YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

DIARY

or

TWO PARLIAMENTS.

BY
HEI^RY W. LUCY.

THE DISRAELI PARLIAMENT.
1874— 1880.

CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited
LONDON, FARIS, NEW YORK # MELBOURNE.
1885.
[ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.]

THE EARL OF ROSEBERY,

WHO SUaOESTED THE PLAN OF

eCfits iSonit,

INSCRIBED

WITH SINOEEB EBSABD.

PREFACE.

These Volumes are literally, as they profess to be, a
Diary of events passing under the eye of an observer.
The record was penned often within an hour of the
event. Some portions of it were actually printed in
the " Daily News " of the following moming, and
others within the current week in the " "World " or
the " Observer." Thus vividness of impression is
fully retained, though sometimes it is to be feared at
the cost of accuracy of judgment. It would be more
agreeable to modify some of the personal characteri
sations of public men; but wherein they are faulty
they stand corrected by further development of the
personages sketched. They were jotted down honestly,
without favour or prejudice, and, balancing considera
tions, it has been thought better to let them stand
precisely as they were written.
In his "Memoirs of the Eeign of (xeorge the
Second," Lord Hervey (whom Thackeray says he
" hates," and from whom he draws so much to illus
trate his lecture on the times of George, the Second)

Ti FEE FACE.
says of his own writing -. " No one who did not live in
these times will, I dare say, believe but some of those
I describe in these papers must have had some hard
features and deformities exaggerated and heightened by
the malice and ill-nature of the painter who drew them.
Others, perhaps, will say that at least no painter is
obliged to draw every wart or wen or hump-back in its
full proportions, and that I might have softened these
blemishes where I found them. But I am determined
to report everything just as it is, or at least, just as it
appears to me."
It is in this spirit, and animated by no other, that
this Diary has been written.
H. W. L.
London, Feb., 1885.

CONTENTS.
PAOE
CHAPTEE I.— Qtxeet Days . . . . .2
CHAPTEE II. — Gbems of Obsteuotion . ... 15
CHAPTEE III.— Matoe O'Goeman  .23
CHAPTEE IV.— Skirmishes with the Ieish . . -i2
CHAPTEE V. — ^UisTDEE Me. Disraeli's Management . 55
CHAPTEE VI.— De. Kenealt  . . 71
CHAPTEE VII.— Stoems Beewino ... .87
CHAPTEE VTII.— Me. Plimsoll ... .102
CHAPTEE IX.— The Queen Opens Parliament . U9
CHAPTER X.— Me. Diseabli's Decadence ... ... 130
CHAPTEE XI.— The Merchant Shippinq Bill . . 141
CHAPTER XII.— The Opposition Show Fioht . . .151
CHAPTEE XIII.— Diseaeli no moee ! . . . . ... IGO
CHAPTEE XIV.— Earl of Beaconsfield . ' . .170
CHAPTER XV.— "Which Leadee?" . . . 18.3
CHAPTEE XVI.— Mr. Butt Deposed  193
CHAPTEE XVII.— The Geeat Tiohboene Demonstration . . 208
CHAPTEE XVIII.— Me. Gladstone's Five Resolutions . . 221
CHAPTEE XIX.— SiE Staffoed Noethoote as Leadee . . . .241
CHAPTEE XX.— The County Feanchise . ... 261

VUl CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAPTER XXL— The Stationery Office Scandal . . 275
CHAPTER XXII.— A Twenty-six Houes' Sitting  287
CHAPTEE XXIII.— Peoeogation  . . 306
CHAPTEE XXIV.— Ready foe Wae .... ... 323
CHAPTER XXV.— A Vote of Ceedit . . .338
CHAPTEE XXVI.— Loed Eandolph Chuechill Develops 354
CHAPTEE XXVIL— Resignation of Loed Derby  367
CHAPTEE XXVIII.— Calling out the Eeseetes . . . 381
CHAPTER XXIX.— Me Foestee as Loed Chatham . . 397
CHAPTEE XXX.— Me. Roebuck Repulsed ... . . 413
CHAPTER XXXL—" Peace WITH HoNOUE" ... . . 429
CHAPTER XXXII. — Me. GI(ADStone and the Peemiee . 445
CHAPTER XXXIII.— A Hollow Session ... ... 455
CHAPTER XXXIV.— Me. Gladstone on the Offensive . 466
CHAPTEE XXXV.— The Spe4KEB Aeeaigned . . 482
CHAPTEE XXXVL —Dissolution ... . 498

NOTICE.
THE SECOND VOLUME
OF THIS WORK, EMBBACING -
THE
GLADSTONE PARLIAMENT,
is in. active preparatio'n.

Diary of Two Parliaments.

THE DISRAELIAN PARLIAMENT,
1874-1880.

On the morning of the 31<th of January, 1874, the nation was
startled by learning that the Parliament of 1868 was forthwith
to be dissolved. The announcement was made in the form of
an address by Mr. Gladstone to the electors of Greenwich.
"That authority,'''' he said, "which was in 1868 amply con
fided by the nation to the Liberal party and its leaders, if it
has now sunk below the point necessary for the due defence
and prosecution of the public interests, can in no way be so
legitimately and effectually restored as by an appeal to the
people, who by their reply to such an appeal may place beyond
all challenge two great questions — the first, what they think
of the manner in which the commission granted in 1868 has
been executed ; the second, what further commission they now
think fit to give to their representatives, and to what hands
its fulfilment and the administration -of the Government arc
to be entrusted.'" " A prolix narrative,'^ Mr. Disraeli called it
when, two days later, he followed it up by the issue of an
* address to the electors of Buckinghamshire. In the General
^^ Election which ensued the Liberal majority — 116 when Parlia
ment met in 1868, and reduced during the period of its ex
istence to between 60 and 70 — was entirely swept away, and
Mr. Disraeli took office with a majority of 51. On the 5 th of
March the new Parliament was opened by Royal Commission.
B

SESSION 1874.

CHAPTER I.
QUIET DAYS.
Opening of new Parliament — Swearing in — " A good deal lias happened in the
interval" — Vote of Thanks for the Ashantee Campaign —The Conser%'ative
Budget — Mr. Gladstone criticises the Budget — Mr. Smollett attacks the
late Premier.

Mar. 5. — Open- The appearance this afternoon of Roebuck^ Julian
ing o£ ne
Parliament.

mg o£ new (Joldsmid, Newdegatc, and Muntz upon the long-

deserted floor of the House of Commons was so
nearly simultaneous that it would be dangerous to claim for
any one of them the high distinction of having been the first
member of the ninth Parliament of Queen Victoria to enter
upon the scene of his future labours. Absolutely the first comer
was, however, amongst the four gentlemen named, and, though
Parliament had been summoned to meet at two o'' clock, it was
not far past noon when they were observed within the bar.
Their entrance broke the spell which had seemed to hang over
the place, and scarcely had they advanced midway up the
floor than entered Charley, Torrens, Plimsoll, John Hay,
Russell Gurney, followed at the briefest of intervals by Dilke,
Macdonald, the working men''s member for Stafford, Charles
Reed, and nearly the full roll of the House.
By half -past one the floor of the House was densely crowded,
and those who had come earliest began to take their seats.
Roebuck was already seated, selecting the second place on the
front bench below the gangway on the Opposition side, where
he held a sort of levee, old members coming up to shake hands
with him, and young members obtaining an introduction to a
man who had made his mark in the House whilst they were
schoolboys. George Bowyer occupied the seat by the gangway
next to Roebuck, but gave way presently when Brand, the
Speaker of the late House, having passed through a troop of
congratulatory friends, came up and claimed the position usually

18-4.] QUIET DAYS. 3
occupied by the Speaker-elect pending the moving and seconding
of the proposition for his election.
Of the two parties the Conservatives were by far the more
ready to take their seats, the benches to the right of the
Speaker's empty chair being, half an hour before the opening
of Parliament, well filled. The Liberals for the most part stood
and chatted in the throng on the floor of the House. The front
Opposition bench was at this time tenantless, but Arthur Mills,
the Marquis of Hamilton, and Colonel North were prominent
upon the Treasury bench. On this same .bench, but less notice
able by reason of their position under the shadow of the gallery,
were Hubbard and Alderman Cotton, two of the members for
the City of London, who were thus vindicating an old privilege
pertaining to the City of having its members seated on the
right hand of the Speaker, or at least at the right arm of the
Speaker's chair, upon the opening of a new Parliament.
The handsome face of John Hay shone on the first bench
behind the Treasury, he having selected the corner seat made
famous in the last Parliament by the unvarying jji'csence of
Edgar Bowring. Newdegate had early chosen a seat below
the gangway corresponding to that occupied by him on the
opposite side in recent Sessions. But during the first half-hour
he was content to mark his possession by depositing his hat,
whilst he wandered to and fro with an air of mournful rest
lessness which seemed to betoken that, though Disraeli was
at length at the head of a substantial majority, still he was
not happy.
Childers was the first ex-Minister to arrive, and he was
closely followed by W. H. Smith, the pioneer representative of
the new Government. The Financial Secretary to the Treasury,
though keeping about the neighbourhood, long avoided taking
his seat on the Ministerial bench, and it was not till the arrival
of Selwin-Ibbetson that he seated himself in CardwelFs old
place, the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department
sitting on his left hand, the two Ministers being presently joined
by Percy Herbert. About this time Henry James and William
Harcourt entered and marked the two great gulfs bridged since
last they appeared in the House, by passing by the seats below
the gangway on the Ministerial side and taking up positions
on the front Opposition bench. Here they found Lowe, who
b2

4 A DIABY OP TWO PABLIAUENTS. [1874.
, had quietly entered from behind the Speaker's chair, and sat
there neither seeking recognition nor offering greeting.
At five minutes to two Erskine May, the Clerk of the
House, entered, with his two colleagues, and took his seat at
the table, members thereupon completing the disposition of
themselves upon the yet unoccupied seats. A few minutes
after two a shout of " Black Rod ! " was heard at the door,
and deep silence falling upon the House, Black Rod approached
with an easy confidence that contrasted strangely with the
profoundly humble and thrice-bowing manner with which the
messenger of the House of Lords is accustomed to approach
the Commons. The contrast grew in depth when Black Rod
prefaced his invitation to visit the House of Lords by use of the
word " gentlemen." But Black Rod was strictly in order alike
in the omission of his wonted obeisance when there was neither
mace on tlie table nor Speaker in the chair, and in addressing as
" Gentlemen ''' a House which as yet was unprovided with a
SjDeaker. In the absence of a Speaker, it was Erskine May who
followed Black Rod, and led through the dense crowd con
gregated in the outer hall a long string of " gentlemen "
privileged at least -4o hear the Commission read, and assist
at the preliminary ceremony of opening Parliament. The
House of Lords seemed almost empty to those who had just
left the other House crowded to the bar. The emptiness
served to make more conspicuous the five bizarre figures,
dressed in scarlet cloaks slashed with bars of ermine, whieh
sat in a row upon a form before the throne, immovable, and
crowned with cocked hats. The Ministerial bench was bare,
and the Bishop of St. Davids and the Bishop of Lichfield, in
their lawn sleeves and gowns, formed the majority of the avail
able voting power on the back benches. On the front Opposi
tion bench sat the ex-Lord Chancellor, Lord Selborne, Lord
Chelmsford, Lord Denman, and Lord Skelmersdale. The
benches behind were fairly filled, a large contingent of ladies
having joined the Opposition, adding fresh and fairer tints to
the monotony of the dead level of red cloth which the seats
elsewhere presented.
As soon as Erskine May and a strong contingent of the
Commons reached the bar of the House, the Clerk, takino- in

1874.] QUIET DAYS. 5
hand a roll of parchment, read how the Queen had been pleased
to grant power by Royal Commission to certain noble lords,
at mention of whose respective names the Clerk looked up at
the five figures upon the woolsack, and in due order a hand
emerged from beneath one of the cloaks, one of the cocked hats
was taken off one of the heads, and a figure bowed. The
reading of the Commission being completed, the middle figure,
distinguished by the addition of a wig to its costume, rose,
and in a loud voice, which instantly betrayed the presence of
Lord Cairns, the new Lord Chancellor, informed Parliament that
as soon as the members had been sworn, the cause of the calling
together the Houses would be declared. In the meantime his lord
ship directed the gentlemen of the House of Commons to repair
to the plaee where they were to sit, and then choose " some
proper person " for Speaker, returning on the morrow to present
the object of their choice " for Her Majesty's Royal approbation."
Thereupon the Commons returned to their own House, to
find a notable addition made to the members present. As
Erskine May appeared at the bar of the House, leading back the
Commons, Gladstone quietly entered from behind the Speaker's
chair, and took his place on the front Opposition bench. His
entry was so well planned that any demonstration was im
possible, he having been in his seat for some minutes before
the whisper that told of his presence had gone the full circle
of the crowded benches. At the same time Hartington took
his seat on the front Opposition bench, which, when Chaplin,
the newly-elected Conservative member for Lincolnshire, rose
to propose the re-election of Brand as Speaker, was, in addi
tion to the ex-Ministers already mentioned, occupied by Knatch-
bull-Hugessen, Stansfeld, Lyon Playfair, Campbell Bannerman,
Arthur Peel, and James Lowther, Her Majesty's Under-Secre
tary of State for Colonial Affairs, who sat in the place usually
occupied by the leader of the Opposition. On the Treasury
bench the Government were represented by W. H. Smith, C. S.
Read, Percy Herbert, and Algernon Egerton.
Chaplin discharged himself of his duty with a considerable
amount of tact and grace, and his motion for the re-election
of Brand found an able seconder in George Cavendish, who
spoke from the Liberal side of the House. After a brief pause.
Brand rose from his place near Roebuck, and when the cheers

6 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [isT4.
with which he was greeted had subsided, made his acknowledg
ments of the high honour done him. As he finished, Chaplin
stepped forward and offered him his arm, George Cavendish
forming an escort on the other side, and, thus supported, the
Speaker advanced towards the chair amid renewed cheering, the
gentlemen of the House of Commons baring their heads as the
procession went by.
Strictly to follow out the prescribed form, the proposer and
seconder should have led the Speaker up to the ¦ chair. But the
difliculties of driving six omnibuses abreast through Temple-bar
do not exceed those which would attend the endeavour of three
gentlemen to walk abreast between the table of the House of
Commons and the Treasury bench. Accordingly when this
critical point was reached Chaplin released his charge, and
stepped on in front, the Speaker and George Cavendish follow
ing in single file. At this moment Lowther, apparently feeling
his responsibilities as Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies,
hastily left the Opposition bench, and, crossing the House, took
his seat by Percy Herbert. The Speaker, ascending the steps
of the chair, repeated his acknowledgments of the distinction
conferred upon him, 'and besought the assistance of members
in carrying out the rules of the House, and preserving order.
Percy Herbert having said a few words, as the spokesman of
his absent leader, Gladstone appeared at the table of the House.
He had, as mentioned, by a strategical movement defeated any
possible demonstration that his more public entrance might have
evoked. But there were no means of now escaping the outburst
of the enthusiasm excited by his presence in the minds of those
whom he had so often led from the other side of the House.
Cheer after cheer arose from the Liberal benches, and it was
some moments before Gladstone found the opportunity to speak.
When it came, he proceeded in a subdued tone and with an
unfamiliar manner to add his congratulations to those which had
been just officially spoken upon the re-election of Brand. He
had brought with him into the House a small walking-cane, with
which he toyed throughout the time occupied by the preceding
speakers. His hands rested on the top of the stick, whilst in
low and deliberate tones he referred to the special qualifications of
Brand for the office to which he had been re-elected. But wheu,
in the course of his remarks, he approached the - topic of the

1874. QUIET DAYS. 7
desirability of maintaining the continuity of the oflice of Speaker
apart from the question of party or politics, and when he mo
mentarily stepped aside to assail the arguments of any who
might hold contrary views, the hands were parted, the right
hand uplifted in the old manner, and the House discovered that,
whatever rumour might say to the contrary, its former leader
was certainly not politically dead, and might not safely be re
garded as even sleeping.
Mar. 6.— Swear- Both Houses of Parliament met at two o'clock to-
mg m. ^^y. j^ ^-^^ House of Commons the Speaker, in
ordinary Court dress and a " bob wig," took his seat at the table,
in the place usually occupied by Erskine May. At five minutes
past two Black Rod arrived with a summons to the House of
Lords, whither the Speaker went, attended by a considerable
following of members. The business of the right hon. gen
tleman was to present himself for Royal approbation in the
oflice to which he had been newly elected, and this was done in
accordance with the time-honoured and quaint formula. On
returning to the House of Commons, the Speaker took his
place in the chair, whence he addressed the Commons, convey
ing to them the purport of the communication he had just had
with the Lords Commissioners, and announcing the Royal con
firmation of their choice. He then took the oaths and signed
the roll of Parliament, and, retiring for a few minutes, returned
in the full dress of the Speaker.
Meanwhile two tables had been brought and added to
the length of the ordinary table, and on these were laid copies of
the oath and of the Bible. Erskine May read a list of names,
and the members indicated, crowding round the table, took the
oath and signed the roll in order, being afterwards introduced
to the Speaker by May. Chaplin was, after the Speaker, the
first member to sign the roll ; George Cavendish, the seconder
of the motion for the election of the Speaker, signing third.
Apr.14.— "Agood Bright took the aflfirmation customary with
deal has hap- members of the Society of Friends, but did
pened m the .¦' .
interrai." not take his seat, leaving the chamber immedi
ately after he had subscribed the roll. There
was a full House to hear Disraeli's answer to Robert Montagu's
question touching the right hon. gentleman's remarks on the

8 A DIABY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [i874.
government of Ireland, reported to have been made by him
in Buckinghamshire. " It is some time ago since the observations referred to were
made," said Disraeli, in reply, " and," he continued in a low
voice, "a good deal has happened in the interval."
The House burst into prolonged laughter at this sally, and
a general cheer endorsed the concluding remarks of the Prime
Minister, that it would be a very inconvenient matter for the
Government to express its opinion upon a subject of such im
portance in answer to a question. Montagu rose again to press
for a more definite reply, and was greeted with cries of
" Order ! Order ! " in which were mingled a few cheers. New
degate here interposed, and in his most solemn manner appealed
to the Speaker to say whether a subject involving the gravest
questions of legislation should be submitted to Her Majesty's
Ministers at a time when the House had no opportunity of ex
pressing an opinion on it.
The Speaker ruled that Montagu was in order iu putting
the question, but added that the Prime Minister might decline
to answer it. Montagu, amid a scene of some uproar, repeated
his request for an answer to his question. Disraeli, with one
hand in his waistcoat and the other holding his copy of the
" Orders," sat looking up at the ceiling, and as it was evident
he had no intention of adding to his remarks, the Speaker
introduced M'Arthur with a question relative to the Fiji Islands.
Mar.30.— Voteof Disraeli moved the resolutions conveying "the
Ishanteec^m! ^^""^^^ «^ *^^^ H°^^e to Sir Garnet Wolseley,
paign. Commodore Commerell, Commodore Hewett,
Captain the Hon. E. R. Premantle, Colonel
Festing, Sir Archibald Alison, Captain Glover, and the officers,
petty officers, non-commissioned oflScers, and men of the navy,
army, and marines engaged in the war against the King
of Ashantee." He entered upon a long and detailed sketch
of the operations on the Gold Coast, adroitly managing at
the outset to separate Garnet Wolseley, whom it was his
duty to eulogise, from the late Government, who had selected
him to carry out the campaign. Having concluded a some
what dry review of the events of the campaign, Disraeli in
a few brief sentences, extolled the general character of the

