Part 11 (2/2)

Mr Gladstone's speech at the dinner was the famous one in which he discussed the Irish question, warned Mr Parnell of the dangers of the course upon which he had embarked, and declared emphatically that the resources of civilisation were not exhausted He did not take his seat at the high table in the hall where Sir James Kitson presided until dinner was over and the speeches were about to begin I observed that when he did so, after having gazed with admiration upon the brilliant scene, he leant forward, and, covering his face with both hands, re evening I sat next to Mrs

Gladstone at dinner at Sir John Barran's house She asked me if I had observed this action of her husband's, and onin the affir You know, he always prays before he makes an important speech, and he felt that speech very ht after he had gone to his dressing-rooo to Ireland reat oratorical success, and at the close of the banquet, as I have said, an ianised by the local com hall to the residence of Kitson at Headingley The procession had to pass across Woodhouse Moor, and I do not think I ever witnessed a more effective spectacle of the kind

The speech which, to my mind, ranked next in importance and interest to this at the dinner was that which Mr Gladstone delivered on the following day to the, which, like the dinner, took place in a te It was crowded to suffocation--literally to suffocation When I arrived, shortly before the proceedings began, I found that the whole thirty thousand people were gasping for breath, and that e for the ventilation of the vast hall! Things looked very serious The hubbub was indescribable, and the sufferings of the croere so great that it was clearly i could be held Fortunately, there were active and willing workers on the spot, and a band of youngto the te open, and quickly relieved the pressure upon the sufferers beneath But even when they had been supplied with air the thirty thousand were anything but co mass, and in no condition to listen patiently to speeches The noise and hubbub was little short of deafening

The Chair in dumb show, called upon one eminent Liberal after another to move the prelientlemen said could be heard a yard beyond the li could be done to reduce the vast audience to silence, and ere in despair at the thought that Mr Gladstone would have to face so severe an ordeal When at last his turn came, and he stepped to the front of the platform, thirty thousand throats sent up such a shout that it seeain for a space of some minutes it was renehilst the orator stood, pale and ainst thirty thousand? Then, just as the cheering seeood fellow,”

and the whole thirty thousand joined in the song After that it took soain, and still there went on that undercurrent oftalk which seeantichopeless But suddenly Mr Gladstone raised his hand, and it was almost as if a miracle had happened In an instant there was a deathlike silence in the hall, and everyhis breath The speaker's voice rang out, clear and musical as of old, and it reached to the furthest corners of the ot further than the conventional opening words when his audience see, far exceeding that which had welcomed him on his first appearance, proclaimed the joy hich they had heard the voice of the ain it was some minutes before Mr Gladstone was allowed to proceed, but once more his uplifted hand ensured silence, and from that moment until he had reached the end of an hour's speech, every syllable that he uttered was heard distinctly by his thirty thousand listeners It was, I think, the passionate eagerness of the audience to hear his voice, and their outburst of delight when its notes first fell upon their ears, that for Perhaps there was soiven to the statesman It would have turned the heads of htly Yet I ain that one must have been present at scenes like this in order to appreciate the real position of this remarkable man at this the very zenith of his political career I remember that this speech, which was received with so intense an enthusiasm by all who heard it, contained the speaker's defence of what is known as the Majuba Hill policy To those of us ere under the wand of the ician it seemed that no other defence was needed

I had an opportunity, when thewhat effect the physical effort ofan hour's speech to an audience of thirty thousand had upon Mr Gladstone When I went into the co in an are cloak His eyes were closed, his face was deathly pale, his whole aspect that of a ht him a cup of tea, but even as he drank his eyes were shut To me, who had never seen hi to observe him in a condition of positive collapse Yet a few hours later he was the life and soul of a large dinner party That dinner is memorable to me, because it was the first occasion on which I ood opportunity of seeing that charuished him in all his social relationshi+ps I was introduced to him by our host across the dinner-table, and he ied into a discussion about newspapers and distinguished journalists ere known to reat co that it was a newspaper he always liked to read because he always found it to be fair and honest ”When I read a bad leader in the _Standard_,” he said, ”I say toa holiday” I duly reported this saying to Mudford afterwards, and I know that this praise from one whouished editor intense pleasure

When Mr Gladstone left Leeds after his stay of little ht safely have used the words of Julius Caesar

He had conquered everybody Even his political opponents were for the ic of his eloquence; whilst those who, like myself, had for the first time enjoyed direct personal intercourse with hiated by the fascination of his ifts which lish society Of course, to one who had been a Gladstonian ever since those early days in the 'sixties at Newcastle of which I have spoken in a previous chapter, the joy of knowing the great th of ifted, so ardent in his faith, and so strenuous in his actions made of me a blind follower of his leadershi+p

