It is on occasions like these that one sees the immense artistic power which lies under all the seriousness and gravity of Mr.Gladstone--the thorough exuberance of vitality which marks the splendid sanity of his healthy nature.
[Sidenote: Mr.Birrell.] I always tremble when I see a literary man, and especially a literary man with a high reputation, rise to address the House of Commons.

The shores of that cruel assembly are strewn with the wrecks of literary reputations.

It was, therefore, not without trepidation that I saw Mr.
Augustin Birrell--one of the very finest writers of our time--succeed in catching the Speaker's eye.

My misgivings were entirely unnecessary.
With perfect ease and self-possession--at the same time with the modesty of real genuine ability--Mr.Birrell made one of the happiest and best speeches of the debate.

Now and then, the epigram was perhaps a little too polished--the wit perhaps a trifle too subtle for the House of Commons.