[Sidenote:  Balfour at a disadvantage.]

It was half-past ten o’clock when Mr. Balfour rose.  By this time the heat, which had set in with quite tropical fervour, became almost overpowering, and the House, which began by being tired, had become almost exhausted.  It was under these depressing circumstances that the Leader of the Opposition started on what must have been to him something of a corvee, and for a considerable time—­although the speech was not wanting in some very telling hits and bright sayings—­he laboured very heavily; he could not arouse the enthusiasm even of his own followers, and was thus wire-drawn and ineffective.

[Sidenote:  Honest John in fighting form.]

If Mr. Balfour was at his worst, Mr. Morley was at his best.  The speech which he delivered at Newcastle, during the previous week, placed Mr. Morley definitely in the very front rank of platform orators.  After his speech of September 1st, he made a distinct and great advance in his position as a Parliamentary debater.  His great defect as a speaker has been a certain want of nimbleness and readiness.  He has infinitely wider and larger resources than Mr. Chamberlain, who, nevertheless, excels in the alertness which is often the accompaniment of shallowness.  On this occasion Mr. Morley was rapid, prompt, crushing.  As thus:  Mr. Balfour had spoken of the people who denounced Dublin Castle as “third-rate politicians.”  “Who is the third-rate politician?” asked Mr. Morley, looking towards Mr. Chamberlain—­everybody knows that he used to denounce Dublin Castle—­and peal on peal of laughter and cheers followed from the Liberal and Irish Benches.  Mr. Morley followed up his advantage by saying, with a comic air of despair, “It is very awkward to have coadjutors using this kind of language about each other.”

[Sidenote:  A reminiscence of 1885.]

This is just the kind of thing which rouses even the most tired of the House; there was an immediate rise the temperature; the Liberals and the Irish were ready to delightedly cheer; the Tories, who always get restive as they approach the final hour of defeat, grew noisy, rude, and disorderly.  Then Mr. Morley turned to the charges against the Irish members, and asked the Tories if their own record was so white and pure that they could afford to throw stones.  This brought an allusion to the Tory-Parnellite alliance of 1885, which always disturbs, distracts, and even infuriates the Tories.  They became restless and noisy, and Mr. Balfour and Mr. Goschen began to rise and explain.  Well would it have been for Mr. Goschen had he resisted this inclination.  Mr. Morley was alluding to the Newport speech of Lord Salisbury, and Mr. Balfour was defending it.  “Ah, but,” said Mr. Morley, “did you not”—­meaning Mr. Goschen—­“did you not yourself attack Lord Salisbury for that very speech?”—­a retort that produced a tempest of cheers.  There were then some scornful and contemptuous allusions