Notwith him at Leeds I found myself sharply separated from him in a political controversy of which I shall soon have to speak

I found refreshs in an excursion to Tunis In 1881 the French, upon a distinctly fraudulent pretext, had invaded the territories of the Bey of Tunis Their professed purpose was to punish a certain tribe of ”Kroueria The Krouination of M

Roustan, the diploent of France in Tunis No such tribe was known to the Tunisians, but the pretext served, and Tunis was invaded The truth, as the world noas that France was resolved to have some compensation for our ill-starred acquisition of Cyprus She dared not move in the direction of Morocco, because of the jealousy of the other Powers of Europe; but she had obtained the tacit consent of Prince Bisave as to the objects and the limitations of that expedition I need not speak Yet one is entitled to remember that if the force of circuhbours to break their ith regard to Tunis, we are equally justified in alleging the saypt

My friend Mudford gave me a commission to act as special correspondent of the _Standard_ in Tunis, and I went there accordingly to spend a few interesting weeks in studying on the spot one of the burning questions of the day I shall not inflict upon my reader the story of my trip I feel the less inclined to do so because I was ill-advised enough after my return to publish that story in a volu fact connected with that voluentleman from the Inland Revenue Office called upon me, and in a most courteous manner drew my attention to the fact that I had not, in my income-tax returns, included the profit I had received from this book It had taken the department just nineteen years to discover the existence of this precious volureat credit to the zeal and industry of somebody connected with the Inland Revenue, for I am convinced that he is the only person, myself excepted, who knew that the book had been written I had clean forgotten its existencefashi+on My visitor from the Inland Revenue Office smiled sweetly when I explained to him why no profits frore incoain I had never seen those literary profits even to the amount of sixpence, and I could not therefore be expected to cause the collectors of her Majesty's Revenue to succeed where I had failed

My stay in Tunis was not only interesting but solishman besides myself resident in the city of Tunis while I was there This was Mr A M Broadley, as at that ti as the correspondent of the _Times_, and whose ability had enabled him to create a diplomatic question, which he called the Enfida Case, out of a trumpery lawsuit in which he acted for a rich Arab, called, if I reht, General Benayid Mr Broadley subsequently beca Arabi Pasha at Cairo I only mention him now because of the re on which Ia map of the Eastern Hemisphere he pointed out to me what he called the zone of disturbance, and assured me that within the next ten years the eyes of the world would be riveted upon that zone Roughly speaking, the zone was the belt of the Maho from Morocco in the west to India in the east The disturbances which he predicted would come he traced in the first instance from our annexation of Cyprus, and the consequent invasion of Tunis by France He foretold with great precision the rise of the Mahdi, and the growth of religious fanaticish Asia Minor, Persia, and Afghanistan a wave of unrest was running which must have serious consequences for the Christian Powers in the near future Many times in later days I had occasion to remember the wonderfully clear and precise predictions of Mr Broadley, as he delivered the friend I lish Consul-General, Mr Reade, who entertained me in his beautiful house at the Marsa, close to the site of Carthage A pleasant, rather grave, and thoughtfulearlier days in Tunis, when the Bey was a real ruler and the slave-market in the old Bazaar was still the scene of a merchandise in flesh and blood His father had been Consul-General in Tunis when the influence of Great Britain was supreme, and he had inherited his father's popularity and personal prestige Too clearly he foresaw that the result of the French foray upon the unoffending principality must be its absorption into French territory, and the consequent loss of England's position and influence in that part of the Mediterranean All his fears have been lish Consul-General as the most important person in Tunis--more important in many respects than the Bey hioods, whilsttheir recognition as English subjects In the old Consulate at the gates of the city an English, or at least a Maltese, judge ad English when he found hied now France has elbowed England out of Tunis Our Consul--he is no longer Consul-General--is a subordinate official

English conificance French shops supply the residents with all they require, and Great Britain has become of no account This is the direct result of Lord Beaconsfield's action in taking possession of Cyprus in 1878 Would to Heaven that this were the whole of the price we have had to pay for that fatal piece of folly!

