A Tale of One City | Page 8

question there was a large
gathering in the Town Hall, and the opponents of the scheme were in
strong force.
Mr. Chamberlain, in the course of his speech advocating the purchase,
pointed out with characteristic force all the advantages of the proposed
scheme, and when he mentioned the satisfactory sum for which the gas
undertaking could be bought a prominent opponent called out, "Will
you give that for it?" "Yes, I will," was the prompt reply, which rather
surprised and silenced his antagonist.
And no doubt he meant what he said. He regarded the amount named as
an advantageous price for the purchase--as it has proved to be--and he
would have been willing, and would doubtless, with the aid of his
friends, have been able, to find the money to secure such a valuable
monopoly. It was, however, the decisive and ready manner in which he
answered his interrogator that was so characteristic of the man, and
which so appealed to the meeting as to elicit a hearty volley of cheers.
Mr. Chamberlain was never easily disconcerted, nor was he ever a
touchy, over-sensitive man. In fact, he has been heard to say, I believe,
that a man who takes to public life must not be thin-skinned. If he is to
give blows, he must be prepared to take blows in return, and whether he
takes his punishment fighting or lying down, he must take it smiling, or

at least with complacency. This he does himself, as a rule, and
whatever he may feel under the blows of his adversaries, he does not
wince nor whine, but always appears more or less imperturbable,
good-humoured, and unscathed. We see him demonstrative, combative,
even saucy sometimes on the platform, but rarely or never ruffled, sour,
or out of temper.
As I have hinted, I heard a good deal of Mr. Chamberlain's public
speaking when he first came to the front as a public man, and it was
impossible not to be interested, edified, and oftentimes amused by the
intelligence, point, and smartness of his speech. At the same time there
was--especially in the earlier days of his public career--a certain setness
and formality of style that suggested the idea that his speeches were
anything but the inspiration of the moment, but had been made
beforehand, and were being reeled off. Indeed, many of those who
knew him well maintained that his speeches were at this time the result
of painstaking study, care, and elaboration, and that those who had a
nose for oratory might detect in them a strong smell of the lamp.
One incident that came under my notice certainly went far to
corroborate this view. I refer to the occasion of a little semi-public
dinner at which Mr. Chamberlain was put down to propose a certain
toast. He proceeded for a time in his usually happy, characteristic
manner, when all at once in the middle of a sentence he came to a full
stop! We all looked up, and he looked down embarrassed and confused.
He apparently had lost the thread of the discourse he had so carefully
woven; he could not pick up the dropped stiches; and, if I remember
rightly, he sat down, his speech not safely delivered.
It seems difficult now to fancy Mr. Chamberlain making such a fiasco.
He is at the present time probably one of the most ready and fluent
speakers we have, and although many strange things might happen in
the House of Commons, one of the most astonishing would be to see
Mr. Chamberlain break down in a speech. It would create a sensation in
that unserene assembly which would almost be enough to make a
seasoned pressman swoon, and before the incident had been completely
realised the unexpected and startling fact would probably be known at
the Antipodes. Mr. Chamberlain can now make his speeches as he goes
on--although the material may be prepared beforehand--and, as we
know, he can turn from the course of his argument to answer quickly

and effectively some pertinent or impertinent question or interruption.
Since Mr. Chamberlain has become such a leading light in Parliament,
his speeches have taken a much more solid, sedate, and serious tone
than they had in his early Birmingham days. They have become
considerably more weighty--perhaps some of his unfriendly critics
would say more heavy--than they were in bygone times. Without being
open to the charge of levity or flippancy, Mr. Chamberlain's speeches
used to be remarkable for a certain amount of humour, banter,
touch-and-go smartness, as well as terse argumentative force.
At one time he was an appreciative student of the American humorists,
and he was very fond of spicing his remarks with apt and amusing
quotations from Hosea Biglow, Mark Twain, Artemus Ward, and other
comic classics. Indeed, at one time,