I will not undertake to add
another description of Gladstone to the many with which every
reader of mine is thoroughly familiar. The late Dr. Bellows
resembled him very nearly, both in his way of reasoning and
his manner of speech. Persons who have heard Dr. Bellows
at his best will not deem this comparison unworthy.
Gladstone was terribly in earnest. He began his speech by
a compliment to Northcote, his opponent, for whom he had shown
his esteem by sending him to the United States as one of the
Joint High Commission to make the Alabama Treaty. But when
Mr. Gladstone was well under way, Sir Stafford interposed
a dissent from something he said by calling out "No, no"--
a very frequent practice in the House. Gladstone turned
upon him savagely, with a tome of anger which I might almost
call furious: "Can the gentleman tolerate no opinion but
his own, that he interjects his audible contradiction into
the middle of my sentence?" The House evidently did not like
it. Hughes, who agreed with Gladstone, said to me: "What
a pity it is that he cannot control his temper; that is his
great fault.
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