Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/358

 314 THE WINTER TROUBLES. CHAP, was not what the world means when it points ■'X U out a man as a slanderer; for he usually adduced no material that could well be called fresh in support of the charges he brought, and based them, if he based them at all, on wliat men already knew. Like the speakers of the French Convention in the days of the Terror, he con- cerned himself little enough with proof or argu- ment, but advanced transcendentally to his damning conclusions — that is, as the phrase goes, ' called names.' By restricting any argument lie might use — perhaps one of the sort called ' deductive ' — to a quite insignificant space, and confining himself for the most part to naked invective, unladen with statement or reasoning, undiluted by any of the sentences with which others qualify speech, he could bring what he had to say within a very small compass; and the House — loving mischief, yet also valuing time — used to welcome the rising of an accomplished denouncer who was sure to be vicious and brief — used to listen with delight ever fresh for the samples of perfect delivery with which he would point an arraign- ment, and savagely lengthen the hiss of some favourite little word, such as ' sham.' He had seemingly neither the power, nor even the wish to persuade ; and was not only without a chief, and without a party, but even without a com- rade, without a disciple, without a follower of any kind ; yet he was not morose ; and if the play of his countenance could be trusted — more especially after making a speecli — he gloried in