"
"I think it is too late for the honorable gentleman to say,
'We are passing through an experiment; wait for more experiment.'"
"We have already been debating this subject for forty years;
we have plenty of time on our hands; it is a Godsend to have
anything to fill up our vacant hours; and therefore let us
postpone the subject in order that it may be dealt with in
future years."
The great quality of Gladstone, as of Sumner, is his profound
seriousness. He makes the impression on his hearers, an impression
made, but not so strongly, upon his readers, that the matter
he is discussing is that upon which the foundations of heaven
and earth rest.
It would be a great mistake to hold Disraeli cheap. He turned
the tables upon Osborne, who had gone into several, what Disraeli
called, archaeological details, with respect to the antiquity
of the ballot, and had cited a proclamation of Charles I.
prohibiting the ballot in all corporations, either in the
city of London or elsewhere, which Disraeli said "was done
with the admirable view of identifying the opinions of those
who sit on this side of the House with the political sentiments
of that monarch.
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