1874.] QUIET DAYS. 9
arm3r's' achievements, and' concluded by moving the vote of
thanks. Gladstone, who was received with loud cheers from the
Opposition benches, lost no time in meeting the allegation of
the Prime Minister touching the intentions of the late Govern
ment in the early days of the campaign. But he did so in a
studiously courteous manner, and with an apology for intro
ducing anything of a controversial character into the proceedings.
Eardley Wilmot, who was listened to with evident sympathy,
thanked Disraeli for a kindly mention of his son. Lieutenant
Wilmot, who was killed in action.
Gathorne Hardy made his dSui as Secretary of State for
War under the disadvantageous circumstances of rising to speak
at the dinner hour, and after the important proceedings noted
above. There was a considerable exodus from the House when
Gladstone sat down, amongst those who disappeared within ten
minutes after the rising of Hardy being the whole of the late
Ministry, with the exception of Campbell Bannerman. Hardy
occupied upwards of two hours in the exposition of his views,
and sat down amid some cheering. The House wakened up
considerably under the lively talk of Wilfrid Lawson, who im
mediately proceeded to move the resolution of which he had
given notice for the reduction of the numbers of the army by
10,000 men. Specially enjoyed was his quaint summing up of
the material results of the victorious campaign in Ashantee.
" What have we gained," he asked, " by our victories ? I
don't know that we have anything to show for the expenditure
of our blood and treasure except an old umbrella and a treaty."
" No treaty," shouted hon. members.
" Well," retorted Sir Wilfrid, " I am not so very sorry
to hear it, for I don't believe the treaty would have been any
more valuable than the umbrella."
Apr. 16. — The Probably on no occasion has the House of
Conservative Commons been more crowded than it was to-
Budget. night, when Stafford Northcote rose to disclose
the financial proposals of the Conservative Government. Every
seat in the body of the House was occupied, and a little throng
stood at the bar. Members filled the double row of seats in
the gallery opposite the Treasury bench, some, for lack of better

10 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [is74.
accommodation, sitting on the steps of the gangway. The only
place where seats were unoccupied was the back bench in the
gallery opposite, and here an additional score of members would
have filled it to overfiowing. The various galleries over tte
clock devoted to the accommodation of strangers more or less
distinguished were early filled to their utmost capacity. Amongst
other members of the Upper House present were the Earl of
Airlie, Lord Stafford, Lord Annesley, Lord Carlingford, and
the Earl of Devon, a country neighbour of the Chancellor of
the Exchequer. Gladstone, who had not been present in the
House throughout the week, prolonged his absence over to-night;
but Bright was there, taking his seat on the front Opposition
bench for the first time this Session. Lowe, Goschen, Childers,
Forster, and Stansfeld were amongst the ex-Ministers present.
The full strength of the Ministry was displayed on the Treasury
bench, Disraeli with his left hand swathed in a black silk band
age, suffering, it was said, from an attack of gout.
When the questions had been put and answered, the Premier
rose, and walking down the House faced about at the cross
benches on the right-hand side, and stood there a moment or two
whilst Stafford Northcote occupied the attention of the Speaker.
" Mr. Disraeli ! " said the Speaker, when the Chancellor of
the Exchequer had resumed his seat.
"A Message from, the Queen" responded the right hon.
gentleman, advancing, bowing to the chair, and- handing in the
document. As he passed up the House all the members uncovered, and
remained with bared heads whilst the Speaker read how the
Queen, taking into consideration the momentous services ren
dered by Sir Garnet Wolseley in planning and conducting the
Ashantee campaign, recommended her faithful Commons to
grant him a sum of £25,000. Disraeli moved that the Message
be referred to the Committee of Supply, and amid a buzz of
conversation hats were with one consent replaced.
The buzz of conversation deepened into a cheer and then died
away into profound silence, when, just on the stroke of five
o'clock, the House having resolved itself iuto Committee of
Supply, Stafford Northcote rose to make his speech.
Sir Stafford resumed his seat at twenty minutes to eio-ht
after having spoken two hours and forty minutes. For the

1874.] QUIET DAYS. 11
greater part of that time he, contenting himself with a plain
business style of talking, managed to engross the attention of
the Committee, though his hold was once or twice imperilled
by a tendency to entertain the Committee with those replies
to the arguments of deputations on the Budget, which he took
credit to himself for refraining from delivering in the presence
of the deputations themselves. During one of these somewhat
frequent interludes, when he was replying at length to the
arguments of the promoters of the repeal of brewers' licences,
the House began rapidly to thin. But, on the whole, he
succeeded in maintaining the interest of his hearers ; and the
loud cheers that burst forth as he sat down did not all come
from the Conservative benches.
Apr. 23. — Mr. The appearance of the House of Commons at
Gladstone on- ^alf-past four betokened a condition of high ex-
ticises the *^ . '
Budget. pectancy. Every seat in the body of the House
was appropriated, and members overflowed into
the galleries, a double row facing the Opposition benches indi
cating that the speaker looked for would rise from that side.
The gallery over the clock was densely crowded, amongst the
numerous peers present being Earl Granville. Both the front
Opposition bench and the Treasury bench were filled, a notable
addition to the occupants of the former being Gladstone, who
has not of late been very constant in his attendance upon the
debates. As has been his custom this Session, he sat several
seats below the one usually filled by the leader of the Opposi
tion, having Bright on his right hand and Childers on his
left. The questions disposed of, Raikes, the Chairman of Com
mittees, brought up the Report of the Budget; whereupon
Gladstone rose, and was greeted by loud and prolonged cheer
ing from the Liberal benches.
He commenced by observing that he was not about to enter
upon a course of hostile criticism, and this pledge was, through
out a speech extending over three-quarters of an hour, kept,
not alone in the general scope of his remarks, but in the manner
of making them. He was studiously courteous to "my right
hon. friend" Stafford Northcote, and most gentle in the utter
ance even of the strongest of his criticisms upon the financial
policy of a Conservative Government. Stafford Northcote, who

12 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [i874.
followed, observed that, after such a speech, he felt scarcely
called upon for an answer; and forthwith proceeded at great
length, and in somewhat wearisome detail, to reply.
Apr. 2i. - Mr. When at five o'clock Smollett rose, in accord-
Smoiiett at- g^^^g ,^[^]^ notice, to call the attention of the
tacks the late , i t i j_-
Premier. House of Commons to "the abrupt dissolution
of the late Parliament," and to move a resolu
tion, there was present only such a House as is customary on
Friday evenings, when a private member is availing himself
of the privilege of airing a grievance on going into Committee
of Supply. A quarter of an hour earlier Gregory had, by a
speech on probate in England, Scotland, and Ireland, driven the
bulk of the members away. But they came flocking back as
the news spread through the lobbies that Smollett really was
moving his resolution, and that Gladstone was on the Treasury
bench taking notes, with the obvious intention of replying.
Smollett set out with the declaration that he was not work
ing in conjunction with any party, nor was he expecting
sympathy from either Ministers or the Opposition. The former
were, he declared, too well satisfied with the position in which
the dissolution had landed them to interpose, and the other too
fully impressed with the wisdom of not crying over spilt milk,
to complain of " the political madness of Mr. Gladstone," or to
bewail their own " condition of political disorganisation." This
way of speaking, the plainness of which was considerably
augmented by a certain brusqueness ' of manner, raised a laugh
on the Conservative benches. Thus encouraged, Smollett pro
ceeded to indulge in "a short historical retrospect of the
Session," the dramatic interest of which he somewhat damaged
by declaring at the outset that it was designed to prove that
Gladstone had " organised a dissolution in secret, and sprung it
upon the House." It was not, he was careful to state, for the
sake of the late House of Commons that he was moved to
protest. He had not himseK belonged to that House, had
" never thought much of it," and had even seen it referred to as
"an assembly of soap boilers." But the facts did not lessen
his indignation against Gladstone and his colleagues, whom in
the course of his speech, he accused of " having, by unworthy,
improper, and unconstitutional methods, tried to seize power • "

1874.] QUIET DAYS. 13
of having " acted in a manner that was ungenerous to their
friends, insolent to their enemies, and to the country at large
barely honest ; " whose conduct he variously described as "in
decent," as '^ utter wantonness," as a "device," an "artifice,"
a "plot," a "pious fraud," as "sharp practice more likely to
have come from a sharp attorney's oflice than from a Cabinet of
English gentlemen.''' To account for all of which the most
charitable suggestion that offered itself was that " the late
Ministry had lost their wits, and were not responsible agents."
To this, members on the Conservative side listened with
appreciative laughter and applauding cheers, and only once —
when Smollett declared, speaking of Gladstone, that "the
stratagem had recoiled on the head of the trickster " — did
indignant eries -of " Order ! " from the Liberal benches inter
rupt the speaker.
When Smollett sat down, Gladstone half rose from his
place, but there appeared a prospect of his speech remaining
unspoken. No one had seconded the resolution, and no re
sponse came in reply to the Speaker's demand for the name of
the seconder. At the second appeal from the chair, however,
Whalley came forward, hat in hand, from the obscurity of a
corner under the Strangers' Gallery, and said,
" I beg to second it."
A great roar of laughter and cheers followed upon this
unexpected apparition. It was some moments before silence
was restored, and the Speaker found an opportunity for put
ting the motion from the chair. Then Gladstone appeared at
the table, and was greeted by long and loud cheering from the
benches behind him and below the gangway. In tones of grave
mockery he declared that, as the motion had been supported
by " two such "distinguished members " as the proposer and
seconder, he felt it his duty to lose no time in replying to it.
In the same tone of grave banter, hugely relished by both sides
of the House, Gladstone, whilst admitting that Smollett had
the support of a name that stood high in historical literature,
took exception to the date of the " historical retrospect " which
they had listened to. " What he calls history I call romance,"
said he, and, with a half apology for treating the matter
seriously, he proceeded at some length to contradict and disprove
the serious allegations " which appeared amid the jokes and the

14 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [is74.
invective of the hon. member." The main statement, to the
effect that the Ministry had early in January determined upon
the dissolution announced in the last week of the month,
and had secretly informed their supporters of their intention,
with the view to their obtaining advantages at the hustings,
Gladstone denounced as "not only untrue, but absurd; not
only absurd, but impossible." Coming to the passage in which
Smollett had stigmatised her Majesty's late Ministers as " trick
sters," he, pointing over to the place where Smollett sat, called
out, in a loud voice,
" Let the hon. member rise in his place and say whether
he still holds to the utterance of the word ' trickster.' '"
He paused a moment, and Smollett, standing on his feet,
said hurriedly,
" I shall not rise again from my seat."
The House laughed at the "bull," but it became hushed
as Gladstone protested his scorn for a man who, when challenged,
had " not the decency, had not the manliness, to reply, but took
refuge in ignoble silence from the consequence of his act." A
prolonged cheer from the Liberal benches followed, and when
Gladstone spoke again it was in a quiet, subdued manner.
Thenceforward his speech resolved itself into an elaborate de
fence of the course taken by the Cabinet in dissolving Parlia
ment, and comprised an historically interesting statement of
his personal views and feelings in the last critical moments of
his Premiership.
When Gladstone had finished, he, amid loud cheers, walked
out of the House, and Whalley presented himself, this time
from a seat behind the front Opposition bench. His naive
confession, that he had " scarcely read the resolution he had
seconded," caused great laughter, which became quite bois
terous when he said he was very glad to have the opportunity
of commenting upon the inconvenience occasioned to candidates
for election and re-election by the suddenness of the dissolution,
adding, " It found me in prison." When, finally, Whalley
sat down, there was a pause, and all eyes were turned towards
the Treasury bench, where Disraeli sat with folded arms and
downcast eyes. Showing no signs of intention to interfere
¦ in the matter, Sir George Bowyer rose amid deprecatory cries.
It transpired that he wanted Smollett to withdraw his resolu-

1874.] GEBMS OF OBSTEUOTION. 15
tion, but the Liberals opposing to his suggestion a determined
shout of " No I " the question was formally put from the
Chair and negatived.

CHAPTER II.
GERMS OF OBSTEUCTION.

First Appearance of Major O'G-orman — Major O'Gorman on Sunday Closing —
The County Franchise Bill — How Acts of Parliament are Drafted — A
Breach of Privilege — LoUypops on the Sahbath Day — Taking down his
words — Lord Sandhurst — Lord Randolph Qhurchill and the Irish Mem
bers — At the Bar of the House.
Apr. 29. — First House discussing question of purchase of Irish
Appearance of railways. When it was believed the debate had
Major OGor- ...
man. finished, it being close on midnight, Major
O'Gorman, newly elected for Waterford, rose
from a back seat below the gangway. The Major, who is of
gigantic stature and burly to boot, stood a few minutes speechless
in full view of the House, A titter rose from the Ministerial
benches, which broke forth into a roar of laughter when Major
O'Gorman suddenly and angrily cried,
"Mr. Speaker!"
When the outburst had partially subsided, the hon. member
said he was about to vote against the motion, and could not do
it without a word of explanation ; the word was that if the
English Government got hold of the railways there would not
at the end of three weeks be an Irishman in the service of any
of the lines. The House laughing again at this hot utter
ance, he repeated and emphasised his observation by declaring
that in three weeks all the Irishmen on the line would be " sent
to hell or Connaught." This brought up the Speaker, and Major
O'Gorman having, with considerable difliculty, been made to
understand that he must temporarily sit down, the right hon.
gentleman reminded him that he had " exceeded the usual
licence of Parliamentary debate." Major O'Gorman showed a
disposition to argue the matter with the Speaker, affirming, amid
shouts of laughter, that the expression he had made use of was

16 A DIABY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [1874.
" perfectly well known." Finally, he " offered his sincere regret "
if he had said what he should not have said, though, he added,
" it is perfectly historical."
He then proceeded to observe that he " was not a Hellenist,
and need not change his sex and become a Cassandra in order
a
to be able to prophesy that with three weeks of English manage
ment the Irish railways would be ruined." Next he volunteered
an anecdote. "It's not a bad story," said he; but all the
House could make out was a reference to a horse which a Lord
Lieutenant was riding with a distinguished man, and was
"thr.own over his ears." In conclusion, the Major, whilst
declaring "his sincerest respect for that most talented young
gentleman who had introduced the motion," repeated that he
would not be able to vote with him, his maxim being, " On
all occasions vote against the introduction of Englishmen to
Ireland." Major O'Gorman's remarks brought the debate to a
close, and upon a division the motion was negatived by 241
votes against 56.
May 8. — Major Mr. Richard Smyth, endeavouring to obtain the
o Gorman on prohibition of the sale of intoxicating liquors in
ing. Ireland on the Sunday, led to the disclosure of a
wide difference of opinion on the subject amongst
the Irish members. Lord Charles Beresford was specially em
phatic in his opposition to the proposal. Hicks Beach declined
to adopt the motion on the part of the Government, and an
attempt further to carry the discussion was met by cries of
"Di'vide.''' On Major O'Gorman presenting himself, however,
he was received with loud cheers, and was listened to with
profound attention, as beginning by addressing the Speaker as
" Mr. Chairman," and occasionally lapsing into use of the word
" gentlemen ! " he warmly opposed the motion.
" For ever let the Heavens fall," said the Major, with hand
solemnly uplifted, but " never let it be said that you introduced
into Ireland an Act which prevented a poor man goino- out for
a walk on a Sunday — perhaps a hot Sunday, may be a wet
Sunday — with his family, and that he could not get a drop of
beer, or porter, or whisky. It is creating one law for the rich
and another for the poor, and that," he added, sinkino- back
into his seat, "is a thing I never will stand."

