Page:Eminent English liberals in and out of Parliament.djvu/162

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148
EMINENT LIBERALS IN PARLIAMENT.

to the opinions of "lords" and other great people of his acquaintance, who are intellectually greatly his inferiors. In aristocracy -ridden England this is nearly always a marked trait of the self-made man. The fact is, the honorable member for Sheffield, with all his vigor of intellect and many virtues, has not altogether escaped the "society" contagion of which the court is the centre, which has made so many strong men weak, and caused "the currents of so many enterprises of pith and moment to turn aside and lose the name of action."

"O thou that sea-walls sever
  From lands unwalled by seas 1
 Wilt thou endure forever,
  O Milton's England, these?
 Thou that wast his republic.
  Wilt thou clasp their knees —
 Those royalties rust-eaten,
  Those worm-corroded lies
 That keep thy head storm-beaten
  And sunlike strength of eyes
 From the open air and heaven
  Of intercepted skies."