Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 2.djvu/433

 longed the right to be honoured with that distinction which even England's greatest orator in the last century held in esteem; and what Bright was called in his day by the English nation, we can very rightly call our Gokhale. He was, indeed, "the people's tribune"— the upholder of the people's rights, without ceasing to be a pillar of state on which trustfully leaned the monarchy. Whether it was to voice the wishes of the dumb millions, or to bear aloft the battle-banner for the maltreated Indian in self-seeking colonies; whether it was when closeted with the Cabinet Minister who did not disdain to receive whole-some suggestion from one whose heart ever did beat in living touch with the pulse of the nation, or standing up in dauntless singleness, like a Wilberforce, for the rights of a down-trodden people, upholding by unaided voice and unsupported hand the cause of those whose mouths were to be gagged or whose consciences were to be stifled, Gokhale w T as a prince that stead-fastly remained "loyal to the royal" in him.