To those who actually hear him, Mr. Gladstone can never
be uninteresting. There is far too much play in his face, too much music in his voice, too much energy in his action. But to those who only read his speech at Norwich yesterday week, it certainly seemed not a little flat and dull. Even the little speech at the Ipswich station, in answer to Canon Bulstrode's address, was more interesting, for it contained the scornful sentence against the Unionists : "They impute to us this character of separatists which in their own understanding,-1 suppose they have understandings,—they must know to be utterly absurd." In the Norwich speech there was no touch of oratory so effective. He spoke of the Parnell Commission as "that conspicuous iniquity," and described it as resulting in "shameful and disgraceful proceedings." He charged the Government with having utterly wasted the time of Parlia- ment in a Session in which the magnanimity of the Opposition,
and the Closure rules under which they act, have secured for them signal opportunities of effective legislation. He spoke of the Parliamentary majority as a "domineering and hec- toring majority." The only touch of moderation was in the sentence in which Mr. Gladstone actually refrained from calling the Irish Land-Purchase Bill a " guilty " measure. "This is, I will not say a guilty, but I think it a most unwise- and impolitic measure." That is a stretch of moderation for which Unionists must be thankful.
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