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118 SOME EXPERIENCES, 1880-1890 [CHAP. xx
of passion and fortified by every possible fact bearing on
the case, making the hearers unable to imagine how such
conviction, learning, and moral fervour could possibly be
on the wrong side.
Twice outside the Hou8e-once at Woolwich in 1879,
and again at Nottingham ip. the eighties. It was noteworthy
on the first occasion how he mastered the contents
of a Blue-book on the Eastern Question which was only ·
put into his hands at the beginning of the journey, and I _•
remember his pouncing on some subtle point dug out of ;
the pages, and then in his speech bringing it out as if it •
had been in his mind for weeks. ,
But there is really nothing to add to the masterly;
description of his eloquence in Morley's Life. ·
In this England of ours one may live a long time without
ever once coming under the spell of a really great orator. ,
The exceptions in my own experience have been rare: ,
Sam Wilberforce's sermon at Hagley, about 1868 ; and .
a speech from Dolling in 1890 to the elder boys at Hailey·.·
bury ; and, perhaps most notable of all, a thrilling address
by George Parkin on Imperial Federation to the Haileybury
boys about 1893. Intense conviction, sympathy with _
the audience, and an ideal not too high for the majority,
seem to he essential. The late G. F. Wilson, of the Seamen's
Mission, was a most powerful "beggar" in the
pulpit, and, like Parkin, a very noblechearted man. Lord
Knutsford made an extraordinarily effective appeal io the
whole of Eton in the difficult new School Hall-a task
which the great evangelist, J. R. Mott, admitted had beeu
too much for him. It is,-however, dangerous to play.
upon boys' emotions with pathos, and the absence of
sentimentality from the great oratorical achievementS of
former centuries makes one ask if we have not_ gone quite
far enough in this direetion. A noted missioner went to
Dublin just after making a great stir in Birmingham and
found the Irish as "cold as stone." A local lady, Mrs.
Dickinson, wife of the waggish Dean of the Chapel Royal,
suggested that "over here we know too well how it is done."