If he is going to do splendidly the tone at the start is very calm, the delivery is measured, the sentences are long, and break on the ear with something of the long-drawn-out slowness of the Alexandrine.

So it was on this occasion.

Sentence followed sentence in measured and perfect cadence; with absolute self-possession; and in a voice not unduly pitched.

And yet there were those traces of fatigue to which I have alluded, and I have since heard that one of the few occasions in his life when Mr.Gladstone had a sleepless night was on the night before he introduced his second great Home Rule Bill.

And it should be added that, stirring and eloquent as were the opening sentences, they were not listened to by the House with that extraordinary enthusiasm which, on other occasions, sentences of this splendid eloquence would have elicited.