2 JANUARY 1886, Page 22

conclusion, it is worthy of note how Mr. Lucy, like

the House of Commons, varies from day to day in judgment and estimate of men and measures. It is curious to trace the rise and progress of the Fourth Party, the varying estimates of Mr. Forster, Mr. Trevelyan, and Mr. Stansfeld, and even of Mr. Gladstone him- self ; how one day it is clear that "the magnificent voice, for fifty years familiar to the House of Commons, which not many years ago resounded over Blackheath, and which sounded like a clarion throughout Midlothian, is irretrievably broken," while two days afterwards "Mr. Gladstone was in fine form," and in a week was "ten years younger in looks, and bears himself as if Egypt were a dream, and Afghanistan a province in fairy- land." That what the Times, with petty malice, calls Mr. Glad. stone's "senile obstinacy" has in it an unexhauated supply of vigour and vitality, the events of the last Parliament have already amply demonstrated.