1874.] GEBMS OF OBSTRUCTION. 17
When the cheers and laughter which this oration evoked
had subsided, the House divided, and the motion was rejected
by 201 votes against 110.
May 13. — The The second reading of the Household Franchise
S Biu^''''°" (Counties) Bill moved by Trevelyan in a clever
speech, a considerable portion of which was ad
dressed personally to Disraeli, who, unfortunately, was not
present to hear it. Salt moved the rejection of the Bill, not
so much on the ground of actual hostility to its principle,
as because he believed the time was not opportune for the
suggested reform. Burt supported the motion in an able maiden
speech, brief, but weighty in argument, delivered with a con
siderable degree of natural grace, and losing nothing by the
curiously broad dialect in which it was spoken. Newdegate
was unusually moved by the proposal further to amend the
representative system, and declared in sad, slow tones, that
Trevelyan was one of those who think
" The Constitution was intended
For nothing else but to be mended."
Forster congratulated Trevelyan upon the fact that the ex
tension of the franchise in counties was now reduced to a mere
question of time. For his own part, he believed it had become a
pressing question, and it was high time it was settled. In an
eloquent and warmly spoken passage, he declared that the reason
why England had advanced by means of reform instead of revo
lution was because new social powers as they rose were taken
within the precincts of the Constitution, and made a portion of
it. Such a new power was the agricultural labourer, who had
been deaf and dumb, but who, thanks to a cheap press, and to
extended means of education, could now hear and speak. Mur
murs from the Ministerial benches had formed a running com
mentary upon this declaration; but when Forster referred to
Arch as "that eminent man," and expressed a desire, in the in
terests of the Legislature and the country, that he were sitting
in the House of Commons, Conservative indignation burst forth
in derisive laughter and emphatic shouts of " No, no ! "
Disraeli, who had entered the House whilst Salt was speak
ing, rose at four o'clock, the House being densely crowded, and
c

18 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [i874.
was received with loud cheers. He spoke in his quietest manner,
till he came to refer in sarcastic terms to the " passionate
fervour " with which Forster had addressed the House, and to
the "look of severe scrutiny " with which he had regarded him
(the Premier) when he touched on the question of land tenure.
Roused by the cheers and laughter these personal thrusts elicited
from Conservatives, Disraeli proceeded with increased animation
to "look at the question in a more business-like way." His
"great objection," disclosed in the course of his remarks, was
that it was not possible, or at least not desirable, to enfran
chise large bodies of the people withou't at the same time
revising the distribution of political power. A deep silence
fell over the Conservative benches when the Premier declared
that in all such revisions the country had been approaching
the system of electoral districts, and that in all future changes
of a similar character further approaches must be made in tbe
same direction. But the cheering recommenced when the right
hon. gentleman, whilst acknowledging the inevitableness of the
consequence, declared, though in comparatively mild terms, his
personal objection to be an agent in hastening its approach, and
cited figures to show that it would, when it came, strike a
fatal blow at the system of borough representation.
After some words from Trevelyan the House divided, and
the Bill was rejected by 287 votes against 173, the announce
ment of the majority being hailed by loud cheering from the
Conservative side.
May 14. -How Gladstone, on his way to the Royal banquet at
^fif^t ^«Tr. Windsor, looked in and remained for an hour
drafted. on the front Opposition bench, the centre of a
continually changing group of old colleagues and
friends. Disraeli was not present during the evening, and >the
House generally was unusually empty, there being but little
attraction in a list of orders of the day. The House gave up
the greater portion of the night to consideration of the Juries
Bill. In the course of the debate a curious instance occurred of
the lax manner in which Acts of Parliament are drafted. Clause
5 of the Bill provides for the total exemption from service on
juries of (amongst other persons) " all peers, members of Parlia-

1874.] GERMS OF OBSTEUCTION. 19
ment, and judges, all serjeants, barristers-at-law," &c. In the
scrutiny which the Bill had undergone at the hands of private
members, the closeness of which was testified to by eight pages
of amendments, it apparently had not occurred to any one that
the term "all serjeants" included certain policemen, soldiers,
marines, and others, whom it certainly was not the intention
of the Legislature to exempt from service on juries. At the last
moment, just as the clause was after long discussion being put
to the vote, Thompson pointed out the error, and, amid some
laughter, the phrase was- amended by the addition of the words
" at law."
May 18. — A H. Herbert immediately gained the attention of
viieg? °* ^"" ^^^ House when, rising after the questions had
been disposed of, he claimed a brief hearing on
a matter of privilege. It appeared that a breach of privilege
had, in his opinionj been committed by the Momiiig Post, in
asmuch as it had published a paragraph assigning to the Speaker
the utterance of certain strictures upon recent Parliamentary
manifestations, and had, on another occasion, published an in
accurate statement relating to the sittings of Select Commit-.
tees. The Speaker replied very briefly and pointedly that he
had seen the first communication referred to, and had not
thought it worth contradicting, and with respect to the latter
he pointed out that hon. members had for reference an official
record in the " Votes," which were supplied to them each morn
ing, and need not be misled by statements in a newspaper.
May 19. — Lolly- In the House of Commons P. A. Taylor intro-
Sabbath'Day ^ duced a resolution for the opening of museums,
libraries, and similar institutions, on Sundays.
In a racy speech, which kept together a large House, he re
viewed the arguments it had been the custom to oppose to the
moveraent, and', referring to the manner in which hostile peti
tions were got up, cited the declaration of a clergyman who,
writing on the subject, observed, " But, you know, religious
people are so unscrupulous, as a rule." A great deal of amuse
ment was excited by his dramatic reading of the report of a
recent meeting of Scotch elders, when the question under discus
sion was whether "walking on the Sunday" was a practice
c 2

20 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [1874.
worthy of the seal of their approval. The House was, in par
ticular, deeply moved by the repetition of a story told to his
class by a clergyman, touching " a little boy who broke the
Sabbath by eating lollypops." The lollypops stuck in the little
boy's throat, and choked him, so that he died.
Allen, who moved as an amendment that it was not de
sirable to open the museums on Sundays, was not so fortunate
in gaining the ear of the House, his remarks, after a brief
interval, being received very impatiently, and the occasional
pauses, arising from his losing himself amid a pile of papers
which he had on the seat behind him, were filled up by loud
cries of " Divide 1 " M'Arthur, who seconded the amend
ment, was received with still louder cries of deprecation, which,
as in the case of Allen, came chiefiy from below the gangway on
the Conservative, side. The motion was rejected by 271 votes
against 68.
May 20. — Tak- The equanimity, not to say the dulness, of the
word's"™" ^^^ afternoon's proceedings was varied by a " scene "
which took place between two Irish members
during the brief discussion on the Public Meetings (Ireland) Bill.
Conolly, in supporting Dr. Ball's amendment for the rejection
of the Bill, observed that there was " nothing illegal or un
constitutional " the Home Rule party would shrink from in
order to compass their ends. Thereupon, Butt, jealous for the
dignity and decorum of Parliamentary debate, interposed, and
moved " that the words be taken down." Conolly promptly
apologised, and offered to withdraw the obnoxious expressions ;
but Butt was inexorable in pressing his motion, and the
Speaker ruling that in such case the words must be taken
down, this was done amid solemn silence. Conolly then pro
ceeded, apologising for the use of the objectionable words,
and expressing the same view in other and more strictly Par
liamentary terms.
May 21. - Lord When, a few minutes after five o'clock, Anderson
Sandhurst. ^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ ^ ^^^^ ^j. ^gj^g^j.^ ^^ ^j^^ Com
mander of the Forces in Ireland, the House of Commons was
crowded in every part. There was not a vacant seat on the
floor of the House ; the galleries on either side had their rows

1874.] GERMS OF OBSTRUCTION. 21
of members, and the Peers', Speaker's, and Strangers' Galleries
were all filled. Lord Hampton, better known as Sir John
Pakington, took his seat in the Peers' Gallery during ques
tion time, but left before five o'clock. Lord ' Skelmersdale,
Viscount Monck, Lord Wolverton, Lord Chelmsford, Lord
O'Hagan, and the Earl of Bradford were among the peers
who, from time to time, dropped in and filled up the gallery.
Gladstone took his seat shortly after half -past four, and remained
for an hour.
Disraeli, having moved that the orders of the day be post
poned till " the motion relating to the Army (Lord Sandhurst) "
was disposed of, Anderson rose, and was received in absolute
silence. This was presently broken by laughter and ironical
cheering, when, referring to the terms in which the Premier
had the other night alluded to the motion, he declared that he
did not charge Lord Sandhurst with corrupt practices. Corrupt
practice, he explained, implied corrupt motive, and he did not
allege that on the part of his lordship. The outburst which
greeted this introductory passage was the first and last hostile
demonstration made in the course of the speech; and as Ander
son proceeded, in studiously temperate language, to set forth
his indictment, the House assumed an aspect of profound
attention. The specific charges against Lord Sandhurst -were that he
had been absent from duty for seventeen months out of thirty-
four, and that he had during that period received pay and allow
ances contrary to the regulations laid down in the Queen's
Warrant relating to the pay of staff officers. The principal
features of the case appeared in a digest of a correspondence
which had passed between Lord Sandhurst and the War Office,
resulting in his lordship's returning nearly j6900, received in the
way of pay as Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in Ireland,
and for remittances of portions of which his receipt had been
furnished by the gumming on to the pay-sheet of his signa
ture, written on a separate piece of paper, his lordship being
at the time in the south of France.
On Anderson sitting dow^, after speaking for three-quarters
of an hour, Gathorne Hardy rose from the Treasury bench, and,
declaring that he did not appear there as the advocate of Lord
Sandhurst, urged that throughout the whole transaction his

22 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [is74.
lordship' had acted openly and in perfect good faith, believing
that he was entitled to the pay he had accepted during the
period of his absence from Ireland, a considerable portion of
which was accounted for by his attendance upon Parliamen
tary duties, and by his being summoned to the War Office for
consultation with Cardwell on the details of the Army Pur
chase Bill.
Hitherto the debate had proceeded with a certain degree of
solemnity on the part of the House. But the rising of Hors
man changed all that. The right hon. gentleman, after some
prefatory remarks of a general and judicial character, whieh left
his hearers in doubt as to which side he was about to declare for,
suddenly turned towards the gentlemen sitting on the crowded
front Opposition bench, and denounced them as the authors of
the whole mischief, to which they had been movedby the shab
biest and dirtiest of reasons. They had, when in office, made
the greatest possible use of Lord Sandhurst in respect of the
Army Purchase Bill. While the Bill was passing through the
Commons, Cardwell had called Sir William Mansfield to his
counsels, and when the Bill reached the Lords they had made
him a peer in order that he might further help them there.
These duties had, of course, brought him to London, and then,
" in order to reduce the estimates and swell the surplus," they
had, -with pistol at his head, " extorted from him " these sums
of money, which he was said to have " returned.''' These obser
vations drew forth rapturous cheering from the Conservative
benches; and the House, having again found its voice, used it
to protest against Reginald Yorke's proposed interposition in the
debate. The hon. member rose with a portentous bundle of
notes in his hand, and admitted that he " had intended to go
through a few points in the correspondence between Lord Sand
hurst and the War Oflice." But the inclination of the House
being decidedly adverse to hearing him at all, Yorke, after some
vain struggling, sat down, and Campbell-Bannerman presented
himself at the table.
Like Gathorne Hardy, the ex-Financial Secretary to the
War Office was suffering from a severe cold. His observations,
therefore, were brief, but manifestly, in the view of the majority
of the House, they conclusively disposed of Horsman's state
ments. If the late Government had acted from shabby and

1874.] GERMS OF^ OBSTRUCTION. 23
dirty motives of economy, Campbell-Bannei'man said, then his
Royal Highness the Commander-in-Chief and the Adjutant-
General must be supposed to have been actuated by the same
desires, for no step in the proceedings had been taken by the
War Oflice without consulting them, and receiving the seal of
their approval. As for the pistol-at-the-head performance, in
order to extort the money from Lord Sandhurst to swell the
surplus, the fact was that the money returned by his lordship
had been paid over to the officers who had in his absence per
formed his duties ; and finally, if it were ¦ true that the late
Government had made Lord Sandhurst a peer in order that he
might help them through the Lords with the Army Purchase
Bill, all Campbell-Bannerman could say was that they were
very unfortunate in the speculation, for when his lordship had
taken part in the debates in the other House, he had spoken
against the Bill. Recurring to the matter actually before the
House, he declared, amid general cheering, that there was no
imputation, on the character of Lord Sandhurst, and expressed
the hope that Anderson would withdraw his motion, which
he did.
May 22. - Lord Considering to-day the expediency of the selec-
Ch^chiu^and ^^°^ °^ Oxford as a military centre. Brooks sud-
the Irish mem- denly interposing with the remark, "As chief
^^' magistrate of the city of Dublin, I trust the
House will allow me to make a few remarks," was greeted with
shouts of laughter. But it appeared that Brooks did not mean
to claim in these words a locus standi in the debate as far as
it related to the subject matter, but merely for the purpose of
hurling back at the feet of Lord Randolph Churchill " a slander
upon the Irish members," which he understood the noble lord
to have uttered in the course of his remarks.
Later in the debate, Meldon, another Irish member, appeared
as the champion of Dublin University, upon which, it appeared,
the noble lord had levied " a sneer." Meldon wished him and
the House generally to understand that, just as Dublin was
" far away a better and a finer city than Oxford," so Dublin
University, at whieh Meldon himself had graduated, was " in
tellectually and physically ''' a greater institution than Oxford
University.

24 A DIABY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [1874.
June i.-At the Parliament met to-day after the Whitsuntide
House"* ^^^ ''¦ecess, and members of the House of Commons
whom zeal for the public service had led to their
places in the first hour of the reunion were recompensed by
witnessing two incidents of rare occurrence. The Speaker took
the chair shortly after four o'clock, and was scarcely seated
when O'Donnell, who was member for Galway when the House
adjourned, advanced to the bar, and, bowing to the Speaker,
asked permission to raise a question of privilege. The Speaker
replied to the "hon. member" that he had received a report
from Mr. Justice Lawson, the judge appointed to try the
petition against his return for Galway, from wliich he learnt
that O'Donnell was disqualified from sitting in the House, and
that consequently he was not entitled to address it. Bowing
again in the same dramatic manner that had distinguished his
carriage throughout, O'Donnell said —
"I obey, sir, but I shall appeal," and disappeared.
The Speaker then made to the House the communication
which O'Donnell had desired to preface, informing it that
Galway was at the moment minus one representative, O'Donnell
having, by the judgment of Mr. Justice Lawson, been unseated
for corrupt practices. Later still, Conolly gave notice with
reference to the borough of Galway that when the question
of the issue of a new writ came before the House, he should
move that the borough be disenfranchised, at least to the ex
tent of one-half of its representation.
The questions were unusually few in number, and, having
been disposed of, the House proceeded to read the Orders of the
Day, the first of which directed the attendance at the bar of
Mr. R. S. France. Mr. France's alleged offence was that he
had committed a breach of the privileges of the House by
writing to the Chairman of the Committee on Explosives a
letter in which he imputed to him an unfair exercise of
his office with respect to calling witnesses. The order being
read from the table. Sir John Hay, the member whose eon-
duct was impugned, rnoved that Mr. France be called in.
Thereupon Forsyth rose with a paper in his hand, and com
mencing with the remark, " Mr. France is one of my consti
tuents," was examining the paper through his glasses, when
he was informed by an angry cry of " Order, order," that the

1874.] GERMS OF OBSTRUCTION. 25
Speaker was on his feet waiting an opportunity of making a
remark. Forsyth hastily sat down, and it appeared that the
Speaker had interposed for the purpose of putting John Hay's
motion formally before the House. This done, Forsyth rose
again, and commencing exactly as before, with the remark —
" Mr. France is one of my constituents  " the House
laughed heartily in acknowledgment of his anxious desire to
indicate the precise grounds upon which he had been led to
appear in the matter. Forsyth proceeded to say that Mr.
France had placed in his hand a document with the request that
he would read it to the House.
" It is long," he added, apologetically, " and the first por
tion of it is irrelevant ; but as Mr. France wishes it read, I
will, with the permission of the House, read it.'"
Mr. France was not very fortunate in the reader he had en
gaged ; but the House speedily discovered, even under the low,
monotonous intoning of Forsyth, that the statement, though
certainly long, was decidedly not irrelevant. Whilst declaring
the writer's desire " cheerfully to apologise '" if it were con
sidered that he had in any way appeared to reflect upon the
honour of Sir John Hay, or the dignity of the House of Com
mons, it reiterated and insisted upon Mr. France's original
allegation that the interests of trade, and " even the safety of
the country," had been imperilled by legislation which practi
cally " prohibited the use of all explosives except the one in
which the Government adviser held a pecuniary interest."
Forsyth added a few words of commentary, and concluded
by moving that the order for Mr. France's attendance be dis
charged. But the House was not to be thus deprived of the
little excitement it had promised itself on an otherwise dull
evening. A general cry of "No" was raised, and no one
coming forward to second Forsyth's amendment, it fell to the
ground, and Disraeli, amid profound silence, approached the
table. The right hon. gentleman started by observing that the
case was " a very simple one,'" but his summary of it indicated
that, possibly, owing to Forsyth's halting speech and unem-
phatic reading, he at least had not comprehended it.
" Mr. France has not appeared in answer to the summons of
the House," said the Premier, in his most solemn tones. " He
has sent here a document to be read, which, it appears to me.

26 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [iS74.
rather ag-gravates his position, and it is our duty to insist upon
his attendance."
This brought up Forsyth again with the hurried explana^
tion that Mr. France was in attendance, and, in fact, was wait
ing the House's pleasure to call him in.
Lord Charles Russell, the Serjeant-at-Arms, in obedience to
the resolution agreed to by the House, then went out to bring
in the accused. In the meanwhile one of the attendants ad
vanced from under the doorway, and drew out from either side
of the gangway portions of a something which resembled a huge
brass telescope. These, when joined together midway, proved to
be the concrete form of the " Bar of the House," upon which the
now crowded assembly gazed with undisguised awe. Presently,
Lord Charles Russell returned with his prisoner, who, evidently
well schooled in the ceremonial of the part he had to play,
stopped short at the black bar drawn across the matting on the
floor, and bowed to the Speaker.
"Are you the writer of the letter to Sir John Hay?" said
the Speaker.
" Yes, sir," replied Mr. France, withdrawing his gaze from
the stained-glass windows, through which the afternoon sun
was shining, lighting up the motto, " Dieu et mon droit,"
written in old English letters twice under each window.
In reply to further curt questioning, Mr. France briefly re
plied that he had sent a copy of the letter to each member of
the Committee, and that he had no explanation to offer other
than that which had been read by Forsyth. He was then
ordered to withdraw, the House, hitherto decorously solemn,
relieving itself by a burst of laughter as soon as Mr. France
had dexterously moved backward out at the folding-doors that
lead into the lobby.
The bar was shut up again, and an awkward silence ensued.
The members looked at John Hay, and John Hay looked down
at the occupants of the Treasury bench. The Premier held a
hasty consultation -with Cross, Stafford Northcote, and W. H.
Smith, and finally, slowly rising once more, approached the
table. His tones were, ff possible, a shade deeper than before
and his manner was decidedly graver, as he declared that " the
conduct of the gentleman had not been satisfactory," and that
the only thing that would appease the injured honour of the

1874.] GERMS OF OBSTEUOTION. 27
House of Commons was that Mr. France should be called in and
admonished by the Speaker.
"Let Mr. France be called," said the Speaker, and once more
the Serjeant-at-Arms left the House, once more the attendant
advanced and drew out the telescopic apparatus, and once more
Mr. France appeared on the edge of the black line on the
matting, and resumed his survey of the architectural beauties
of the House, apparently at the very window where he had
left off. No printed words can convey an adequate impression
of the stern, solemn manner, in which the admonition fell,
syllable by syllable, from the lips of the Speaker. When he
concluded, Mr. France bowed as before, and again safely effected
his backward exit through the folding-doors.
Now that it seemed to be all over, the House laughed un
restrainedly ; but Whitwell sobered it by a simple question.
Disraeli, in completion of his duty, moved that the proceed
ings be entered upon the records of the House, whereupon
Whitwell asked whether the statement read by Forsyth would
also appear upon the records, the effect of such a proceeding
being, as he pointed out, that a hea'vy charge against a Govern
ment oflicial, " which required instant correction or retracta
tion," would be perpetuated by the act of the House itself.
This was a serious dilemma, and appeared to leave Mr. France
a decided gainer by the whole transaction. But there was no
help for it, the Speaker ruled; and so the letter and the dis
cussion were ordered to be entered in the oflicial report of the
proceedings of Parliament, and the crowded House dispersed,
lea'ving Torrens talking to a small residuum on the grievances
of army officers who are compelled to retire on half-pay.

CHAPTER III.
MAJOE, O'GOEMAN.
Major O'Gorman relates a Parable— " Big Ben" on the Navy— "Not on the
Side of the Spirits" — Mr. PUmsoll's Shipping Bill— Mr. Gladstone on
Church Patronage — Sir W. Harcourt attacks Mr. Gladstone—" Mass in
Masquerade " — Prince Leopold's Annuity — A Mot by Mr. Lowe — Skulking
behind the Chair— A Master of Jeers and Flouts and' Sneers — The Major
ou the Rampage — The New Ministry.

