She held out a copy of it towards him but Mr. Curtis Bennett interposed. "How is this material to what Mr. Gladstone saw? You are cross-examining your own witness, Miss Pankhurst, and you must not do that." "May I not ask any explanation whatsoever as to the counsel given to us?" she asked with a persuasive air. "No, you may not," the Magistrate replied sternly. "We never have any opportunity. May I ask whether he made certain statements?" Mr. Curtis Bennett smiled and pretended not to notice, and Christabel eagerly turned to Mr. Gladstone, reading from the printed copy of his speech. "Did you say it was impossible not to sympathise with the eagerness and passion which have actuated so many women on this subject?" "Yes," he replied. "Did you say men had had to struggle for centuries for their political rights?" "Yes." "Did you say that they had to fight from the time of Cromwell and that for the last 130 years the warfare had been perpetual?" His smile was growing broader and broader. "Yes," he said. "Did you say that on this question experience showed that predominance of argument alone--and you believed that that had been attained--was not enough to win the political day? Did you say that?" "Yes." "Did you say that we are in the stage of what is called 'academic discussion,' which serves for the ventilation of pious opinions and is accompanied, you admit, by no effective action on the part of the Government, or of political parties or of voters throughout the country?" "Yes." "Did you say that members of the House of Commons reflect the opinion of the country, not only in regard to the number of people outside, but in regard to the intensity of the feeling in support of a movement, and that the Government must necessarily be a reflex of the party which brought it into being?" "Yes." "Did you say this: 'There comes a time when political dynamics are far more important than political arguments?' You said that?" "Yes." "And that 'men had learned this lesson?'" "Yes." "And that they know the necessity for 'demonstrating that _force majeure_ which actuates and arms a Government for effective work'?" "Yes, I think it was a most excellent speech!" he said nodding his head and smiling up at the prisoner evidently regarding the whole affair as a very good joke. The court laughed too, but for a different reason, and the Magistrate raised no objection.