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buck. THE DEMEANOUR OF ENGLAND. 313 place, boldly, even avowedly, pressing the ex- chap. ample of the French Convention in the days ^^' of the Terror, and proposing that the House of Commons should send delegates to the army with power, as he frankly expressed it, ' to sacrifice ' those who were guilty.' Would the issue of this perilous crisis be swayed for weal or for woe by the qualities of the orator who had moved for the Committee, and was destined to be its chairman ? Mr Eoe- Mr »o«  buck had a high public spirit, and the honour of his country was dear to him. He had served many years in the House of Commons, and there held a peculiar station. Placing unbounded con- fidence in himself, and troubling his mind very little about any one else, he had a hardiness beyond other mortals, a compact and vigorous diction, that was quite good enough, yet not toe good for his purpose, and, above all, a matchless delivery which made up — much more than made up — for want of stature and voice ; because it made him seem like one filled with a sense of his ineffable power. But he had established a yet surer claim upon the ear of the House of Commons by assigning himself a peculiar func- tion. Though apparently endowed with no faculty for mastering a difficult subject, and wanting also those gifts of the intellect and the imagination which enkindle satire, irony, sarcasm, he nevertheless appointed himself to the office of public accuser, and what is more, clung so fondly to his chosen task as to be rarely engaged in any other. Though always accusing, he still