June 12.— Major In the House of Commons, after the questions
StesaparaMe" ^^^ ^^^^ disposed of, Newdegate succeeded in
bring'ins' on his motion relatins: to Conventual
Institutions in Great Britain. Early in the Session he had
given notice of his intention to bring in a Bill on the subject,
but last week, acknowledging the impossibility of succeeding in
getting his Bill through, he moved that the order for the
second reading be discharged, and substituted a resolution
declaring "the expediency" of the Government's introducing
a Bill appointing Commissioners to inquire into Monastic and
Conventual Institutions in Great Britain. There was a mo
derately full House when, rising at the favourable hour of
a quarter to five, he opened his arguments. The speech dif
fered very little from that which the House has heard year
after year under similar circumstances, though the depres
sion of manner under which Newdegate laboured was perhaps
a few degrees more marked. This feeling of melancholy was
communicated to the House, and it was with something of
relief that, when the speech had proceeded for half an hour,
George Bowyer's voice was heard giving an emphatic denial to
a statement Newdegate was making in reference to a lady of
title, whose case he alleged was one which proved the necessity
for such legislation as he advocated. Owing to Newdegate's
fearfully mysterious manner, and especially to his habit of
lowering his voice at the end of his sentences, and finishing
them in an impressive whisper, it was not easy to follow him

1874.] MAJOE O'GORMAN. 29
through the story. But whatever it was, there was no doubt
that Bowyer gave it the most emphatic denial.
O'Connor Power, a young member whom Mayo has recently
sent to the House, delivered a speech which, though very brief,
and made under the disadvantageous circumstance of the pre
sence of an audience impatient of further detention, sufiiced to
show that the House has gained a recruit of high promise.
Greene was scarcely heard amid the din of the cries for a
division ; but when he sat down, and from the familiar back
seat below the gangway, on the opposite side, the spacious figure
of Major O'Gorman presented itself, the impatience vanished, and
an air of profound attention reigned upon the crowded benches
and at the bar thronged with members awaiting the division.
As usual, Major O'Gorman stood silent for a few seconds,
and abruptly commenced with a thunder-toned " Sir." He was
not long in informing the expectant House upon which side
he ranged himself. He was "utterly opposed altogether" to
the appointment of " these Royal Commissioners ; " and why ?
He would tell them why. Supposing one of these Royal Com
missioners went to a convent and summoned thunderously at
the door. The door opens, a lady appears, and the Commis
sioner asks her what are her station and quality.
" Sir," she would reply, " I will tell you. My sire, sir,
was a king ; my mother was the daughter of the sixth James
of Scotland and the first James of England. His mother, sir,
was Queen Regent of Scotland  "

But here the House — which had commenced to laugh when
the Major, deepening his tones to represent those of a lady,
began, "My sire, sir" — utterly lost the somewhat intricate
thread of relationship in which the allegorical nun, questioned
by a Royal Commissioner supposed to have been appointed
under Newdegate's auspices, had become involved. Matters got
worse as O'Gorman, still preserving the character of the nun,
an idea to which his colossal figure and tremendous voice lent
special effect, proceeded —
" Sir, I had a brother." The brother having, like either
the nun's father or mother — it was not clear which — been
" murdered," the Major took a fresh breath, and continued, in
profounder tones —
" Sir, 1 have a sister." It was some minutes before the

30 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1S74.
roar of laughter which this fresh circumstance in the nun's
family history awoke had so far subsided as to afford an oppor
tunity for the Major to continue. When it came, the climax of
the scene was reached.
" Her name was Sophia," added the Major.
The laughter now grew uncontrollable, and it was almost
in dumb-show that he brought the allegory to a conclusion.
But even the gestures were eloquent, as, with hands clasped
and held up towards the roof, he gave a highly dramatic repre
sentation of the wicked Royal Commissioner, who, having first
fled from the presence of the nun, and " covered his wretched
head with sackcloth and ashes," " prayed to the immortal
gods" for pardon.
" And," said the Major, fervently, as he dropped do'wn in
his seat, " I hope he may obtain it."
After this there was of course no more speaking, and, the
House dividing, Newdegate's resolution was rejected by 237
votes against 94.
June 13. — " Big House in Committee on Navy Estimates to-night.
Ben" on the bentinck, of West Norfolk, commonly known
navy. _ ' ....
as "Big Ben,''' to distinguish himself from his
kinsman, the Judge Advocate-General, has discovered in himself
a capacity for naval criticism likely to prove fatal to sdSme of the
older and, bodily, weaker ofiicials of the House who are com
pelled to sit and listen to him. He is up on all possible occasions,
and on some which were in advance fondly regarded as impos
sible. It is " our reserve," or rather the absence of our reserve,
which is troubling the soul of Bentinck.
"Where is your reserve?" he asks, bending his- beetling
brows, and, out of old habit, addressing himself to Goschen.
" Why, you've got no reserve ; and where will you be sup
posing a war breaks out to-morrow ? "
Sometimes a Minister or an ex-Minister deprecatingly places
a few facts at Bentinck's disposal in answer to his question,
and the House thinks the matter ' is settled. But, alas ! on
the first succeeding opportunity Bentinck presents himself with
the same piece of paper in his L^t hand, the same beetling^
brows, and the same terrible inquiry, provokingly put as though
it were being propounded for the first time —

1874.] MAJOR O'GORMAN. 31
" Where is your reserve ? Why, you've got no reserve ;
and where will you be supposing a war breaks out to-morrow? "
June 22. — " Not On the motion for the third reading of the
t°he*spirits." °* Licensing Bill, Wilfrid Lawson moved its re
jection. He was, by comparison, less successful
than usual in eliciting the laughter of the House, but he made
a great hit by his description of the masterly manner in which
the Premier had avoided committing himself to the side of the
publicans during the controversy on the present and preceding
Licensing Acts.
" The right hon. gentleman once said," he remarked, " that
he was on the side of the angels, but he never said he was on
the side of the spirits."
He would, however, Wilfrid Lawson thought, be obliged
to declare himself that night, it being the occasion of the third
reading of the first and foremost measure of his Government.
In a speech of unusual bitterness, Goschen, who followed, saf-
eastically begged Wilfrid Lawson of his mercy not to persist
in his attempt to throttle at its birth the first weak offspring
of a strong Government and a victorious party. The Home
Secretary had, after putting the Bill through all possible facings,
succeeded in passing a measure which was as nearly identical
with the Act of 1872 as public decency permitted. It would
go up to the House of Lords followed by very little enthu
siasm and no respect, and Goschen urged that it should be
allowed to pass " with contemptuous acquiescence."
June 24. — Mr. PlimsoU moved the second reading of his Mer-
ShipSng°Bm.^ chant Shipping Bill. Charles Adderley replied
warmly and in a somewhat personal tone to
Plimsoll's imputations upon the Board of Trade, observing,
amongst other pleasant things, that, in order to pass a Bill
through Parliament, it was necessary to have a head as well as
.a heart, and, whilst admitting the goodness of Plimsoll's heart,
he plainly intimated his doubts as to his possession of the other
qualification. More distinctly than any preceding speaker the
President of the Board of Trsflue denounced the Bill.
After the division, an apprehension seemed to exist that the
majority had declared for the second reading of the Bill.

32 A DIARY ^ OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1874. "
Rowland Winn, after looking at the paper, handed it over to
wards Phmsoll, who, amid loud cheering, glanced at it, advancing
towards the right to lead the tellers up to the' table. But on
looking again at the figures, he returned the paper, and Winn,
amid a slight cheer from the Ministerialists, answered^ by
loud cheers from the Opposition, read out the figures which
announced the narrow majority by which the Bill had been
rejected. John Hay was one amongst a considerable number
of Conservatives who voted against the Government.
-July 6. — Mr. Gladstone, making one of his still rare appear-
Giadstone on ances, delivered a livelv speech in opposition to
Church pa- ' ¦' - -n-ii
tronage. the Scotch Church Patronage Bill. He had
quietly 'entered at half-past four, whilst the ques
tions were proceeding, and had been in his seat for some time
before the discovery of his presence spread through the House.
Consequently no demonstration had greeted his unaccustomed
arrival. But now, when he stood at the table in full view of the
House, a ringing cheer of welcome came from the Liberal
benches, and for some moments prevented him from commencing
his speech. Gladstone's opposition to the Bill proved to be
uncompromising. " It is not possible to make it acceptable by alterations in
Committee," he said, " unless the initiative be boldly and
liberally taken by the authors."
As it stood it was a crude, a premature, and an insufficiently
considered Bill, which, should it become law, might, and pro
bably would, lead to the fierce lighting up of the latent fire of
religious warfare in Scotland. The House had been only mode
rately full during the early part of the debate, but as the news
of Gladstone's speech spread through the lobbies members came
fiocking in, speedily filling up the empty seats and even throng
ing the gallery that faced him. The right hon. gentleman, who
•seemed in excellent health, spoke a little over an hour, with all
his old vigour. More than once interruptions from the Con
servative benches, of a kind to which more constant speakers-
from the front Opposition bench have now grown accustomed,
checked the fiow of Gladstone's speech, and led to some lively
episodes, out of which Orr-Ewing, in particular, came not
with flying colours. A burst of ironical cheering following

1874.] MAJOR O'GORMAN. 33
upon Gladstone's incidental declaration that he "was not an
idolater of Church Establishment," he turned aside from his
argument, and with some warmth observed that if the cheer
covered a reference to the part he had played in the disestablish
ment of the Irish Church, he begged leave to say that if he
were to be judged by posterity at all, he should be content if
he were to be tried solely for his participation in that work.
Loud cheers from the full ranks of the Liberals followed this
declaration. Disraeli rose at half-past eleven, and in a speech tinged
with an extraordinary degree of bitterness, manifested not less
in manner than in phrase, attacked Gladstone, and parentheti
cally defended the Bill. By placing in his mouth words that
he had not uttered, the Premier constructed, by way of perora
tion, a joke about Gladstone's tombstone, which drew forth
from the Liberal benches a long, low cry of " Oh ! "
July 9.— Sir 'Wil- The Housc presented a very animated appearance
atuo^rX' "^^^^> ^* ^ quarter to five, the Public Worship
Gladstone. Regulation Bill was called on. It was more
crowded than it has been on any occasion since
the Sale of Intoxicating Liquors was the subject of discus
sion. Nearly all the Ministers were in their places, and the
front Opposition benches were also crowded, Gladstone being
prominent amongst their occupants. In the Strangers' and the
Speaker's Galleries there was a large number of clergymen, the
Archbishop of York and the Bishop of Gloucester occupying
seats in the gallery set apart for peers. The moving of the
second reading of the Bill was preceded by the ceremony of pre
senting petitions for and against it, Beresford Hope leading
off with a considerable bundle directed against the Bill, and
Newdegate walking down to the table, amid cheers and laughter,
with an equally portentous parcel containing petitions in its
favour. Other members, also bearing petitions, followed in *
large numbers, it being fully ten minutes before the list was
exhausted. Russell Gurney was greeted yvith cheers on rising to move
the second reading of the Bill, which he did for the most part
in moderSie manner and uniinpassioned tones. Cheers coming
from both sides of the House testified to the rupture of the
D

34 A DIARY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm.
ordinary division lines of party effected by the introduction of
the Bill, sections of Liberals and sections of Conservatives
vying with each other in cheering such passages, for example,
as that in which the Recorder protested against clergymen
enjoying emoluments derived from the State, whilst they
refused to obey the law of the land. Later Gladstone rose,
and was received without any sign of feeling. He spoke for
an hour, sitting down amid loud cheering.
At half -past ten Harcourt rose, and in a trenchant speech
criticised Gladstone's line of argument, and defended the Bill.
Gladstone's proposals he called "a dangerous doctrine of optional
conformity," and drew forth loud cheers by declaring that the
Church of England is founded upon acts of uniformity, and to
raise at this time of day the question of uniformity is fatal to
the existence of the National Church. Gathorne Hardy, indi
cating in the opening sentences of his speech a feeling of
hostility to the Bill, was met by such a noisy demonstration of
disapproval from a body of members sitting on the Ministerial
benches that he was fain to pause and appeal for the courtesy
of a hearing.
Later, in the course of his remarks, he was subject to an
interruption of a kind much more unusual. A large cat sud
denly appeared in the middle of the floor, coming out from
the region between the Treasury bench and the Clerk's table,
and, being greeted by a sort of " view halloa," darted straight
at the seats in the corner below the gangway by the cross-
bench on the Conservative side, and, leaping in amid the cluster
of startled members, disappeared over their shoulders.
Hubbard came next, and presently chancing to stoop down
to take a glass of water, Childers, under the impression that
he had brought his remarks to a conclusion, jumped up, and
moved the adjournment of the debate. HuCbard's reappear
ance, with the glass of water and the evident intention of con
tinuing his speech, was greeted with loud laughter.
July 16. -"The All night on resumed debate on Public Wor-
^Trld""™''^" s^ip Regulation Bill. Disraeli, whilst expressing
his respect for the religious views of Roman
Catholics when acted upon in avowedly Roman Catholic ritual,
energetically protested agauist their adoption by men who had

jim

1874.] MAJOE O'GOEMAN. 35
entered into solemn contract with the nation that they would
resist them.
"What I do object to," he said, amid cheers from both
sides, "is mass in masquerade."
July 20.— Prince Dlsraeli, in accordance with Parliamentary eti-
nm°ty°^^^ *""" quette, presented himself at the bar, and ex
claiming, " A Message from the Queen,''' marched
up to the table and handed in a document to the Speaker.
The Message, on being read from the Chair, proved to be one
recommending to the consideration of the faithful Commons
the necessity of making a provision for Prince Leopold, now
of age. Disraeli then gave notice that on Thursday he would
move to take the " gracious Message " into consideration, an
announcement which, like the reading of the Message, was
received by the House in frigid silence.
July 20.— A mot Lowe said a happy thing to-night. It was on the
by Mr. Lowe. Endowed Schools Bill. Referring to Sandon's
expression that he had "carefully fenced himself" against being
understood to pass unfriendly criticism upon the Endowed
Schools Commissioners, Lowe observed that, in his opinion,
" there had been in the noble lord's speech much more of rail
ing than of fencing."
July 22.— Skulk- Greene rising to make some observations on the
ing behind the ip^^^^^ Worship Bill, a cry of "Divide!" burst
chair. ^ Sf J J
forth, amid which Mundella, springing up, called
the Chairman's attention to the circumstance of an oflicial
of the Crown (Mr. Cavendish Bentinck) " skulking behind the
Speaker's " chair, and shouting " Divide 1 " The Chairman
thus appealed to replied, amid cheers, that, however reprehen
sible the practice described might be, Mundella had exceeded
Parliamentary usage in the language in which he described it.
Aug. 5.— A mas- Discussiug the Appropriation Bill, Harcourt com-
terof jeersand plained of some strong language used in the other
sneers. House by the Marquis of Salisbury. The Pre
mier, in a somewhat apologetic tone, said that
bis noble colleague was a master of the art of jeers and^ flouts
D 2

36 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [i874.
and sneers, and, on the whole, indicated his opinion that the
House might safely pass by the remarks of the noble marquis as
those of a gentleman who occasionally permitted himself to be
led away by a faculty for saying smart and bitter things.
Gladstone disputed Harcourt's reading of the bearing of
Salisbury's remark, and in some sharp passages, much relished
by the House, replied to his former colleague's personal attack
by pointedly sarcastic criticisms upon his legal, ecclesiastical,
and Parliamentary erudition.
July 30. — The Disraeli was inhis place at two o'clock this after-
™I^L!° ^^^ noon, albeit it was after three this morning when
he left the House. Ministers had made up their
minds for the worst last night, and shortly after midnight a
cheerful supper was spread in one of the private rooms, and
grilled bones were served hot and hot up to three o'clock.
Disraeli himself thoroughly entered into the fun of the thing,
and The O'Gorman had during the progress of the struggle
no more appreciative observer than the Premier.
Permission had been given to The O'Gorman by the leaders
of the party to make a speech if the Government persisted in
including the Coercion Act in the Expiring Laws Continuance
Bill. The major duly delivered his speech — the head or tail of
which no one could discover — and sat down, it being understood
that he had accomplished his mission. But, like a tame tiger
that has once tasted an infant. The O'Gorman, having tasted
the delights of the cheers and laughter his manifestations never
fail to draw from the House, grew perfectly unmanageable, and
finally ran away with the whole Irish team.
Up to midnight the debate had been decorous and even
dull, but about that hour the major began to grow restless,
and his deep voice was occasionally heard rolling through the
smoke of the debate, like field-guns fired amid the rattle of
rifles. It was Butt's defection that set him off at last.
An aggravating repetition of the motions to report progress
led Butt to say angrily and audibly to his faithful party that
he would next time vote against them. And he was as good as
his word. He voted in the same lobby with the Ministers,
and on his return Mr. Biggar moved that the Chairman do
leave the chair.

