Mr. Bright, considering his very great position as an orator
and a statesman, a statesman as sagacious in council as any chief of his party, is unduly sensitive to hostile criticism. Commenting on a
speech by a Tory Member (Mr. Hick, M.P. for Bolton), he speaks of it as filled with" such misrepresentations of me as may be picked up in the columns or the gutters of his party." "it is curious to observe how exactly the speeches of Tory Members are adjusted to the ignorance and passion of those whom they address. It may be the natural level of the speakers ; if not, they succeed in reaching it with difficulty, and once at that level, they seem incapable of rising above it." All that may apply strictly to Mr. Hick's speech,—which we have not seen,--or it may not. But whether applicable or not, reticence would have been far more dignified than such criticism. Mr. Bright understands to the full the dignities of impressive speech, but he does not un- derstand to the full the dignities of equally impressive silence.
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