Mr Gladstone on the Commission Report.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 470, 21 June 1890, Page 3

Mr Gladstone on the Commission Report.

The London Star gives the following account of Mr Gladstone’s speech on the Parnell Commissioner’s report ‘.-—And finally Mr G'adstone came to the personal charge against Mr Parnell. It was thought that by this time he had exhaus’.ed his own powers an 1 any emotion of which the House was capable ; but ho so- n pi oved that beyond the Alpine heights of eloquence and effect to which he had reached, there was a dizzier height still. In language of beautiful melody he described the circumstances under which Mr Parnell had been attacked. He was the leader of a nation, upon whom depended the fortunes of that nation. At the moment of this attack his mind was strong, but his body was weak ; he was in broken h- a th. Mr Gladstone added emp-iasis to these touching words by turning full fi.ee to the spot where Mr Parnell sat, and assuredly rarely has the House of Commons beheld a scene more thrilling and more touching than that which it at that exalted moment witnessed. The pale face of Mr Gladstone, illumined by those flashing dark eyes, aud moved to the full expression of his own emotion, stood out clearly ; and high up—in a seat on the third bench below the gang way—Mr Parnell sate, silent, unmoved, ghastly pale, a thin and worn remnant of the robust man that stood in the House a

few years ago, and looking straight before him with those inscrutable eyes of red flint. The House fait the spell of the situation—one more moving than anything the dramatist has placed upon the stage in our time, aud the almost awful hush that fell on the House manifested that it felt to its profoundest depths the meaning of the grand scene.

But even yet, there was a moment of grander inspiration. Mr Gladstone turned to the benches opposi e—that sat in subdued stillness—in vain broken for a second by the coarse laugh of the lantern-jawed Saundersou; and in language, the pathos, the impressiveness, and the music of which have never been equalled in our time in the House of Commons, implored them to do justice to an enemy that bad been so cruelly wronged. Who can ever describe the effect of thec*e last sentences, as they rolled in note after note of perfect melody ? Who can ever paint the features of the moved assembly, with Tories visibly moved ? When it was over, there was almost a hysteric violence of emotion. Some members jumped from their seats and waved their hats ; others cheered themselves hoarse ; many sat dumb lest their emotions should completely overcome them ; aud there sat the Tories—silent, spellbound—as proud in their hearts as the wildest Irishman that they belonged to the jreat Empire and the august assembly that iad produced so mighty a wielder of the human passions, so sovereign a master of the human heart.