Then he would sit down seriously, and someone else spoke to his noble
lordship. Nobody got angry at the knocks, and Heaven only knows what it
was all about. That is much the way with politics, when it is played
fair. But here is what I want particularly to say: We are not all born
the same, nor can we live the same. One man is born a brute, and another
a good sort; one a liar, and one an honest man; one has brains, and the
other hasn't. Now, I've lived where, as they say, one man is as good as
another. But he isn't, there or here. A weak man can't run with a
strong. We have heard to-night a lot of talk for something and against
something. It is over. Are you sure you have got what was meant clear
in your mind? [Laughter, and 'Blowed if we'ave!'] Very well; do not
worry about that. We have been playing a game of 'Allow me to speak, me
noble lord!' And who is going to help you to get the most out of your
country and your life isn't easy to know. But we can get hold of a few
clear ideas, and measure things against them. I know and have talked
with a good many of you here ['That's so! That's so!'], and you know my
ideas pretty well--that they are honest at least, and that I have seen
the countries where freedom is 'on the job,' as they say. Now, don't put
your faith in men and in a party that cry, 'We will make all things new,'
to the tune of, 'We are a band of brothers.' Trust in one that says,
'You cannot undo the centuries. Take off the roof, remove a wall, let in
the air, throw out a wing, but leave the old foundations.' And that is
the real difference between the other party and mine; and these political
games of ours come to that chiefly."

Presently he called for the hands of the meeting. They were given for
Mr. Babbs.

Suddenly a man's strong, arid voice came from the crowd: