the main line of his argument. Moreover, he drove home every point and wedged in every parenthesis, without even making an uncharitable insinuation about his opponent.
The full conviction was forced in upon my mind that neither Mr. Gladstone nor Mr. Balfour, with all their mental training, ever used the English language in a more masterly manner or with more thorough effectiveness than that man used the Irish language.
When he had said what he wanted to say he stopped. Then I asked him to go out and send me in his opponent. The opponent came in. He made his speech. He gave his version of the business. He drove home his own views and he pulled the ground from under the feet of his opponent regarding the points which he suspected the opponent had insisted on, just as cleverly and as effectually as the opponent had done regarding him. He also spent a full hour in making his speech and he made the same impression On my mind as his opponent made.
I have this to say with regard to both men. There was never a hesitation regarding the use of a word. Their utterance was slow and deliberate, but the words came with smoothness and each word as it came was exactly the word which ought to have been used.
I have heard that that has not been the case with Mr. Balfour, that it is painful to listen to him sometimes, hesitating until he can find the best English word. There was no such hesitation in the speech of any of my two Irish speakers. Their words came slowly and deliberately, but with an exquisite fitness which was simply delightful to listen to.
I have instanced those two men, but my experience