1874.) MAJOE O'GORMAN. 37
Biggar is distinguished by a chronic hoarseness of voice,
which, earlier in the evening, had drawn forth a protest from
the Speaker, who begged him not to talk to himself, but to
address the Chair. He also has a habit, when he desires to
catch the Speaker's eye, of holding out his hat at arm's length,
and shaking it as if he were hailing a cab. On this oceasion
his hat was discovered violently waving over the bench just
behind that on which were the ex-Ministers. Biggar had got
down there to be nearer the Speaker, and so insure his hearing
him when he moved his motion. Butt was sitting next him,
and as soon as he had resumed his seat the member for Limerick
rose, and, in hotly-spoken but well-chosen words, denounced
Biggar as an enemy to the true interests of Ireland. It was
now that The O'Gorman came to the front. Whilst Butt was
speaking the major suddenly burst forth into a violent burst of
hissing, which Parliamentary sound he presently changed for
shouts of "No! no! ""Oh! oh!" "Ah! "and other interrup
tions, all uttered in a voice the like of which for volume has
never had its equal in the House of Commons.
Such general approval of Butt's sentiments was expressed
that Biggar shrank from insistence upon his motion, and it
would have fallen through' but for The O'Gorman, who, with
hands clasped across his capacious stomach, hat firmly pressed
down over his eyes, and a preternaturally stern expression on
his face, insisted upon a division.
" The question is," said the Chairman, " that this motion
be by leave withdrawn. I think the ayes have it."
"The noes have it," roared the major.
" I think the ayes have it," mildly persisted the Chairman.
"The noes have it," bellowed the major amid roars of
laughter. In vain A. M. Sullivan, McCarthy Downing, and others
went up to him and implored him to desist. At other times
he is mild as a lamb, and most exemplary in his obedience to
orders ; but the blood of The O'Gormans was up, and to all
entreaties the major announced, with increasing fierceness —
"The noes have it."
There was no help for it, and so the House was cleared for the
division, and presently, amid shouts of laughter. The O'Gorman,
who is considerably bigger than the Claimant, walked up the

38 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [i874.
floor of the House side by side -with his diminutive co-teller,
Biggar, at the head of a division of irreconcilables full thir
teen strong.
This was the commencement of a succession of divisions
which carried the Committee on past three o'clock in the
morning. Just after the figures were declared, the major fell
into an error which momentarily made him cautious. An
amendment by one of the Home Rulers was put from the Chair
in due form —
" That these words be added to the clause. Those that are
of the opinion say ' Aye; ' the contrary, ''No.'"
There were a few " Ayes " from the Irish members, and a
loud shout of "No" from the Ministerialists. The O'Gorman
had not heard the question, but the cry of opposition acted upon
him like the blast of a trumpet upon an old war-horse, and he
suddenly catne in with a great roar of " No ! " This unin
tentional opposition to his own side was greeted with a burst of
laughter that lasted several moments, and which The O'Gorman
noticed by raising his hat and bowing defiantly to gentlemen
opposite. He was quiet for a short time after this, but he
recovered his spirits, and thenceforward ruthlessly objected to
everything, dividing the Committee time after time, and finally
bringing matters to a state in which Butt, Sullivan, and a score
of the more responsible Home Rulers left the House.
But this -made no difference to The O'Gorman. He seemed
to feel that a great hour had struck for Ireland, and as he
panted in and out of the division lobby with a comical look of
fierceness on his face, his enormous person seemed suffused with
the consciousness that if fate had sounded the hour, here truly
was the man.
This evening the subject came on again, but was disposed of
in a few minutes — Butt declaring himself and his followers
satisfied with the struggle they had made, and after one more
division, just for form's sake, the Continuance Bill passed.
Then Gladstone, who had come down unexpectedly this
morning, charged with the mission of obtaining the elision
from the Public Worship Regulation Bill of the amendment
introduced by Holt in Committee, again presented himself and
concluded the speech commenced at the morning sitting. But
the House is evidently weary of the whole business, and thouo'h

1874.] MAJOR O'GORMAN. 39
Gladstone was as eloquent as ever, his audience was scarcely
attentive. Later the debate grew more animated — thanks chiefly
to the speech of Harcourt, who again violently attacked Glad
stone. It seems, to those who heard the speech, difliicult to
understand how the ex-Premier is to hold any friendly com
munication with the ex-Solicitor-General after to-night.
In a division which rounded off the debate, the two fron
benches united their forces, but were handsomely beaten, the
result being hailed with loud cheers. After this the Bill rapidly
passed, Gladstone and many others ha'ving left the House when
the figures were announced.
Aug. 7. — The Parliament prorogued to-day. The House of
new ims ry. Commons is an empty, echoless space, they who
lately peopled it being spread over sea and land. Much dis
cussion as to how various members of the Ministry have borne
themselves during the Session.
Foremost in oificial position, as in personal success, is the
Premier. Never did the peculiar genius of Disraeli (it is a
sublime sort of tact) shine more transcendently than during
the past Session. He has at no period of his career risen
higher as a Parliamentary speaker, whilst his management of
the House is equalled only by that of Lord Palmerston. Not
in the zenith of his popularity after the election of 1868 did
Gladstone come near his great rival in personal hold upon the
House of Commons, whilst in the last two Sessions of his ad-'
ministration he had utterly lost the control with which his
position as leader endowed him. The change is consequentlj''
more marked, but the supremacy is none the less real. Disraeli's
slow, deliberate rising in the course of a debate is always the
signal for an instant filling up of the House and a steady
settling down to the point of attention, the highest compliments
that can be paid to a speaker.
At the outset of liis current Premiership, Disraeli fixed
upon a policy of polite consideration, to which he was the
more drawn as certain members of the Ministry he succeeded
were notorious for the brusqueness of their manner. The
addition of a bit of banter and of a dash of serio-comicality
lent a spiciness to his speech which was always relished, and was
never allowed to reach the proportion at which the mixture left

40 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [i874.
an unpleasant taste upon the Parliamentary palate. Only once
through a Session not without its trials did Disraeli display any
temper, and that was recently, when Forster pressed him to
state the names of the Commissioners to be added to the Charity
Commission under the Endowed Schools Act Amendment Bill.
Suffering aecutely from gout, as he was during some busy
weeks of the Session, Disraeli has stuck to his post with Spartan
like patience ; and one of his most successful speeches, if not,
on the whole, his best speech of the Session — that on the Home
Rule question — was delivered after he had been sitting for
four hours with folded arms on the Treasury bench, visibly tor
tured by twinges from his slippered and swollen feet.
Of his lieutenants, Stafford Northcote has most completely
passed scatheless under the fierce light that beats upon the
Treasury bench. He was blessed with a legacy of a splendid
surplus, which he disposed of in an unexpectedly wise way.
He has not taken any prominent part in the general business
of the Session, but whenever he has spoken he has usually
said the right word, and without attracting by his brilliancy
has satisfied by his good sense. Gathorne Hardy has also done
well. What lay to his hand was not much, as he settled things,
but let us reflect upon all he left alone and be thankful. Cross
has not equalled general expectation, perhaps because he has
been tried most thoroughly. He has made as many speeches
as all the other members of the Ministry put together, and,
indeed, is rather fond of talking — herein breaking the rule which
Disraeli appears to have laid down at his lodges of instruction.
During the Committee on the Licensing Bill, Cross quite lost
his head, and made a sad mess of some things he had under
taken to do. As Home Secretaries go, however, he is not
below the average, and is generally liked in the House.
Ward Hunt, on the contrary, precisely fulfilled the expecta
tion of all men of ordinary perception who had enjoyed the
opportunity of observing him. Disraeli is popularly credited
with a pecuhar gift of judging character; but looking at
the man he made First Lord of the Admiralty in a strong
Government, it is difficult to believe in the existence of the
gift. Ward Hunt is, to use a plain word, a stupid man. His
intellectual vision is blurred, and not being able to see far
ahead, he flounders about in a way that his leviathan size

1874.1 MAJOR O'GORMAN. 41
makes doubly notable and absurd. He began his career at the
Admiralty by a blustering speech that broke the spell whieh
overwhelming success at the hustings had thrown over the
Ministry, and freed the tongue-tied critics. That Disraeli, suave
as he appears in Parliament, rules with a strong hand in the
Cabinet, is demonstrated by the fact that, since Ward Hunt's
outbreak, in which he talked about the " dummy ships " and
the "fleet on paper," he has been as utterly silenced as a mouth
piece of the Government as if he were a tide-waiter instead of
being First Lord of the Admiralty. Once only since the na-vy
estimates were disposed of has he opened his mouth in debate,
and then he put his foot in it. It was in Committee on the
Licensing Aet, and in the temporary absence of Cross, Ward
Hunt got up and assured the Conamittee that the Government
were for reopening public-houses at six on Sunday evenings.
As the Home Secretary had just previously declared for seven,
this remark fell like a bombshell among the Committee, and
the difficulty was not overcome till Ward Hunt had been thrown
over by bis colleague.
Sandon, despite the failure of the Act with the care of
which he was specially charged, has decidedly advanced in the
good opinion of the House, and so has Hicks Beach, whose
conduct of the Irish business has, barring a little effervescence
at first, been excellent. Charles Adderley has happily had few
chances of distinguishing himself. George Hamilton has made
a capital Under-Secretary of State for India, and Lowther and
Bourke have acquitted themselves well in such work as they
have found to do. In short. Ward Hunt is a solitary example
of unqualified personal failure in the new Administration, regard
ing them in the aspect presented from the Treasury bench.

SESSION 1875.

CHAPTER IT.
SKIRMISHES WITH THE IRISH.
Lord Hartington Leader of the Opposition — First formal appearance of the Irre
concilables — Disraeli's bow — ^^Lopes and the Lish Members — Sir John
Astley's maiden speech — John Martin and John Mitchell — Dr. Kenealy
takes his seat — F. Stanley's early essay — Joseph Co'wen's maiden speech —
Bright breaks out — An Irish bull.
Feh. 8. — Lord Parliament opened to-day with the usual cere-
Leader°of\he monies. When the Speaker took the chair in
Opposition. the House of Commons, at ten minutes to four,
the benches were fairly crowded. A quarter of
an hour later Disraeli came in and was loudly cheered from
the Ministerial benches. A faint cheer welcomed Roebuck's
reappearance as he slowly and laboriously walked towards his
seat at the comer below the gangway.
At this time both the Treasury bench and the front Opposi
tion bench were crowded. With one exception, at the moment
in everybody's mind, none of the usual occupants were absent,
save Gladstone and Bright. On the Treasury bench Northcote
sat on the right of his leader. On the left was Manners, look
ing as if he had never harried a postman. Gathorne Hardy
next to him. Ward Hunt next, with some half-dozen other
Ministers beyond.
On the front Opposition bench Forster stretched his legs in
his elegant and famihar attitude. On his left, with folded
arms and profoundly preoccupied look, was Harcourt. Still
farther to the left was that other erudite lawyer Henry James,
with Lyon Playfair guarding the gangway. At arm's lengtii
from Forster to the right, Goschen sat, with Stansfeld,
Dodson, Childers, and Adam happily placed between him and
Lowe. I fancy Lowe is hankering after his old place below the

1876.] SKIRMISHES WITH TEE IRISH. 43
gangway, and shall not be surprised some day to find him seeking
it. He never has taken kindly to the front Opposition bench,
and sits lower down on it than ever ex-Chancellor of the Ex
chequer sat before.
The notices of motion had been delivered ; the questions
had been led off, and still the one seat on the front Opposition
bench, left vacant between Forster and Goschen, remained con
spicuously empty. All eyes were turned towards it, when
Hartington was observed entering from the passage, below the
clock, and was received with cheers from the Liberal benches.
The applause was prolonged as he took the seat of leader of
the Opposition, which up to the end of the Session of 1873
was occupied by Disraeli, and was last Session generally ap
propriated by Henry James. To be fifteen minutes late on
the first working night of the Session is pretty well, and highly
promising on the part of a new leader of the Opposition.
Hartington came in time enough, however, to hear the opening
sentences of the speech in which Big Ben (Bentinck) once more
tolled the story of the fearsome condition of the British army
and navy. It is pleasing to know that in the capacious mind of
this good old man room has been found for a few thoughts on
our railway system, side by side with those fresh and valuable
¦views on the sea and land forces, to the exposition of which a
suffering House of Commons has long been subject.
"Our railway system, sir," he said this evening, "is
simply a question of Blood versus Money — Blood versus
Money, sir!"
Stanhope, in Court dress, moved the Address in reply to
the Speech from the Throne, acquitting himself of his task
in a long and somewhat ambitious speech, which was well re
ceived by the House. He was honoured on resuming his seat
by a special compliment from the Premier, behind whom he
sat. Whitelaw, who seconded the resolution, was less fortu
nate in gaining the attention of the House, and spoke amid
a continued buzz of conversation.
The Speaker read the Address, which was, as usual,^marked
by a complete absence of originality of thought or diction.
Hartington, who was cordially cheered on rising, criticised at
some length and in detail the Ministerial programme for the
year. He promptly gained the sympathy of the House by

44 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [1875.
deprecating in a modest and manly way any comparison
between himself as leader of the Opposition and Palmerston,
Disraeli, and Gladstone. He did not expect, he said, to exercise
over the debates in the House that great influence his im.
mediate predecessors had maintained. But it was necessary
for the conduct of business that there should be some one on that
side of the House who was recognised in the position which he
had been called to fill, and if his services were of any value,
they were placed unreservedly at the disposal of the country.
He summed up his criticism on the Speech very effectively,
and the loud cheers which, coming from the Liberal side,
greeted the conclusion of the speech, marked the satisfaction
of the members on those benches with the first essays of their
new leader.
Disraeli, after a brief pause, which no one else attempted
to disturb, rose and replied seriatim to the various objections
raised by Hartington. The Premier was vigorous throughout,
and occasionally lively, as when he answered Hartington's re
proach that no sufficient information of the state of the finances
had been given, by observing that it had not hitherto been
the habit of Ministers to include the Budget in the Queen's
Speech; when he replied to the question as to whether tbe
programme in the Queen's Speech would be really carried out,
by declaring the impossibility of his being able to say that it
would — " for in the course of the Session you may have eccle
siastical misconceptions," a sly reference to the turmoil that
beat about the Public Worship Regulation Bill of last Ses
sion ; and when he protested against the noble lord's
" grotesque reminiscences " of the most violent speeches of the
most uninfluential persons delivered in the most obscure places,
and called by the Liberals the opinions of the great Conservar
tive party. He spoke for just over half-an-hour, and the House
immediately adjourned.
Feb. 9. - First Debate on Address. Richard Power complained
iZofXir: tl^at it had not been distinctly stated in the
reconoiiabies. Speech that Ireland was in a state of profound
peace. He declared that for his own part he
would not rest content while a single link remained of the hate
ful chain euphemistically called the Peace Preservation Act.

1875.] SKIRMISHES WITS THE IRISH. 45
He called upon the English and Scotch members of the House
to take their hands off his shoulder, and give him freedom
of speech and action in a Home Rule Parliament. If the
House would not consent to this arrangement he could assure
them for himself, and for the gentlemen with whom he had the
honour of acting, that they should constantly hear of Irish
affairs at Westminster. That this was not an idle threat was
in some measure proved by the debate thenceforward lapsing
chiefiy into a controversy amongst the Irish members, notwith
standing the efforts of George Jenkinson, Edmund Fitzmaurice,
and Beresford to give it other turns.
John Martin, in an unimpassioned manner, which was reci
procated by the House, distinctly and categorically demanded in
the name of the Irish people the abrogation of the " usurpation
of 1800 " and the establishment of an Irish Parliament. He
was desirous that this should be carried out in " a friendly man
ner," and hinted at the possibility of " a federal arrangement"
being subsequently arrived at by which England and Ireland
would live happily ever afterwards. Herbert, as an Irish mem
ber and an Irish landlord, emphatically and indignantly denied
that either Power or Martin was an authorised exponent of Irish
opinion. " I deny it as much as — as much as I can in this
House," were his words, spoken in a significant manner that
caused great laughter.
This interposition of John Martin was surely a notable inci
dent in Parliamentary annals. Imagine a lanky, humpbacked
man, with lustrous eyes, pale face, through which high cheek
bones prominently thrust themselves, coming forward in the
House of Commons, and, holding awkwardly in his hands a
Nineteenth Century hat, composedly asking Parliament to con
sent to, what in reality is, a constitutional revolution ! To do
him justice, Martin made the proposition in the coolest and most
business-like way, much as if he had looked in to borrow a
feed of oats for his horse, and had brought his hat to carry them
away in. The House received the proposition in a similarly un
emotional inanner.
Feb; 12. — Dis- House sat only a couple of hours this afternoon.
raeh's bow. Hartington late again, as he was on Tuesday ; the
unpunctuality being made all the more marked by the unwavering

46 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1876;
regularity of Disraeli's attendance. Always five or ten minutes
before the commencement of pubhc business Disraeli comes walk
ing slowly down the House, making obeisance to the Chair w;ith
lowly dignity as he reaches the corner of the table. Amongst
his many claims to Parliamentary pre-eminence, it must be re
corded that no man enters the House of Commons with such easy
confidence, yet with such reverential bearing, as the Premier.
The duty of bowing to. the Chair on entering and leaving is a
curiously painful ordeal to most members. Some furtively
escape the difficulty by not bowing at all, hoping that in the
throng the omission will not be noticed. Others make an un
gracious nod, and others hurriedly and blushingly accomplish
an awkward curvature of the senatorial back-bone.
One of the funniest entrances I know is that of Rathbone.
He has a curious habit of holding his hat loosely by the ultimate
half -inch of the brim, with his hand pressed close against his
body, the hat being thus brought almost in a direct line under his
chin. He walks straight up the House with his eyes anxiously
flxed on the Speaker, and when he reaches a certain place,
evidently determined by the habit of counting his footsteps, he
stops short, ducks his head, and then with a light heart makes off
to his seat. Gladstone evades, doubtless undesignedly, the diffi
culty, by always coming in from behind the Speaker's chair.
Feb. 15.— Lopes The House crowded on every bench when at
members.^"'^ half-past four this afternoon the stately figure
of the Speaker rose from the chair, and the
well-known call of " Order, order ! " rang through the
chamber. Lopes has been " saying things " about the Irish
members, and those immaculate and nicely-spoken gentlemen,
being naturally shocked and wounded by such conduct, were
about to raise the question of breach of privilege. In brief, a
personal row was expected, and that is enough to bring mem
bers into the House even if it were necessary that, by reason
of exceeding gout, they should come swathed in flannels and
supported on crutches, Hke a concourse of Earls of Chatham.
Into this throng, whilst it was yet languidly busy with ques
tions and answers, entered Bright, making his first appearance
this session. Close behind him came Gladstone, and the two sat
side by side, unnoticed by friend or foe. They entered from

1875.] SEIEMISHE8 WITH THE IRISH. 47
behind the Speaker's chair, and dropped into' the obscure seats
on the front Opposition bench where ex-Under-Secretaries of .
State and discharged Junior Lords of the Treasury hide their
diminished heads. They sat thus for a long time before the
whisper that carried the news of their presence began to cir
culate, and members strained their necks to catch glimpses of
Gladstone as he sat in the shadow of the gallery.
The Irish row, when it did come off, proved disappointing.
A. M. Sullivan, who, when he is natural, is a powerful speaker,
was overweighted 'with a feeling of the solemnity of his task.
He spoke for fifty minutes, and had his speech been half as
long it would have been twice as successful. The concluding
passage was well conceived, and had some dignity about it. But
the momentary effect upon the House was removed when
Newdegate immediately followed, and in his most lugubrious
manner bewailed Sullivan's omission to conclude by moving a
resolution. I have long suspected Newdegate of being a wag,
an impression now confirmed by his suggesting that, as no
other Irish member volunteered to speak, Sullivan was un
supported by his fellow-countrymen. Of course that was
enough. Up juniped half-a-dozen Irish members, of whom
O'Connor Power, being the youngest and most active, got the
start. He was followed by Colman O'Loghlan, who talked
about a good many things, least of all about the business
before the House.
Disraeli, who has had a good deal of experience in this sort of
thing, treated the question in just the happiest possible manner,
getting some fun out of the Irish members, and not neglecting
the duty of rebuking Lopes for his unmannerly speech. Lopes,
who had meanwhile being sitting smiling in an uneasy manner,
now rose, and, doing what he ought to have done on Friday, with
drew the offensive expressions. But before he sat down he lost
his temper, and in a loud threatening tone, looking over towards
the front Opposition bench as if the occupants were a Western
Circuit jury, and shaking his forefinger at Sullivan the while, as
if he were the prisoner in the dock, brought against tbe member
for Louth two charges so utterly groundless — as was presently
demonstrated — that they might be excused only by a considera
tion of the licence allowed to a prosecuting counsel who has a
bad case at quarter sessions.

