He had a fine voice and
delivery, easily filling the hall from his place below the
gangway.
Palmerston, in his jaunty and off-hand way, rebuked Bright
for desiring to make the House of Commons adopt a resolution
which would only show its own helplessness. On the whole,
he seemed to me to get the better of the debate. Bright could
not persuade the House, or the people of England, to make
a great constitutional question out of the paper duties, especially
after the powerful speech of Lord Lyndhurst, who, then more
than ninety years old, argued for the side of the Lords with
a power that no other speaker on the subject rivalled.
I heard Gladstone again in 1871, when there was a great struggle
between him and Disraeli over the Parliamentary and Municipal
Elections Bill. I visited the House with Thomas Hughes, to
whom I was indebted for much courtesy while in London, and
had a seat on the floor just below the gallery, where a few
strangers are, or were then, admitted by special card from
the Speaker.
Bernal Osborne, Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, Sir Stafford Northcote,
Gladstone, and Disraeli took part in the debate.
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