Even those who had been in opposition to his
views, alluded to the great loss the nation had sustained and paid a
fitting tribute to his memory. The House of Commons, on motion of Mr.
Hume July 3d, at once adjourned. In the House of Lords the Duke of
Wellington and Lord Brougham spoke in appreciative words of the departed
statesman. "Such was the leader whom Mr. Gladstone had faithfully
followed for many years."
Supporting Mr. Hume's motion, Mr. Gladstone said: "I am quite sure that
every heart is much too full to allow us, at a period so early, to enter
upon a consideration of the amount of that calamity with which the
country has been visited in his, I must even now say, premature death;
for though he has died full of years and full of honors, yet it is a
death which our human eyes will regard as premature; because we had
fondly hoped that, in whatever position he was placed, by the weight of
his character, by the splendor of his talents, by the purity of his
virtues, he would still have been spared to render to his countrymen the
most essential services. I will only, sir, quote those most touching and
feeling lines which were applied by one of the greatest poets of this
country to the memory of a man great indeed, but yet not greater than
Sir Robert Peel:"
'Now is the stately column broke,
The beacon light is quenched in smoke;
The trumpet's silver voice is still;
The warder silent on the hill.
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