48 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [1875.
Feb. 16. - Sir Sir John Astley made his maiden speech to-night,
John Astley's ^^ charming performance it was. Sir John
maiden speech. o i ^ ^ ^ i • i .i
is the author of the famous oration in which the
Irish members of the House of Commons were delicately de
scribed as " the Irish chaps," numbering in their ranks " forty
of the most confounded rascals ever seen." Sullivan had in
cidentally made it appear last night that Sir John had apologised
for these expressions at the point of the pistol vicariously pre
sented by Chevalier O'Clery, M.P. for Wexford. This had
troubled Sir John a great deal more than liis conscience had
in the matter of his speech ; and here he was standing midway
across the floor (a serious breach of the rules of the House), -with
his hands kept out of his trousers-pocket only by violent efforts
of moral suasion, and talking to the House of Commons as
if it were the assembled mess in barracks.
" There's a good many people who mightn't know I'd been —
I'd been in the army; " that being the gallant baronet's modest
way of hinting at the fact that he had been in the forefront of
the battle of the Alma, and had brought away three wounds.
" I have never been afraid of any individual yet,'' he con
tinued ; and a buzz of sympathy with Sir John went through
the House as it was comprehended how profoundly he was im
pressed with the surrounding circumstances when he thus used
so highly proper a word as " individual," when " chap " must
have come so trippingly to his tongue.
The first appearance of the gallant member for North Lin
colnshire was undoubtedly a great success. A burly handsome
man is Sir John, with opulent white hair crowning a blaclf-
bearded face, that laughed all over from eyes to mouth as he
declared that he had " never had the least fear of an Irishman."
He found great favour in the eyes of members, and resumed his
seat amid cheers that could not have been louder if his blunder
ing, awkward, hesitating speech had been rounded by the periods
of Cicero, and delivered with the skill of Demosthenes.
The rest of the business went off rapidly, and everybody was
ready to go home, when an agreeable surprise, which the
Government had got ready for the Home Rulers, was sprung
upon them. Hart Dyke, the Conservative whip, had been hop
ping about the House ever since question time with a vivacity
that had not escaped attention.

1875.] SKIRMISHES WITH THE IRISH. 49
There were not a dozen members in the House when the
Whip read out from the table his motion for the production of
the Mitchell papers. The Home Rulers were peacefully dining
when Dr. Ward, who had happened to be under the clock when
the motion was read, raced into the room, breathlessly exclaim
ing, " Mitchell — papers — ^moving" for Mitchell — Hart Dyke —
papers — come-long ! "
What would have happened if there had been no Irish
member in the House is not difficult to guess. The motion,
being merely one for papers, would have been granted, and
a fresh betrayal of Ireland would have been accomplished.
Fortunately — another instance of how great issues hang on
small incidents — Captain Nolan had lunched late and was still.
in the House. The gallant captain always begins to address
the House in a breathless, gasping manner, that suggests his
just having had a cold shower-bath. Now his breath was
almost entirely gone. But he saved Ireland, for, by standing
up, he at least prevented further progress of business, and
afforded an opportunity for the Home Rulers to lay down their
knives and forks, rush through the lobbies, and into the House.
Sullivan appeared first, with pallid face, blanched lips, and scared
look, as i£ he had seen a wraith. Colman O'Loghlan came
next, then an indistinguishable mass of members, and finally,
far in the rear, Major O'Gorman, whose sudden abandon
ment of the dinner-table whilst the fish was still on affords one
of the most touching instances of self-devoted patriotism ever
recorded in a nation's history.
One consequence of the sudden and incoherent summons
was that none of the Irish members was acquainted with the
precise nature of the resolution that had been moved. That,
however, is a condition of mind to which they are not wholly
unaccustomed, and it did not deter them from making a
succession of speeches, or the House from agreeing to order
the papers.
Feb. 17. - John The John Mitchell debate ran in an altogether
J^hn'mtohSL unexpected channel, and the only really Irish
speech made in the course of the evening was
that by John Martin. The Chevalier O'Clery got in a few
words, it is true, but little that he said was heard, and besides,
£

50 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [i875.
his coat-tails were being pulled by his fellow-countrymen all
the time he was on his legs. John Martin was in fine form,
and it was really touching to hear him talking of the " tender
honour " of the man who thought that though boiling water
or boiling grease were not bad things to pour on the heads of
soldiery from the safe 'vantage-ground of a top bedroom window,
cold vitriol was a great deal better. Martin's chief object in
rising was to show that Mitchell's escape, so far from being a
breaking of his parole, was a transaction conducted in accord
ance -with the strictest code of honour.
It seems that before he decided to escape, Mitchell submitted a
statement of the circumstances to six Irish gentlemen, of whom
Martin was one, and asked them to consider it and judge
whether it would be dishonourable to adopt the scheme proposed
for his deliverance. So particular was this soul of honour, this
vitriolic paragon of uprightness, that he insisted upon having
the statement of opinion put into writing. This was a point
which Martin, always holding his hat between his hands brim
uppermost, insisted upon with comical iteration. The six Irish
gentlemen unanimously agreed that Mitchell might make off
with honour. So he rode away.
What is to be done with grown-up men who seriously, and
even solemnly, make statements like this, and angrily wonder
when they are laughed at ?
Feb. 18. — Dr. The House of Commons was crowded as early
MsTeat*^'"'' ^ foTii' o'clock, at which time the Speaker
took the chair. The Strangers' and the
Speaker's Galleries were alike full, and upwards of a dozen peers
occupied the front seats of the gallery reserved for their accom
modation. General Schenck, the American Minister, was also
present. At a quarter past four, fifteen minutes earlier than
usual, the Speaker called on public business, and, the pre
liminary questions having been disposed of, he next directed
any new members who might be in attendapce to present
themselves at the table to be sworn. Thereupon Dr. Kenealy,
who for the preceding ten minutes had been seated under the
gallery outside the bar, advanced up the floor of the House,
holding a stout umbrella in one hand and a hat in the other.
Bowing to the Speaker, the Doctor stood waiting for what

1875.] SKIRMISHES WITH THE IRISH. 61
might follow. The Speaker, rising,- observed that, contrary to
the usual practice, the new member had approached the table
unaccompanied by sponsors. Were there two members of the
House prepared to introduce him ?
The new member displayed much readiness to enter into
argument with the Speaker on the subject, and, with hands
on the table, was proceeding to show that such a custom,
whilst usual, was not absolutely, and as a matter of law, essen
tial. But he was promptly stopped by the Speaker, who,
reminding him that he had not yet reached the stage of mem
bership at which he might address the House, remarked that
the practice of introducing new members had obtained since
1668, and there had in the meantime been no breach of the
precedent. That was the rule of the House, and the Speaker's
declaration that it was his business to see the rules of the House
were carried out was the signal for loud and general cheering.
Kenealy, proposing further to speak on the matter, was in
formed by the Speaker that when action was pending touching
any hon. member, it was usual for him to withdraw. Bowing
again, Kenealy turned and .left the House.
Disraeli observed that the object of the rule referred to
was to establish the identity of a new member, and as on this
occasion there was, he believed, no question of identity, he moved
that the rule be dispensed with. After some remarks from
Whalley, Bright, who had been sitting on the front Opposition
bench, rose, and, breaking the long silence of many sessions,
quietly said that, out of deference to the will of the large con
stituency who had elected Dr. Kenealy, he would himself, if the
hon. member would accept his companionship, be glad to walk
with him to the table. The right hon. gentleman, who, speak
ing from the extreme end of the table, was scarcely recognised
.until he got through his opening sentence, was loudly cheered
from all parts of the House when he resumed his seat. He had
evidently risen in obedience to a sudden impulse ; and when he
found himself actually standing at the table, raising his voice
in a chamber wherein it had been silent for many years, he was
as confused as a new member making his maiden speech. He,
the great prince of phraseology, halted and stumbled amongst
the words that faltered to his lips, and for a moment there
seemed a danger of his utterly breaking do'wn. But he pre-
E 2

52 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1875.
sently got over his difficulty, and said what was at his heart
in pleasant, clearly spoken speech.
The resolution having been put and agreed to — though not
'without lingering cries of dissent from one or two members
below the gangway on the Conservative side — the Speaker said
" Let the hon. member be called in." Kenealy promptly re
entered, and again approached the table, always with his hat and
umbrella in his hands. The umbrella he, on reaching the table,
laid against the mace in a position which gave currency to the
statement that he had " hung it " upon the sacred symbol of
authority. The Clerk at the table administered the oath to the
new member, and directed him where to sign the roll, after which
he introduced him by name to the Speaker. The right hon.
gentleman, in accordance witb custom, shook him by the hand,
and Kenealy disappeared behind the chair, not attempting to
flnd a seat in the crowded House.
Feb. 22.-F. Stan- Fred Stanley, brother of Lord Derby, made his
ley's early es- £j.g^ official speech to-night, on the Regimental
Exchanges Bill. It was a painful exhibition,
relieved only by the courage with which the gallant captain
persisted in the hopeless attempt. " I think, sir," he said, ner
vously turning over a large sheaf of notes he held in his hand,
and which developed a remarkable propensity for presenting
themselves upside down — " I think — ^that is, I would venture to
say — (pause). Now this question is one in which a colonel,
or, I may say, a major, might — that is, supposing his regiment
were ordered to India — to India — (pause). I was saying, sir,
that a major or a colonel — (pause) ; but, sir — " (prolonged
pause) .
" On, Stanley, on," whispered Disraeli, immediately before
whom Stanley, with the perspiration shining upon his face, was
standing. But it was no use. Not that Stanley did not try, for he
held on gallantly amid the sympathising silence of the House,
once broken by a cheer, when he frankly threw himself upon its
forbearance and pleaded inexperience and inability.
" I have come to an end," he said, after standing at the table
for twenty minutes.
As a matter of mathematical exactness, it must be observed

1876.] SKIEMISHES WITH THE IEISH. 63
that he had already come to several. Perhaps he meant that
this was an end to his oratorical essays ; and it is to be desired
that it may be so regarded. Such an absolute failure at
attempted consecutive articulation of ideas has not been seen
in the House during the present reign.
Lowe seems to have given up as hopeless the endeavour
to assist his memory by notes. To-night he spoke entirely
without, and has rarely spoken better. He broke down once in
quoting a couplet, but the rest he delivered easily enough, far
more easily than when he used to have two or three scraps of
paper before him, and, holding them in turn within an inch of
his eyebrows, searched for the one he wanted, and as a rule didn't
find it. To-night he worked not only the House, but himself, into
a state of high excitement, and as he was sitting down he, in the
hurry of the moment, took up Campbell-Bannerman's hat, which
was on the table beside his own, and frantically tried to put it
on. It was very funny to see him pressing it down over his
white hair, and to watch the expression that came over his face
when he was thoroughly convinced that it would not go on, and
the idea da-wned upon him that perhaps he had got the wrong
hat. Ward Hunt rose from the Treasury bench as Lowe sat down,
perceiving which apparition the latter, having by this time got
his own hat, promptly walked out of the House.
Hunt floundered about in a blind way, disturbing the sea of
controversy with the undisciplined flapping of his portentous tail,
and general hitting out in the wrong direction. He started by
disclosing a total misapprehension of what Trevelyan had been
saying, and when the hon. member rose and repeated his original
statement, snappishly observed that he " was glad the hon.
member did not now hold that view."
Feb. 25.— Joseph On second reading of Cameron's Friendly Socie-
enTpTechT""^' ^^^^ ^^^^' Jo^^ph Cowen made his maiden speech,
which was exceedingly well received. He took
objection to the penal clauses with respect to the fraudulent
registration of the deaths of children, and, amid approving
cheers, warmly protested that the class specially legislated for
were as little prone to the temptation provided against as were
the classes above them in the social grade.

54 A DIAEY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [i875.
Feb. 26.-Bright A Turnpike debate is proverbially one of the
breaks out. ^^^^^^^ episodes of the Session. Perhaps this
distinction is in some measure due to the fact that it is Sir
George Jenkinson who has made himself the apostle of the
cause. Turnpikes being down on the paper for to-night, and a
long debate being inevitable, everybody prepared for a dull
evening, and was resigned accordingly. But out of the midst
of the dulness, like lightning out of leaden clouds, there sud
denly flashed a tongue of fire.
Ever since the session opened Bright has been, up to the
dinner hour, one of the most constant frequenters of the House.
He sits at the lower end of the front Opposition bench, chatting
with Gladstone when the ex-Premier is there, or -with Lowe, or,
more rarely, with Hartington — never with Harcourt. In the
first week his appearance was much noticed, but now the
novelty of his presence has worn off, and to-night it was per
haps not observed that he was there till he was discovered stand
ing at the table, evidently about to make a speech. He opened
a fine vein of irony, and his utterances were accompanied by a
running fire of cheering from the Liberal benches. But the
decadence of his power was evidenced less by the tremulous tone
of his voice and the slight stooping of his broad shoulders than
by the slip whieh Disraeli was so prompt to see and avail him
self of.
The Premier was on his feet before Bright had resunied his
seat, and in an angry manner said some things by way of pro
logue which had better have been left unsaid. But when he had
worked his way tip to the obvious retort, it was tersely spoken
and admirably delivered.
" The right honourable gentleman," he said, " accuses us
of having acted with great unfairness to the late Government,
and he says, ' When we proposed such a policy as you now ad
vocate, you defeated us by a hundred majority.' Very well;
but as we were in a great minority in the late Parliament, if you
were defeated by a hundred majority, you were defeated by yom-
own friends."
Enthusiastic cheering by the intelligent eountry gentlemen,
who for once quite understood the repartee, and a thunderous
" Hear, hear ! " from Sir George Jenkinson, who, from his seat
below the gangway, leaned forward, looking towards the Trea-

1875.] UNDEE MB. DISEAELTS MANAGEMENT. 65
sury Bench, and so bringing into fuller view the great broad
Turnpike-road which is providentially marked do-wn the centre
of his head from the back of the crown to the forehead, and the
two ragged locks of hair that lie, like autumn hedgerows, on
either side of it.
Mar. i.-An Irish Hicks-Bcach movcd second reading of Coercion
Bill, which after brief debate was agreed to
without di-vision. In the course of his speech the Irish Secretary
gravely mentioned, as evidence of the improved condition of
Ireland, upon which he based the hope of some day being able
to propose the absolute extinction of exceptional legislation, that
he had received from an able and experienced magistrate of
Westmeath, a report in which it was stated "No outrage has
been recently committed in this district, except two or three
atte^mpts to murder." Beach evidently couldn't make out what
the House was laughing at.

CHAPTER V.
UNDER MR. Disraeli's management.
An odd Entry in the Eecords — Kenealy " shakes the Dewdrops from his Mane " —
Gladstone's Keappearance iu the Arena — An impressive Scene — ^WhaUey pro
poses a Plan for the Pacification of Ireland — " The Major " — Disraeli aud
the Irish Members — Major O'G-orman defies the Premier — Disraeli's Manage
ment of the House.
Mar. 2.— An odd At five o'clock Fawcctt rose to call attention to
E^'^^ds" ^^^ ^^® present unsatisfactory condition of educa-
cation in the rural districts, and to move a reso
lution to the effect " that in the opinion of the House it is unde
sirable that a less amount of school attendance should be secured
to children employed in agriculture than is enjoyed by children
employed in other branches of industry." At this time the House
was well filled, the Treasury and the front Opposition benches
being specially crowded. Both Bright and Gladstone were
present, and sitting just behind the ex-Premier was Kenealy,
who has- not before been in the House since the day he

56 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [1875.
took the oath. Butt also took his seat for the first time this
session. Floyer made a long speech against the motion, telHng
an affecting story about a little boy whose literary education was,
it appeared, scarcely satisfactory, but who " brightened up " in a
remarkable manner when he saw "the top-knots of a horse."
Fawcett's views on education, if adopted in rural districts, would,
Floyer thought, "spoil many a carter."
The motion was rejected on a division, being cut off after
the words " undesirable that " ; Pell proposing to add other
words. When Pell's amendment was put, motions for the ad
journment were pressed by the Opposition, and, finally, one for
the adjournment of the House was carried. The consequence
was that the original motion was left standing upon the records
of the House in the following form : —
''That in the opinion of this House it is undesirable
that  "
Mar. 4.— Kenea- At question time the House of Commons pre-
ly" shakes the gented an appearance for a comparison with
dewdrops from -'--'- ^ -i • • •
his mane." which we must go back to the great division
nights during the progress of the Irish Land and
the Irish Church Bills. Every seat on the floor of the House
was occupied, and whilst a row of members filled the front bench
of the gallery on the left of the Speaker, the gallery opposite
was so crowded that members were glad to find sitting room in
the gangways. In the gallery facing the Speaker, and appro
priated to peers, eldest sons of peers, and other dignified
persons, one seat, just over the clock, was conspicuously empty.
For whom this had been kept presently appeared, when the
Prince of Wales entered, and nodding pleasant acknowledgment
of the presence of the double row of peers through whom he
made his way, sat down in the vacant seat beside Rosebery.
Amongst others who sat in this gallery were Prince Christian
and the ex-King of Naples.
The questions were long and many in number, and it was a
few minutes before five when Kenealy rose, amid a dead silence,
and said he had a question to put to Evelyn Ashley, to whom he
had given private notice. The question was as to the accuracy
of a newspaper report of a speech delivered by him m the
Isle of Wight, in the course of which he was reported to

1675:] UNDER MR. DISRAELTS MANAGEMENT. 67
have referred to Kenealy as having put in the box a man whom
he knew to be a false -witness. He wished to ask " the hon. and
learn'd gentleman " whether the report was substantially
correct. Ashley, whose rising was unmarked by any demonstra
tion, corrected Kenealy's statement that he had sent him a
notice- of the question he proposed to put to him. He had
" done no such thing," in support of which strong affirmation,
he read a note received from Kenealy.
He was proceeding to describe the circumstances under which
the speech complained of had been delivered, prefacing his re
marks by a profession of his readiness to submit to any course
the House saw fit to decree, when Kenealy " rose to order."
Ashley was not, he thought, at liberty to discuss the matter now,
seeing that a question had simply been put to him, and Kenealy
was waiting for an answer before carrying the business further
himself. The Speaker having ruled that Ashley was in order,
that gentleman proceeded with his reply, which involved a state
ment of the circumstances under which the speech was delivered,
and a slight correction of the terms of the newspaper report.
At the outset Ashley was listened to in the same undemon
strative manner as Kenealy had been ; but when he ventured to
express the opinion that it was " sometimes necessary to speak
the truth " there was a faint cheer from the opposite gallery,
which timidly grew till it was taken up from all parts of the
House. Ashley did not attempt to justify his language, though
he indicated his willingness to do so if the House would sanction
such a course. He certainly did not withdraw the remarks, and
left the direction of his subsequent conduct in the hands of the
House. Kenealy appeared for the moment cowed by the strong
expression of feeling which the latter portion of Ashley's
remarks had evoked, the effect being the greater as the House
had evidently made up its mind at the outset to hear both sides
in silence. He rose, and saying he " could not discuss the
question now," gave notice that he should call attention to the
speech of the hon. member "to-morrow."
There was a brief pause, which Lowe disturbed by attempt
ing to speak, but was reminded by the Speaker that there was
no question before the House. In response to cries of " Move !
move ! " Lowe moved that the House adjourn, and proceeded
to protest against the growing practice of raising questions of

