In the debate on the Address in the House of
Lords Lord Kimberley spoke for the Opposition. His speech was well described by Lord Salisbury when he said that the first part of it filled him with despair because he found that on every Subject Lord Kimberley had said exactly what he would have wished to say. That is, Lord Kimberley said that the Government could only have acted as they did after receiving the Boer ultimatum, but at the same time he criticised severely the preceding diplomacy. Lord Salisbury, after mentioning, with a heat unusual in him, that all other questions were " wiped away in this one great insult "—i.e., the ultima- tum—and after dealing very cleverly with the criticism of the new diplomacy, put well the absurdity of talking of President Kroger as if he were a very sensitive and hysterical young lady, liable to be " upset " by a harsh or unguarded word. Lord Salisbury's impression was that he was the kind of man who thought that hard words broke no bones.
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