
the appalling future, Gladstone's last effort for the peace of his country
would surely not have been permitted to miscarry.
Your loving old
G.P.
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