58 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [i875.
privilege upon reports of speeches of members delivered outside
the House. Such a practice if persisted in might, he said, be
come a most galling and injurious instrument of oppression.
He was unable to find any precedent for it except in the case
of O'Connell, and that, he held, did not apply to the present
circumstance. What Ashley was reported to have said of
Kenealy might be a slander, and if he wanted redress let him
seek it in a court of law.
Disraeli next rose, and, amid loud cheering, declared that
the matter must be " settled now." They had heard the accu
sation and the defence, and it would be intolerable if a third
opportunity were exacted " by the member for Stoke." The
Premier emphatically laid down the principle that a question of
privilege could arise only in the case of members of Parliament
having been attacked in their capacity as members of Parlia
ment. He had had some doubt whether the custom was not
being strained in the recent case of Lopes and the Irish
members. In the present case there was not a shadow of
justification for raising the question. It was in his capacity'
as a member of the bar that the member for Stoke — the
Premier now and always omitted the usual prefix when referring
to the member for Stoke — had been attacked, " and let him,"
he continued, amid loud and prolonged laughter, " appeal to
tbose courts of law with which he is so intimately acquainted."
He thought the House should now leave the matter where it
was, and he would move, if Lowe would withdraw his resolu
tion, that the House, having heard the charge and the defence,
proceeds to the orders of the day.
All this time Kenealy had been busily writing in his note
book. When Disraeli resumed his seat he rose and "begged
respectfully to controvert " Lowe's statement, that the question
at issue between himself and Ashley could not be discussed in
the House. Again the tacit determination of the House to
preserve a decorous silence whilst Kenealy was speaking was
apparent; but laughter broke out when he indignantly pro
tested against "what he ventured to call the American row
dyism " that had been imported into public discussions. He hit
out vigorously at Lowe, whose " remarkable obliquity of vision"
he bewailed, and in a tone of some pathos regretted that " the
First Lord of the Treasury " should have cast upon him that

1876.] UNDER MR. DISRAELTS MANAGEMENT. 59
sneer about his intimate acquaintance with the law courts.
"I have," he said, with considerable vigour, "no respect for
our law courts, and will never seek a remedy in one." Above
the laughter which this sally drew forth, the Doctor raised his
voice (whieh had now lost its momentary pathos), and looking
sternly across at Disraeli, who was quietly reading his letters,
said such an observation came with a bad grace from one whose
avocation for the greater part of his life had been the production
of romantic fiction and poetic fable.
Here there were some cries of " Order, order ! " and the
Doctor, turning fiercely towards the Speaker, assured him that
no private member should call him to order " unless backed by
you, sir." New members, he always thought, were encouraged
rather than put down, at which the House again heartily
laughed. Finally, after having been called to order for a reference
to the Lord Chief Justice, the new member " respectfully
submitted" to the House that they ought either to make
Ashley prove his words " or brand him as a calumniator and a
slanderer." For himself he was perfectly indifferent to the
upshot of the proceedings. Of one thing he was certain, that
the calumnious reflections thrown on his character would recoil
on their authors ; " and," he added, sinking his voice to its
deepest notes, and vigorously wagging his head, " that I shall
shake them off as the lion shakes the dewdrops from his
mane ! "
This was too much for the already grievously burdened
gravity of the House. A prolonged peal of laughter broke
forth, for the full length of which the member for Stoke stood
surveying the animated scene through his spectacles. When
he spoke again it was in quite an altered tone and with a
subdued mien, and his assurance that he would never do any
thing to make a single member ashamed of his companionship
was received with a generous and hearty cheer. Bright, who
seemed to speak with great difliculty, gently urged Ashley
to say he withdrew the charge; but Ashley, observing that
it had not been an ill-considered statement, and was made with
some personal knowledge of facts, was not able to do more
than say he regretted having made the accusation at a political
dinner. Lowe ha'ving withdrawn his formal motion for the
adjournment of the House, Disraeli put his resolution, which

60 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [i875.
was seconded by Hartington, and agreed to without a dis
senting voice.
Mar. 16. -Glad- A morning sitting to make progress with the
stone's reap- RgOTmental Exchanges Bill. Lowe, amid cheers
pearanceinthe '^ , , , -, -i j ^i i • j_
arena. and counter-checrs, tersely described the object
of the Bill as being " to make commissions in the
army a valuable commodity." Shortly after four o'clock Glad
stone appeared at the lower end of the table, and was welcomed
by loud and prolonged cheering from the Opposition. Com
mencing in a quiet, even constrained, manner, he described the
unwillingness with which he interposed in the debate, and pro
ceeded to set forth arguments against the Bill, which, whilst
containing no new point for those who had followed the long
debate through its earlier stages, seemed to have gained much
in force and clearness. With increased warmth of manner he
warned the Government of the danger of thus introducing into
Parliamentary procedure a principle of disturbance which had
been disastrously illustrated last session by their action in
respect of the Endowed Schools Act Amendment Bill. Some
day, he said, the powerful majority which now enabled them to
carry such Bills as they pleased would have d-windled, and they
might find that the measure which they were now measuring out
would be meted out to them. In an eloquent passage he sup
ported his declaration that the possession of wealth ought not
to be a ground for the avoidance of irksome duties, leaving
it for the House to say whether it was " decent " to be busy
ing itself with legislation calculated to place wealth in a
position of advantage as compared with talents, character,
and good service.
Gathorne Hardy sprang up as Gladstone sat down, cheers and
counter-cheers filling the now crowded and excited House. The
War Minister gracefully welcomed Gladstone back into the
arena of debate, and acknowledged the courtesy and fairness of
spirit with which he had in his speech admitted the personal
desire of the Ministry to prevent money-trafficking in commis
sions. But after these few opening sentences, Hardy's impetu
osity was unrestrained, and, cheered by the continuous and
enthusiastic plaudits of members behind, he in his most breath
less manner hit out at Lowe and Goschen.

1875.] UNDER MR. DISRAELTS MANAGEMENT. 61
Gladstone's return to debate has created a profound sensation.
The House feels with a strong: accession of conviction that for the
Liberals there is no Allah but Allah, and that all possible substi
tutes for Mahomet as his prophet will remain mere figureheads.
Mar. 18.— An im- Here is David Montague Scott, who has been junior
pressive scene, j^gj^ber for East Susscx for fully twelve months,
and only to-night has the House been made aware of the fact
that it is endowed with the presence of one of the finest actors
off the stage. Scott was noticed first in connection with a
bulky book, under the weight of which he staggered across the
floor and sat down beside his colleague, whose solitary pair of
trousers are so short as to give colour to a wicked rumour that
they were originally made for one of the Foundlings, and have
somehow come into Gregory's possession by right of his trea-.
surership of that excellent institution. Gregory to-night wore a
huge green patch over his left eye, which lent an additional
charm to his personal appearance. He had been conspicuously
before the House in the matter of an amiable indiscretion on the
part of his constituents, the Cuckfield magistrates, who had
been sending Luke Hills to prison for three months because he
could not pay some trumpery damages.
Everybody had spoken who had anything to say on the
subject : when up rose Scott from beside the big book and
Gregory, and in a condition of mind that did not allow him
to speak above a slow stage whisper, expressed the horror with
which he had heard Peter Taylor speak lightly of the Cuckfield
magistrates. Scott, who is about the height of the late Charles
Kean, and far more impressive, stood with his right shoulder
partly turned towards Taylor, and threw his whispers over it at
the member for Leicester.
The rebuke would have been really most imposing if it had
not been for Scott's eyeglasses. Each time he finished a sentence
he tumed his head half round, and -with haughtily downcast
eyes, and an aspect of excruciating severity, looked at Taylor's
boots. To do this he took off his eyeglasses ; to read his notes
the eyeglasses were necessary. But it was too much for the
gravity of the House to observe ^& pince-nes, after it had, with
solemn sweep of the arm, been placed on the hon. member's
Roman nose, repeatedly fall flat thereon, and then slide off.

62 A DIAEY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [1876.
The House laughed, but Scott relaxed none of the severe Hnes
in which his whiskerless face was cast, and -with the same solemn
sweep of the arm, and a recurrence of the haughty downward
glance at the region of the boots of the vilifier of the Cuckfield
magistrates, ever as the glasses tottered and fell he put them on
his nose again, and once more thrilled the House -with slowly
uttered whisper.
Mar. 19.— Whal- Coercion Bill again. Whalley interposed to ex-
ley proposes a pi^ij^ tj^^t the troublesome state of Ireland was
plan for the J^ • i n ,, n »
paeiaoation of absolutely owing to " the priesthood, and for
^*" ' counteracting their infiuence there was nothing
hopeful to be done but to send into the country a band of
faithful, honest missionaries to convert the peasantry to Pro
testantism. " I appeal to the right hon. gentleman opposite to listen to
me," he cried in a sudden outburst. "Give me the power; let
me go into' Ireland armed only with the sling and stone of free
discussion, and accompanied by a few men like the unfortunate
Murphy [an Orange emissary lately killed in a religious riot] ,
and I believe that I can do more than Prince Bismarck did in
Prussia." Dr. O'Leary was put up to move the adjournment of the
debate, and incidentally varied the dulness of the night, calling
forth a hearty burst of laughter by an odd reference to Dodson.
" The right hon. gentleman " — he was saying when a friendly
countryman interrupted him with a correction, which had some
reference to Mr. Dodson's not now being in office. " The late
right hon. gentleman, then," said O'Leary hotly, evidently,
though being as he admitted " a young member," not liking to
be thus corrected on trivial matters of form in the face of a
hostile House of Commons.
Mar. 20. — "The Major O'Gorman has come much to the front of
^^°^- late, and his reputation is quite national. As an
unconscious humorist he is unique. There is about himJe ne
sais ' quoi charm that enthroned him highest amongst the
pleasant oddities of the House the moment he first rose in his
place, and before he had spoken a word. Quite apart from the
similarity in personal appearance, his humom- smacks of Sir John

1875.1 UNDER MR. DISRAELTS MANAGEMENT. 63
Falstaff 's. But the resemblance is only fleeting, and when we
try to seize it, it is gone. There is an indescribable comicality
in a back-view of him as he walks down the floor of the House,
going to or from the division lobbies. No one could look with
out a smile upon the broad, nearly square expanse of cloth
above, 'with glimpses below of the dwarfed legs that carry him
along in a jaunty manner, each limb going out for the stride
'with a little flourish, as who should say, "This may look a
heavy load, but it is nothing at all to ine."
Seen entering the House, always walking strictly in the
middle of the broad passage lest peradventure he should
carry away a comer of the bench, the smile of the looker-
on grows broader and kindlier. There is a fierce look on
his bearded face, such as Falstaff wore when he fought his
battle of Gad's Hill over again. His mouth twitches as if
one of the men in buckram had recklessly come in his way
again, and he had bitten him in twain as a cat snaps at flies
on a summer's day. He carries his hat in his right hand
almost at arm's length, so that in s-winging to and fro it shall
have free scope. His step, though springy, is slow, and not with
out a certain elephantine stateliness. When he reaches his seat
he cautiously deposits himself thereon ; but once having ascer
tained that all is well, and that the bench will not give way, he
re-assumes a jaunty air, jerks his hat on to his head, often —
especially after dinner — letting the front brim rest upon his
nose, like a rakish old major as he is. Then he folds his arms
as far as they will go over his capacious chest, and begins
snapping at the flies again.
When the thoughts stirring within him are on the point of
explosion he jumps up, with hat held out in his right hand, and,
standing silent for a few moments, gasps at the Speaker.
Then comes the thunder of his prefatory, " Sur ! " and there
after, in a succession of thunder-claps, there follows the incon
gruous jumble of bizarre half-made thoughts which dim and
mistaken notions of what other people are doing and saying
have generated in some region lying between his boots and
his hat. He does not try to be funny — at least, not often,
and then is least amusing. He is indeed generally terribly in
earnest, and those flights of fancy, adorned by unmatched frag
ments of classical lore, are laborious and determined efforts at

64 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [i875.
rivalling Curran, or at least Butt. He has never yet understood
why grave senators should have lain down helpless on the
benches of the House of Commons and shrieked with laughter
when he delivered that famous allegory about the nun bereaved
by many murders. That speech had cost him long hours of pre
paration. It was pitched in a high key, and he thought it
would show these Saxons that, though chains might weigh heavy
on Ireland, and centuries of ill-usage might have " streaked her
long black hair with grey,''' eloquence still abode pn the
tongues of her sons.
Since then, as the unappreciative House will have it so,
he has gradually come out as a funny man, a cracker of
jokes, an utterer of sarcasms, a sayer of good things. His
jokes are not always comprehensible ; his sarcasms cut like the
back of a razor ; and the ' humour of his -witticisms lies in the
circumstance of their usually presenting themselves wrong end
first. He is funny because he can't help it ; and when he inter
feres with the slow processes of nature, and tries to re-direct or
improve them, he mars the whole.

Mar. 21. — Dis- The manner in whieh the Irish members
raeli and the
Irish members.

raeli and the deliberately set about to " take it out of " the

Tyrant in talk is not the least remarkable feature
in Parliamentary usages. Last session, the Irish members
fought through a long summer night against the inclusion
of the Coercion Acts in the Annual Continuance Bill, coming
down again early on the next day, being Wednesday, pre
pared to carry on the war. Disraeli, putting his hands to
his ears with a despairing gesture, then promised that the
Coercion Acts should this year have a whole night given up to
their discussion, and that the Bill for their renewal should
be brought in by itself early in the session, so that the talk
about it might commence in good time. He has fulfilled his
pledge, and the Coercion Acts were put do-wn for second reading
as the first order to-night. The Irish members made no secret
of their intention to talk at least for two nights. Disraeli took
note of this, and played a card which wrought a crueller grievance
to Ireland than half a dozen Coercion Acts. Orders were passed
along the Conservative benches that the debate was to be left
entirely in the hands of the Home Rulers.

1876.], UNDEE ME. DISRAELTS MANAGEMENT. 65
The effect of such an arrangement will be perceived in a
moment. There Avere a given number of Irish members ready
with a speech. It was calculated that, as would have hap
pened under ordinary circumstances, speakers would rise from
alternate sides, and thus if Ireland could talk for, say, eight
hours, the other portions of the empire would certainly fur
nish talk for an equal period of time, and thus two sittings
at least would be pleasantly got through. But the wary
Premier had spoiled all these calculations. Member after
member rose from the Home-Rule benches. Men who, coming
in from remote parts of Ireland at the memorable election of
1874, were wholly unfamiliar to the House, presented themselves,
and made dull speeches ; whilst men who had often spoken now
spoke the more. But it was evident that this was a game that
could not long be played. Not only were the ranks of the
Home-Rule speakers getting rapidly thinned, but successive
speakers had nothing to say except the old things that had been
said by the " hon. member who had just sat down."
Thus the chatter was of the dullest ; but it was interesting
to watch the rising storm of fury in the ranks of the Home
Rulers, and then to look across at the Treasury bench, where
Disraeli sat with folded arms and bent head, listening with the
most polished attention to all that gentlemen opposite were
saying, and apparently quite at a loss to understand what they
were so angry about. They had complaints to make of the pro
posed legislation ? Well, was not the fullest opportunity given
them to utter their complaints, and was not the House pro
foundly attentive? This was the way in which the Premier,
with raised eyebrows, and in a tone of gently complaining sur
prise, put the matter when at length the storm burst, and — like
an angry woman who has been scolding by the hour her unre
sponsive husband, bursts into tears of rage because he won't
answer her — the Irish members passionately demanded if nobody
on the opposite side was going to speak.
It was a clever game, beautifully played, and changed just
when it might have been spoiled by being carried too far. When
A. M. Sullivan, with furious gestures, and in a loud voice,
brought under the Premier's notice the fact that as yet the
Treasury bench had taken no part in the discussion, the right hon.
gentleman, still preserving with admirable effect the provoking

66 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [im.
attitude of leaving the conduct of the debate in the hands of the
Irish members, put up Hicks-Beach to reply, and on the motion
for adjournment got all his own way in the arrangement of the .
business for the following night. It was one of the finest bits
of parliamentary fencing I have seen for many years. Disraeli
never moved a pace. He stood impassively in the ring, with a
buttoned foil lightly held in his haud, and if awkward people
wildly ran against it, wounding themselves, and knocking each
other over in the rout, was Ae to blame ?
Mar. 23.— Major Callan resumed the debate on the Coercion Bill.
fles°tto°Pre- Gibson, the new member for Dublin University,
mier. who speaks from behind the Treasury bench,
made at least twice over a speech the first
delivery of which created a most favourable impression. A. M.
Sullivan opposed the Bill in an exceptionally effective manner,
reading a long list of extracts from the charges of judges
delivered at the last assizes in Ireland, all unanimous in de
scribing the state of crime as being extremely low. " These,"
said the hon. member, " were the opinions of the judges, and
putting them beside bugaboo stories of the policemen," with
which the Chief Secretary was charged, he challenged the House
to pass the Coercion Bill. Biggar commenced a speech by
observing that although there were not forty members present
(as a matter of fact there were ten), he would say a few words.
According to a rule of the House, acted upon on several occa
sions, the Speaker's attention being thus called to the numbers
present, a count would have immediately followed. But the
Speaker was judiciously deaf to the maladroit remark, and
Biggar was spared the confusion of having counted out him
self and the House.
At ten o'clock the Solicitor- General for Ireland (Plunket)
rose, defending the Bill in a speech which, whilst its arguments
were of necessity old, was freshened by frequent flashes of
fervid yet simple eloquence. Butt followed, the House now
being full by comparison with its emptiness since five o'clock.
Tracing the history of England from 1819 through all trouble
some times to IS-IS, he showed how disaffection in England had
been met not by Coercion Acts, but by attempts to improve by
legislation the condition of the people. That was what Butt

