Mr. Lowe's speech, which followed Lord Cranborne's, was by far
the poorest of his Reform speeches. It was pitched in an arti- ficially high key, and reads more like a parody of the last century's bombast, than an expression of sincere conviction by one of the keenest cynics of the day. The peroration about the battle of Chwronea, and the sculptured lion which commemorated it, was the tawdry tinsel of really vulgar taste. "I said to myself, 0 for an orator, 0 for an historian, 0 for a poet who would do the same thing' [as the lion-sculptor did for Chwronea] for us ! We, too, have had our battle of Chmronea, we have had our dishonest vic- tory! And 0 for a man to set forth in words that could not die the An*, the rage, the scorn, the indignation, and the despair with which this measure' is viewed by every Englishman who is not a slave to the trammels of a party, or who is not dazzled by the glare of a temporary but ignoble success !" We, for our parts, have not the slightest belief that Mr. Lowe, in gazing on that Chronean lion, did say to himself, '0 for an orator!' and so on. He would break down in a buckram soliloquy of that sort, which ought to be accompanied by a rolling of the eyes, uplifted hands, a pose of horror, and other obsolete follies. Mr. Disraeli made a very poor speech in closing the debate, but he hit his mark when he said that the Chmronean episode had reminded him of the pro- duction of some inspired schoolboy. Mr. Lowe is one of the ablest men of his day, and is not, we hope, going to turn ranter in his prime.
