Gladstone and Lores Randolph Churchill.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 358, 10 April 1889, Page 6

Gladstone and Lores Randolph Churchill.

On the night to which my notes refer the debate was resumed by Lord Randolph Churchill, who, then seated below the gangway, irresponsible and irrepressible, had an hour's perfect enjoyment. Standing below his corner seat, with eye watchfully fixed on the mobile figure stretched out in the seat of, the Leader of the House, he pricked and goaded him as the sprightly matador in

the arena girds at the infuriate bull, which, if it were only intelligently to' expend; its force, would tear the human mite into unrecognisable shreds. At first the.Premier, assumed an attitude of ordinary attention with his legs crossed, hands folded so that they caressed either elbow. He threw back , his head and closed his eyes, the light from the roof falling on a perfectly placid coun- < tenance. But as . -> <

Lord Randolph went with quip and crank, audacious accusation and. reckless misrepresentation of fact or argument, he _ lifted his head, shuffled his feet, crossed and recrossed his bands, and fixed an angry eye on'the delighted tormentor. The potion was beginning to work, and jeering cries from the Conservatives above the gangway or howls from the Irish camp, at the gates of which Lord Randolph's standard was at thab time planted, added to its efficacy. , Soon Mr Gladstone began to shake his head with increased violence as Lord Randolph repeated a statement thus contradicted. Louder grew the irritating cheers from the Opposition. The triumphant whisper went round, ' Randolph's drawing him !' Excited by the tumult, and vainly tryiag to lift his mighty voice above the uproar, Mr Gladstone, seating himself perilously near the edge of the seat, bending forward and grasping himself below the knee, leant across towards the more-than-ever delighted adversary and angrily reiterated

'No, No, No!' A pitiful and undignified demonstration on the part of the Prime Minister, which was exactly what Lord Randolph Churchill was endeavouring to bring about, and was hailed with increasing cheers by the pleased Opposition. When Lord Randolph had made an end of speaking, Mr Gladstone sprang up with catapultic celerity. For a moment he held on to the box on the table at arm's length, drawing himself up to fullest height with a genial smile on his countenance that completed the contrast with hi& late perturbed manner. Once more he was himself, his supremacy of the^House, lost through the lamentable exhibitions but just witnessed, immediately rea°sumed with his self-command. Now was witnessed the exhibition of that skill which Mr Lecky noted in Pitt. Like Pitt —as far,, as opportunity is provided to the present generation, infinitely beyond Pitt—' no one knows better how to turn and retort arguments, to seize in a moment on a weak point or an unguarded phrase.' In

Half a Dozen Sentences of exquisitely modulated speech, Mr Glad" stone, with the delightful benevolence with which Gulliver was able to refrain from resenting the pricking of the lance of Lilliput's doughtiest champion, played with Lord Randolph, and finally rolled him aside, turning his attenoion, as he said, to more serious matters. This was all very well to] begin with. But warming with his workj the Premier pioceeded through a series of I gymnastic exercises which would have left an ordinary man of half his years pale and breathless. Watching him as he brought down his strong right hand with resounding blows upon the Blue Book from which he bad just quoted, newcomers to the House understood the fervency with which

Mr Disraeli once thanked God that the table intervened between him and his life-long rival. So vigorous were the thumps that it was with difficulty the words they were intended to emphasise could be caught. The famous pomatum pot, which plays a prominent part on these occasions, had an exceedingly bad time. Mr Gladstone's eye falling.upon it as he fiercely gyrated, he seized it with sudden gesture, brought it to his lips with swift movement, and devoured a portion of its contents as if, instead of being an innocent compound of egg and wine, it were concentrated essence of Lord Randolph Churchill conveniently prepared with a view to his final disappearance from the scene. Sometimes with

Both Hands Raised Rigid Above His Head; often with left elbow leaning on the table and right; hand with close fist shaken at the head of some unoffending country gentleman on the back benches opposite; anon standing half a step back from the table, with the left hand hanging at his side and one right uplifted so that he might with thumb nail lightly touch the shining crown on his head, Mr Gladstone trampled his way through the arguments of his adversary as an elephant in an hour of aggravation rages through a jungle. - H. M. Lucy, in the ' Universal Review.'