Sir Walter never recovered from the blow dealt by the death of his son in Africa, aggravated as the sorrow was by the controversy which followed. Of late years he spoke very little; but in the Parliaments of 1874-80 and 1880-85 he was a frequent participator in debate. He was no orator, nor did he contribute original ideas to current discussion. Moreover, what he had to say was so tortured by the style of delivery that it lost something of whatever force naturally belonged to it. I have a verbatim note taken fifteen years ago of a speech delivered in the House of Commons by Sir Walter, which faintly echoes an oratorical style whose master is no longer with us. It lacks the inconsequential emphasis, the terrific vigour of the gesture, and the impression conveyed by the speaker's intense earnestness, that really, by-and-by, he would say something, which compelled the attention of new members and strangers in the gallery. But if the reader imagines portentous pauses represented by the hyphens, and the deepening to tragic tones of the words marked in italics, he may in some measure realize the effect. The speech from which this passage was taken was delivered in debate upon a resolution moved by Mr. Forster on the Cattle Plague Orders. Whenever in the passage Mr. Forster is personally alluded to it is necessary, in order to full realization of the scene, to picture Sir Walter shaking a minatory forefinger, sideways, at the right hon. gentleman, not looking at him, but pointing him out to the scorn of mankind and the reprobation of country gentlemen: "Yet _he knows_ [here the finger wags]--and--_knows full well_--in the--position he occupies--making a proposal of this kind--must be one--which--must be--fatal--to--the Bill. _No one knows better_ than the right hon. gentleman--that when--he--raises a great question _of this kind_--upon a Bill _of this sort_--_namely_ upon the second reading--of--this Bill--that that proposal--that he makes--is absolutely against the principle--of--the Bill. Now, I--de--ny that the principle--of--this Bill--is confined--and _is to be found_--in the 5th Schedule--of--the Bill." A few minutes later an illustration occurred to the inspired orator, and was thus brought under the notice of the entranced House:-- "Now, Denmark--it is a _remark_--able country, is _Den_--mark--for--we have little--or no--dis--ease from _Den_--mark. The importation--from _Den_--mark--is something like fifty-six--thousand--cattle--_and the_ curious part of it is this, that _nine_teen--thousand--of these--were--cows--and _these cows_ came--to--this country--and--had been allowed to go--_all over_--this country--and--I have never yet heard--that these cows that--have so--gone over _this country_--have spread any disease--in this country--."