Page:Modern Eloquence - Volume 1.djvu/80

Rh ourselves of that tranquillity and order which the more intimate connection of England with that country will now produce. [Cheers.]

But I am sorry to say that though we taxed our brains and our thought to establish a policy which might be beneficial to the country, we have not satisfied those who are our critics. [Cheers.]

I was astonished to learn that the Convention of the fourth of June has been described as "an insane convention." It is a strong epithet. I do not myself pretend to be as competent a judge of insanity as my right honorable opponent. [Gladstone.] I will not say to the right honorable gentleman, naviget Anticyram, but I would put this issue to an English jury—Which do you believe the most likely to enter into an insane convention—a body of English gentlemen honored by the favor of their Sovereign and the confidence of their fellow-subjects, managing your affairs for five years, I hope with prudence, and not altogether without success [cheers], or a sophisticated rhetorician, inebriated with the exuberance of his own verbosity [loud cheers and laughter], and gifted with an egotistical imagination that can at all times command an interminable and inconsistent series of arguments to malign an opponent and to glorify himself? [Continued cheers and laughter.]

My lords and gentlemen, I leave the decision upon that Convention to the Parliament and people of England. [Loud cheers.] I believe that in that policy are deeply laid the seeds of future welfare, not merely to England, but to Europe and Asia; and confident that the policy we have recommended is one that will be supported by the country, I and those that act with me can endure these attacks. [Loud cheers.]

My lords and gentlemen, let me thank you once more for the manner in which you have welcomed me to-day. [Cheers.] These are the rewards of public life that never pall [cheers]—the sympathy of those who have known you long, who have worked with you long, who have the same opinions upon the policy that should be pursued in this great and ancient Empire. [Cheers.] These are the sentiments which no language can sufficiently appreciate—which are a consolation under all circumstances and the