"If the work of retraction were to begin, is my right hon.
friend," asked Mr.Gladstone, with scorn in every tone, "willing to submit himself to the same process of examination?
If the work of retraction were to begin he would have a lot to do." And then came the passage which has already passed into Parliamentary history.

"If we are to stand in white sheets, my right hon.

friend would have to wear that ornamental garment standing in a very conspicuous position." [Sidenote: and Tragedy.] And then came the other and the tragic note.

Again I have to quote the exact words to convey the impression and explain the description:-- "If I were in the position of one of those gentlemen--if I had seen the wrongs and the sufferings of Ireland in former times, if the iron had entered into my soul as it had entered into theirs, it would have been impossible.

I should not have been more temperate possibly than some of them under those circumstances of the language I used.