SURVEY OF THE EARLY SEVENTIES 171 



his platform promises. He had not Mr. Higinbotham's gift of 

 oratory, but his speeches always commanded attention, for they 

 were so manifestly the result of honest convictions, couched in 

 direct and simple language, often enlivened by little touches of 

 Scottish humour that left none of the rankle of sarcasm or ridi- 

 cule. Some of his most ambitious addresses were delivered out 

 of Parliament in connection with Federation, the Unity of the 

 Empire, and other important national questions in which he took 

 so active an interest. During the whole of his political career he 

 never descended to the language of personal invective, which so 

 often disgraced the debates in periods of excitement, and he did 

 much by influence as well as by example to restrain the more 

 intemperate in language. In the House, as on the hustings, he 

 ever maintained a perfect equanimity, and he could put aside an 

 offensive interjection with rare good temper. He had a happy 

 faculty of epigram, and some of his felicitous phrases, which evoked 

 applause from friends and opponents alike, are often revived in 

 Parliamentary debates to this day. His sound common-sense, 

 and the moderation of language in which he expressed his views, 

 formed a marked contrast to the brusque and overbearing but 

 somewhat confused dicta of McCulloch, or the perfervid and rather 

 hysterical fluency of Graham Berry, the two men with whom 

 he was brought chiefly in contact. 



As a prosperous merchant, the architect of his own fortunes, 

 which had been slowly built up by industry and foresight from the 

 days of his temporary sojourn in Canvas Town, he naturally stood 

 for absolute freedom of commerce. This had kept him out of Par- 

 liament for ten years. It mattered nothing to the electors that 

 in the trading world Mr. Service's name symbolised the highest 

 commercial probity, the most steadfast devotion to duty, and a 

 loyal regard for the interests of all with whom he came in contact. 

 They put aside as absurd the notion that he had an unselfish desire 

 to devote his leisure and his ability to the further advancement 

 of the country, in the progress of which he had so happily shared. 

 Their experience of most of the men who had wooed their votes 

 made them suspicious of such quixotic ideas. Their support was 

 readily captured by the man who shaped his plastic views to meet 