Whilst I was in Tunis I went to the little English graveyard, which lies enclosed by houses in the heart of the old city Here are the graves of solishmen ere the captives of Tunisian pirates in the old days when Barbary rovers were still the curse of the Mediterranean I found there also, in that lonely and neglected spot, the grave of Howard Payne, the author of ”Home, Sweet Home” It seemed cruel that he, who had touched so deep and true a chord in the hearts of millions, should himself be fated to rest so far from home I wrote to the newspapers to draw attention to this fact Whether my letters had in thelad to know that since then Payne's body has been removed to A froot an Orient steah the Straits of Messina on e--but by no means rare--coincidences that prove the smallness of the world, or, at least, of that part of it hich any oneon the upper deck of the stea at Etna, as its snow-shrouded peak was revealed in the brilliant an to talk about the coincidences so coest experiences of the kind was the following In the previous Septeue, and after dinner one evening went into the reading rooentle it when I entered Perhaps he saw the look of disappointaged At any rate, he very courteously offered it toa conversation drew my attention to an article it contained about the Liverpool docks When I had glanced through the paper he resumed the conversation about Liverpool, and asked if I knew many persons in that city I was coyhtest ”Ah,” said my friend, ”if you know the Reverend Henry Postance, you have possibly heard him speak of his son Alfred?” I replied that I knew Alfred Postance better than I knew his father, and that I had, as a matter of fact, travelled to Malta with him shortly before his death, which took place in that island ”Then,” pursued ht like to read a little sketch of his life that has been written by a friend I think I could procure the loan of a copy for you” I thanked the gentleman for his offer, but explained that it was not necessary that I should avail myself of it, as Mr Postance senior had already sent entlelistened when I said this, and with an air of some pride he said: ”Since you have read that little book, you will, I am sure, be interested to know that it was I who published it” ”Well, I am rather interested,” I replied, ”because it was I rote it”

This was the story which I chanced to tell on the deck of the steamboat to my unknown fellow-traveller I had no sooner finished it than he said, ”Then you are Mr We I read before leaving my home in Malta” The double coincidence was certainly rather startling, and it was increased when I found that I and this second stranger had on the sarave of Alfred Postance at Valetta for the same purpose--to pluck a spray of flowers to send to his father in Liverpool Yes, the world _is_ small!

CHAPTER XIV

CONCERNING W E FORSTER AND OTHERS

The Beginning of Mr Stead's Journalistic Career--His Methods--Birth of the New Journalism--Madame Novikoff and Mr Stead--Mr Stead's Attacks upon Joseph Cowen--How he dealt with a Reonism--The _Leeds Mercury's_ Defence of Forster--Hoas Jockeyed out of the Cabinet--Forster's Resignation--News of the Phoenix Park Murders--Forster's Reflections--Mr

Gladstone's Pity for Social Outcasts--Mr Chamberlain's Brothers Blackballed at the Reform--Failure of an Attempt to Crush the _Leeds Mercury_--Forster's Gratitude

I now approach an episode inand permanent influence onon the politics of my time I refer to my intimate friendshi+p with William Edward Forster, and to my close association with him in the stormy episodes which attended the close of his career as a Minister of the Crown But before I enter into the story of reat and noble-uished person who shared h we had, perhaps, few other tastes in common One day in 1871 or 1872--that is to say, soon after I beca hoht a letter of introduction, which my servant placed in my hands The letter was from my father, and its object was to introduce to me the son of his old friend, the Rev William Stead, of Howden, near Newcastle I need not say that an introduction from my father would in itself have sufficed to ensure for the bearer a war Mr Stead had to tell me at once enlisted my interest and sympathy

Like myself, he was the son of a Nonconfor school he had entered upon a business career as a clerk on the quayside at Newcastle But he had been irresistibly draards journalism, just as Iarticles to various newspapers, he had received the offer of the editorshi+p of the _Northern Echo_, a halfpenny newspaper which had been recently established at Darlington

Strange to say, when this post was offered to and accepted by him, he was not only absolutely without editorial experience, but, as he himself told me, had never seen the inside of a newspaper office in his life With that remarkable promptitude and directness of action which, as I afterwards discovered, was one of his great characteristics, he had no sooner accepted the editorshi+p than he sought to qualify hi the advice of someone who had actual experience in editorial work It happened that I was the only editor to whoet a personal introduction, and so he cauidance and help I could afford hi to what a height of fame he has since risen as a journalist, I confess that I look back upon the days when he thus approached me as a neophyte with some amusement No doubt I was already, in his eyes, one of the old fogeys of the Press, and itabout his first appearance in my comparatively tame editorial establish this first visit that he paid uished by an entire lack of diffidence, and from the first made no concealment of his own views upon any of the subjects we discussed together It is true that when I took hi, and wrote ardedeyes of the novice; but he had, even then, his own ideas as to how leaders ought to be written and newspapers edited, and he did not affect to conceal the that was irresistible in his candour, his enthusiasency for influencing public opinion in the world It was the true and only lever by which Thrones and Governments could be shaken and thesyered by the audacity of the schelish journalis on which he had ever entered a newspaper office For hour after hour he talked with an ardour and a freshness which delighted uise of a pupil, he very quickly reversed our positions, and lectured e which I thought I had settled for myself a dozen years before I had met him