Lowe and Mr.Goschen.But when an occasion arrived which quickened men's pulses, and particularly when some sudden storm burst on the House of Commons, a place where the waves rise as fast as in a mountain lake under a squall rushing down a glen, the vehemence of his feeling found expression in the fire of his eye and the resistless strength of his words.His utterance did not grow swifter, nor did the key of his voice rise, as passion raises and sharpens it in most men.But the measured force with which every sentence was launched, like a shell hurtling through the air, the concentrated intensity of his look, as he defied antagonists in front and swept his glance over the ranks of his supporters around and behind him, had a startling and thrilling power which no other Englishman could exert, and which no Englishman had exerted since the days of Pitt and Fox.The whole proud, bold, ardent nature of the man seemed to flash out, and one almost forgot what the lips said in admiration of the towering personality.
People who read next day the report in the newspapers of a speech delivered on such an occasion could not comprehend the impression it had made on the listeners."What was there in it so to stir you?"they asked.They had not seen the glance and the gestures; they had not heard the vibrating voice rise to an organ peal of triumph or sink to a whisper of entreaty.Mr.Gladstone's voice was naturally one of great richness and resonance.It was a fine singing voice, and a pleasant voice to listen to in conversation, not the less pleasant for having a slight trace of Liverpool accent clinging to it.But what struck one in listening to his speeches was not so much the quality of the vocal chords as the skill with which they were managed.He had the same gift of sympathetic expression, of throwing his feeling into his voice, and using its modulations to accompany and convey every shade of meaning, that a great composer has when he puts music to a poem, or a great executant when he renders at once the composer's and the poet's thought.And just as great singers or violinists enjoy the practice of their art, so it was a delight to him to put forth this faculty of expression--perhaps an unconscious, yet an intense delight; as appeared from this also, that whenever his voice failed him (which sometimes befell in later years) his words came less easily, and even the chariot of his argument seemed to drive heavily.That the voice should so seldom have failed him was wonderful.When he had passed his seventy-fifth year, it became sensibly inferior in volume and depth of tone.But its strength, variety, and delicacy remained.
In April, 1886, he being then seventy-seven, it held out during a speech of nearly four hours in length.In February, 1890, it enabled him to deliver with extraordinary effect an eminently solemn and pathetic appeal.In March, 1895, those who listened to it the last time it was heard in Parliament--they were comparatively few, for the secret of his impending resignation had been well kept--recognized in it all the old charm.But perhaps the most curious instance of the power it could exert is to be found in a speech made in 1883, during one of the tiresome debates occasioned by the refusal of the Tory party and of some timorous Liberals to allow Mr.
Bradlaugh to be sworn as a member of the House of Commons.This speech produced a profound impression on those who heard it, an impression which its perusal to-day fails to explain.That impression was chiefly due to the grave and reverent tone in which he delivered some sentences stating the view that it is not our belief in the bare existence of a Deity, but the realizing of him as being also a Providence ruling the world, that is of moral value and significance, and was due in particular to the lofty dignity with which he declaimed six lines of Lucretius, setting forth the Epicurean view of the gods as unconcerned with mankind.There were probably not ten men in the House of Commons who could follow the sense of the lines so as to appreciate their bearing on his argument.But these stately and sonorous hexameters--hexameters that seemed to have lived on through nineteen centuries to find their application from the lips of an orator to-day; the sense of remoteness in the strange language and the far-off heathen origin;the deep and moving note in the speaker's voice, thrilled the imagination of the audience and held it spellbound, lifting for a moment the whole subject of debate into a region far above party conflicts.Spoken by any one else, the passage culminating in these Lucretian lines might have produced little effect.It was the voice and manner, above all the voice, with its marvelous modulations, that made the speech majestic.
Yet one must not forget to add that with him, as with some other famous statesmen, the impression made by a speech was in a measure due to the admiring curiosity and wonder which his personality inspired.He was so much the most interesting human being in the House of Commons that, when he withdrew, many members said that the place had lost half its attraction for them, and that the chamber seemed empty because he was not in it.Plenty of able men remained.
But even the ablest seemed ordinary, perhaps even commonplace, when compared with the figure that had vanished, a figure in whom were combined, as in no other man of his time, an unrivaled experience, an extraordinary activity and versatility of intellect, a fervid imagination, and an indomitable will.
