"The Druid" as a Politician. 307 



them for a season. So pathetic were his 

 valedictory words that they would un- 

 doubtedly have secured his return had they 

 been spoken before the irrevocable fiat had 

 gone forth. But the manly warning which 

 he then delivered that those great principles 

 which they had just spurned were proceeding 

 silently and irresistibly on their onward though 

 unseen track, had its glorious fulfilment when 

 with Richard Cobden for his colleague he again 

 stood at the Speaker's table and took the oath 

 as their representative. Truly has it been 

 said that the voice of the West Riding is the 

 future voice of England, which no Prime 

 Minister, however reckless, can dare to dis- 

 regard. By the mouths of the classic 

 Morpeth and the persuasive Cobden she has 

 lately spoken, as she did at the Reform crisis, 

 with a voice of unmistakable power." 



