He was careful to disown enthusiasm, or fanaticism, or even willingness in the service of Home Rule.

It was with him simply a frigid matter of policy, a policy to which he had been driven by the resistless evidence of facts, the resistless logic of reason.
[Sidenote: A deep-laid purpose.] This frankly was an attitude which grated slightly on the sensitive nerves of the many to whom Ireland's emancipation--with all the sobbing centuries which lie behind it--is a fanaticism, a faith, a great creed; but the point to be really considered is whether this was the tone to adopt for the purpose of carrying out the desired end.

And I am inclined to think--and some of the hottest Irishmen I know agree with me--that this was the very way Lord Rosebery should have spoken.

And after all it was wonderfully impressive--even to me with all I feel about the Irish question.

For the image it presented--set forth by the physical aspect of the orator--was such as I can imagine to be wonderfully impressive to that dull, unimaginative, and unsentimental personage--the man of the shifting ballast, whose almost impenetrable brain has to finally decide this question.