Page:Eminent English liberals in and out of Parliament.djvu/35

 the level of the debate had been raised fifty degrees at least; and there was not an honorable, nor, for the matter of that, a dishonorable, member present who did not feel that the Government was morally and logically routed, whatever its numerical triumph might be. Mr. Bright does one thing of which so many members are oblivious: he never in any of his speeches in Parliament forgets that he is in the great council of the nation; and, however violent may be the supposition, he always assumes that his opponents are there to be convinced, if only the matter at issue is put in a proper light. The prevailing tone of his mind is one of hopefulness. He has large faith, and believes in the inevitable progress of humanity and the ultimate invincibility of truth. As he once said, "There is much shower and sunshine between the sowing of the seed and the reaping of the harvest; but the harvest is reaped after all."

But, though his nature is large and forgiving, in solemn earnestness of rebuke he is unmatched. Once or twice Lord Palmerston, in the very height of his power and popularity, was made to wince like a convict under the sentence of a judge; and, if we except the unique moral insensibility of a Beaconsfield, it would be difficult to conceive of a more arduous undertaking than that of reaching the conscience of Lord Palmerston. In the terrible struggle which threatened to rend the great American Republic to pieces, the innermost soul of the tribune of the people was stirred within him, and he touched the limits of actual prophecy. In the darkest hour of the fortunes of the North he declared, "The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Gladstone) as a speaker is not surpassed by any man in England, and