Page:Eminent English liberals in and out of Parliament.djvu/314



An imperial despotism has been established in Germany, at least as detestable as that which Louis Napoleon Bonaparte set up in France. The iron of that tyranny has entered into the very soul of the German people, and, so long as it can be pretended that a Gallic revanche is possible, there will it remain. How Mr. Freeman could have justified such a palpable sowing of dragons' teeth, I have never been able to fathom.

In 1868 Mr. Freeman contested Mid-Somerset in the Liberal interest, but without success. His failure, I consider, was a public loss of no small magnitude. He is a good speaker, and his special knowledge would, on many occasions in recent sessions, have been of the highest utility in Parliament. For five and twenty years he was a "Saturday Reviewer," and he wrote much in "The Pall Mall Gazette" in its more Liberal days. The House of Commons contains no member who, as a student of constitutional history, could compare for a moment with the author of the "Norman Conquest," the "History of Federal Government," and "Comparative Politics." Any legislature might well be honored by the presence of such a scholar, and any constituency in the kingdom might be proud of such a representative.