1876.] UNDEE ME. DISEAELTS MANAGEMENT. 67
proposed the Government should now do for Ireland. " Let
the star of the British Constitution shine over Ireland," he
said, " and peace and prosperity will then prevail."
Disraeli, proceeding in his most solemn and impressive
manner to wind up the debate, began by slowly enunciating the
sentence, " This is a measure of necessity passed in a spirit of
conciliation." Major O'Gorman, who had been absent from his
plaee during a prolonged dinner hour, and who now occupied his
usual place on the back seat below the gangway to the left of
the Speaker, marked the conclusion of the sentence with a loud
shout of " No ! " which he continued in a series of thunderous
ejaculations. " If that," said Disraeli quietly, " is to be taken as a reply,
I must observe that, in accordance with the rules of debate, the
hon. member is precluded from taking any further part in these
proceedings." Thereupon the Major jumped up, with his hat held out in
his right hand, and called out in stentorian tones, " I have
not spoken one word."
In vain the Ministerialists called "Order, order!" The
Major stood, hat in hand, roaring in a voice that easily domi
nated the storm, " I have not spoken one word ! " and it was
not till the Speaker interposed that he yielded to the solicita
tions of his friends who hung upon his coat tails, and resumed
his seat.
But he did not remain there long. Before the Premier had
proceeded far the huge figure of the Major was observed sailing
slowly down the floor of the House, bowing low to the Speaker.
Whither he was bound became as he neared the Treasury bench
rather a serious speculation. Was he literally "going for" the
frail figure of the veteran statesman who stood at the corner
of the table ? But all anxiety was temporarily set at rest when,
on reaching the gangway, he turned off to the right, and took a
seat on the fourth bench directly behind the Leader of the
Opposition, and fully facing the Premier. From this coign of
'vantage he kept up a running fire of " Hear, hear," uttered iu
a voice that reverberated through, the outside lobbies. Disraeli,
though struggling gallantly against this extraordinary visitation,
was for some time visibly disconcerted, and occasionally lost the
thread of his speech, the Major filling up the pauses with sten-
1' a

68 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. ims.
torian cries of " Hear.''' But as Disraeli proceeded he became
master of the situation, and though the Major continued to
roar, the Premier went on his way, seeming inspired to even
greater success by the unusual difficulties under which he
laboured.
Mar. 24. - Dis- The House adjoumcd to-day for the Easter re-
raeU'sManage- ^ggg ^^^ ^jjgre is an opportunity of looking back
ment of the ' „ , ,.„ „ ,, -n i" ,
House. over the portion of the life of the new Parliament
already accomplished, and considering how we have
been getting on under our new managers. On the whole, and speak
ing simply of the business management of the House apart from
the consideration of Imperial politics, we have done very well.
Disraeli came into power as the avenger of the outraged principle
of rest. We had been going too fast and too long under the
guidance of Gladstone. It was Disraeli's principal mission to
put on the break, and while preserving some sense of motion,
to take care that it should be easy. For such a mission
he was a heaven-born minister. He has the patience which
makes possible a masterly inactivity. The difference between
his temperament and that of his predecessor is indicated by the
simple fact that whilst he can sit motionless for two hours on a
bench in the House, Gladstone could not so sit for two minutes.
The present need of the House of Commons is restful ease,
tempered with a little amusement, and Disraeli has skilfully
managed to supply the necessity. Never, even in the best
days of Palmerston, has the House been so docile under
nianagement as during the current session. In the day of his
power, Gladstone ruled the House, but did not lead it ; and when
his power deserted him, the House paid off old scores by assum
ing an attitude towards its nominal leader that must have been
galling to his proud spirit. Disraeli never domineers over the
House. On the contrary, he rather goes out of his way to assert
that the House is arbitrator of its own acts, and that he is its
very humble servant.
He really makes concessions to the expressed wishes even
of a minority of members, especially when those wishes tend in
the direction of shortening a sitting. During the current session
we have not sat nearly so many hours as during any similar term
under Gladstone's ministry. But the amount of actual work

1876.] UNDEE ME, DISEAELTS MANAGEMENT, 69
done is at least equal in bulk. If Gladstone set out ¦vrith the
determination to reach a certain stage or a given clause of a Bill,
he simply, by the pressure of his majority, forced the House into
agreement with his plan. The consequence was that a spirit of
factious opposition was raised, and temper being lost on both
sides, more time was wasted in fighting over the question of ad
journment than might have served to effect Gladstone's original
purpose. Disraeli never fights a minority that shows any deter
mination to stay progress. For form's sake he will, if pushed to
it, take a division on the question of adjournment, and when that
has been decided, will give way to renewed opposition. This
may seem weak, but the Premier knows with whom he is dealing.
The House of Commons is too generous 'to take a mean advantage
of a good disposition, and only once this session has a vexatiously
premature motion for adjournment been made, and that was
on the Coercion Acts, when, at twenty minutes to twelve. Dr.
O'Leary moved to adjourn the debate.
Gladstone would probably have leaped up and in passionate
language denounced such a proceeding as factious, declared that
the Government were prepared to resist it to the last, and pro
bably have hinted that, if the motion were not rejected by a
large majority, he would be compelled to resign. Disraeli, put
ting his eyeglass up — and perhaps no one uses an eyeglass with
such comical effect — looked at the clock, and observed that if the
hon. member had intended to conclude with such a motion, he
would have been glad if he had continued his remarks over the
space of twenty minutes. Then he proceeded in a friendly tone
to point out the unreasonableness of adjourning the debate at
this hour ; and when he sat dovm, the Irish members, with a
baseness for whieh O'Leary has probably ere this called them to
account, were the first to cry " Withdraw ! " and after a few
moments' interruption, business proceeded in accordance with the
Premier's plans.
Disraeli unfortunately cannot endow his subordinates with
his genius, but he has imbued them with his conciliatory disposi
tion. That conciliation may be carried too far is proved by the
dead-lock we have reached in the matter of select committees.
Since the session opened select committees have been given with
both hands. In fact, it may be said that the Opposition has
been nourished on select committees. The failing is, however, an

70 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [1875
amiable one, and, apart from considerations of politeness, is well
suited to the emergencies of the hour. The Opposition are not
in a position either successfully to oppose or hopefully to initiate
measures. They must do something, and accordingly where
once they would have brought in a Bill, and possibly have made
a law, they now move for a select committee. The concession is
graciously made, and " lo, the winter is passed, the rain is over
and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing
of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in the
land." All this is due to the skilful good temper of Disraeli. In
this also he has educated his party. It is true that sometimes,
elate with the joy of discovering how easy it is after all for a
common-place man to be a Home Secretary, Cross is pert, and
crushes Cawley or makes refractory Sir William Eraser. Even
Gathorne Hardy has tamed his impetuous spirit, and with all
his natural contempt for a Radical has been studiously polite to
members below the gangway opposite. The only member of the
Ministry whose constitutional snappishness has proved indestruc
tible is Ward Hunt.
With other members of his Ministry Disraeli has no trouble
in this direction. Stafford Northcote is ever courteous ; Man
ners is, in a skim-milk manner, always unoffending; Adderley
could not get his thoughts together quick enough to be snappish
to any questioner except Plimsoll, and the member for Derby
providentially always taps his thoughts in the same place ;
Lord Henry Lennox is not only polite, but manages to convey
the impression that he is unaffectedly desirous of meeting the
views of the gentleman addressing him, whoever he may be ;
Selwin-Ibbetson is of no account under any circumstances;
whilst Lord Sandon and Bourke are gentlemen by nature, and
invariably behave as such.
Matters being thus moulded by right hon. gentlemen on the
Treasury bench, they are not much marred by right hon. gentle
men on the front Opposition bench. The part the latter take
in the affairs of the House is in truth infinitesimal. It was
below the gangway that the only serious .opposition to a Govern
ment measure — the Regimental Exchanges Bill — had its birth,
and it is from below the gangway that such obstruction as
Disraeh finds chiefly comes. Hartington is not, on an average,

1S75. DR. KENEALY. 71
in his place two hours per sitting, and when he is there others
speak for the leader of the Opposition. Forster is present
pretty regularly, and is sure to be found on his feet if educa
tional legislation crops up, or the Ballot Act is discussed, and an
opportunity thus afforded for eulogising the actions and glorify-
ins the motives of the ex-Yice-President of the Council. In the
same way Goschen is there to see that no injustice is done to
the ex-Pirst Lord of the Admiralty, and Childers will not sit
silent and hear a word said against the condition of her Majesty's
fleet or dockyards between the years 1868 and 1871.
Sometimes Lowe, with a refreshing self-respect and an ex
hilarating mental vigour, letting the dead past bury its dead,
runs amuck at the Ministiy, and sends through the House an
unaccustomed and dangerous thrill of suspicion that perhaps
after all we are living in a fool's paradise ; that peradventure
this is not the best of Ministries, nor these the best of times ;
and that, heavily dozing under the wand of a clever enchanter,
we are, iE mo-ving anywhither, moving backwards. But for the
rest, the occupants of the front Opposition bench, animated by
petty jealousies of each other, unmindful of the cause to which
they have bound themselves, eome and go fitfully, without com
mon purpose or bond of union, and Disraeli tranquilly leads as
he pleases.

CHAPTER VI.
DR. KENEALY.

Death of John Martin — '* The unhappy Nobleman languishing in Prison " — The
Power of Commonplace — The Burials Bill — Mr. Biggar's four Hours' Speech
— Kenealy and the Judges — The Major on Threatening Letters — Biggar
" spies Strangers " — On answering Questions.
Easter Monday. John Martin, sometime member for County
John*Martin°^ Meath, died this morning. There are many
men left in the House of Commons ¦with far
more common sense, more business capacity, and a larger share
of intelligence than John Martin had. One of his compatriots
has estimated the money value of an Irish member's seat in the

72 A DIARY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [mb.
House at the modest sum of £500 per annum. But I beheve
that John Martin would have consented to wear kid gloves on
his hands for a twelvemonth rather than make a shilling by his
services to his country. Possibly if Ireland had offered him
£3,000 a year not to represent her in Parliament, but to go away
and live quietly in Florida, raising his own oranges, and, if he
pleased, throwing them at wax-work images of the Saxon
Oppressor, he would, by accepting the offer, have shown himself
truly patriotic. He did not advance the prosperity of Ireland
by his presence here ; rather the reverse. He was a poor
speaker, a purblind patriot, and as ignorant of the actual pro
portion and mutual bearing of current events as a boarding-
school miss. But withal he was simple, earnest, and single-
minded ; and simplicity, earnestness, and single-mindedness are
qualities so rare in the House of Commons that we can ill spare
John Martin.
Apr. 15.—" The The House, in anticipation of the double attrac-
unhappy noble- .(-ion of the statement on the Budget and of a
man languish- . . . °
ing in prison." controversy in whieh the Premier and Kenealy
might be engaged, was densely crowded, floor
and galleries being alike fllled. That one feature in the en
tertainment of the evening would not be lacking was assured
shortly before four o'clock, when Kenealy entered and took his
seat, as far from the door as the limits of the chamber would
permit. Usually he has sat just behind the leader of the
Opposition. Last night he took up a position on the seat
beyond, and still more distant from the door. Without notable
exception all the members of the Government, and also right
hon. gentlemen who formed the late Administration, were early
in their places. Of the latter Gladstone was one of the last to
arrive, taking his seat as usual at the obscurer end of the front
Opposition bench, next to Bright.
The Premier moved that the report of the Select Com
mittee on the petition presented from Prittlewell be read at
the table. This done, the Premier described the nature of
the petition, which he observed might, if any member desired,
be read by the Clerk. With respect to passages of the document
which alleged dishonest and corrupt motives on the part of the
judges, he would not have been inclined to put too strict an

1876.]

DE. KENEALY. 73

interpretation on them, supposing they had been distinct, not
vague, and supposing the member who presented the petition
were prepared to support its prayer. It was the concluding
portion of the petition, which called upon the House to take
measures for the impeachment of Mr. Speaker, that was the
grave feature in it. The question was one of pri^vilege, "a
serious and deliberate attack on the freedom of speech in the
House of Commons." Whether such an attack was made by
mobs or by monarchs did not make much difference. It was a
matter that could not be passed over by the House, and accord
ingly he moved that the order that the petition should lie upon
the table be rescinded.
Loud cheers endorsed this proposal, and amid the demon
stration Colonel MakinSj who bad presented the petition, rose,
and in the frankest possible manner explained how he had got
himself and the House into such a difliculty. Just before
Easter one of his constituents had written to him, and asked
whether he would present a petition for the release "of that
unhappy nobleman now languishing in prison," meaning the
convict Orton, at Dartmoor. This he consented to do, and had
done without very carefully studying the document, and he
now expressed his great regret for the circumstance. It was
after eight o'clock, and Budget night too, before the motion
was agreed to, and the House, having been already detained
long past the dinner hour, immediately emptied, something less
than fifty members remaining to hear the statement on the
Budget. To this, perhaps the smallest audience which a
Chancellor of the Exchequer had addressed under similar cir
cumstances, Northcote disclosed the secrets of his Second
Budget.
Apr. 20. — The M'Cullagh Torrens has just risen to state his
monpiaoe."""'" 'vi«ws on army organisation. The member for
Finsbury is an undoubted power in the House.
But ¦ unless the far-reaching dominion of commonplace be re
cognised it is difficult to discover the secret of his influence. It
IS true he is able to state familiar truths with an impressive
ness not given to every man. For example, one possibly has
a dim recollection of having before heard warnings against the
evil or danger of procrastination. But never was the truth

'74 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [1875.
brought home with such impressive force as it was to those
in the House of Commons who heard Torrens to-night. He
has many special personal qualifications for his calling. There
is a sad, sorrowful look about his visage, that speaks of
much soul-wrestling before these truths were seared upon
his heart. There is as he speaks a something in his profile
which recalls that of an elderly parrot who has attended many
funerals. Newdegate is a mournful personage. But his melancholy
has -withal a certain vigour, and he can on occasion show that
sorrow has not sapped his bones. If we say that Newdegate is
the Melancholy Jaques of the House and Torrens is its Jeremiah,
we shall get as nearly as possible exact parallels of their varied
manifestations of prevailing woe. But sometimes gleams of
humour break through the cloud of his anguish, and he is
well known in Warwickshire as one of the straightest riders
that ever followed the hounds, while Torrens never doffs his
sables for scarlet coat or other flippery. To the charm of this
manner he adds the possession of a voice whose tones alternate
between a discordant shriek and a whisper that makes the
very flesh creep.
" The way to keep the peace is to let your neighbours see
that you are able to go to war."
That is a sentence from his speech to-night. It may he
objected that there is nothing fresh either in the idea or the
expression, the two having been in their wedded state familiar
ever since Napoleon was First Consul of France. Ah ! but
you did not hear Torrens say it to-night, beginning -with
the whisper and ending with the shriek, tbe while he leaned
across the bench before him and shook his forefinger at the
awed group of members who sit below the gangway on the
Ministerial side.
Apr. 21. '^ The Gladstone and Bright both spoke this afternoon
Burials BiU. ^.^ Osborne Morgan's Burial Bill ; the first early,
the other late. Apart from the conception and spirit of his
speech, Bright has not spoken so well since bis return to Parlia
ment after his long illness. Hitherto, when he has addressed the
House, it has been with a feebleness of voice, a nervousness of
manner, and even a hesitancy of speech, that made sad those

1875.]

DR. KENEALY. 7?

who remembered the nights when, like a strong man armed, he
kept the House in thrall. Up to to-day he had not this
session raised his voice above the low yet audible pitch of
conversation, and whilst speaking he has stood immobile, with
one hand resting on the table. This afternoon there was the old
familiar ring in his voice, and with the more animated manner
came back the few effective gestures with which he was wont to
emphasise his speech.
He accidentally made an effective point by a momentary lack
of a word .he was in search of. Dealing with the state of affairs
in Scotland, he had occasion to refer to the fact that the grave
yards in that country are not specially set apart by episcopal
sanction. "Well, but hon. gentlemen opposite will get up and say.
that in Scotland their ground is not — is not — what do they
call it ? " he added, sharply turning to the gentleman ' just
behind him.
"Consecrated," replied Gladstone, who happened to be the
gentleman addressed.
"  Is not consecrated," Bright continued, amid laughter
and loud cheering from the Liberal benches.
The division took place immediately after this speech, and
the result showing a majority of 14 against the Bill, in a House
of 482 members, was hailed with protracted cheering from the
Opposition. By an odd coincidence, Gladstone, of whom it has not been a
complaint that he lacked animation when addressing the House,
was singularly lifeless and dull. Probably the aspect of the
House had something to do with his humour, and it must be ad
mitted that an audience of some forty members, with Sir John
Holker as sole representative of a great Ministry, is not a
spectacle calculated to rouse a man to the passion of eloquence.
Gladstone might have waited for three or four hours, as Bright
did, and he would then have found the inspiration of, a
crowded House. But he had an engagement elsewhere, and
ha'ving also a speech, he delivered the latter in conversational
fashion, holding his walking-stick in his hand by way of
protest against the supposition that he was making a speech,
and wearing one of those curiously old and ill-fitting gloves
he affects.

76 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. ms.
Apr. 22. - Mr. The first Order of the day was for going into
Biggar's four Committee on the Peace Preservation (Ireland)
hours speech. ^ . '
Bill, a proposal which Biggar met by a hostile
amendment. Having fortified himself with a large collection
of papers and blue books, he began to speak at five o'clock,
and by eight had talked out of the House every member save
eight, two of whom were fast asleep. The purport of his speech
was very difficult to make out, his remarks being broken up by
the reading of long extracts from notes of evidence taken in
various places on divers subjects. One pleasant little interlude
was afforded by his reading through from preamble to schedule a
long Act of Parliament.
A few minutes after eight the Speaker's attention was
called to the numbers present, and preparations were made for
a count. Considerable sensation was created by the spectacle
of Biggar hastily collecting his papers together, picking up
his glass of water, and fleeing towards the door. His progress
was arrested by Sir Joseph M'Kenna when he had got as far
as the Serjeant-at-Arms' chair, and an animated conversation
took place. Apparently Biggar was arguing that if he went
away it would reduce by one the chance of a House being made,
whilst Sir Joseph pointed out that if a House were made, and
Biggar was not in his place, tbe Speaker would call upon some
one else, and the conclusion of Biggar's remarks would thus be
lost. Whatever was the argument used, it prevailed over Biggar's
earlier impulse towards flight, and he returned, bringing his
sheaves of paper with him, and also the glass of water.
The great influx of members in response to the bell that sig
nalled the " count " showed that the Government had profited
by the experience of the night when the second reading of the
Peace Preservation Bill was moved, and were not again to he
caught napping. Between sixty and seventy members flocked
in, and it could be seen through the opened doors that the lobby
was thronged. The sitting was accordingly resumed, and Biggar,
refreshed by the few minutes of rest, returned to the reading of
the evidence. His voice, never very clear, had unmistakably
begun to fail him, and at a quarter to nine the Speaker, rising to
order, called his attention to the rule that required members
to address the chair, " and," he added, " the observations of the
hon. member have not reached me for some time past."

1875.1

DE. KENEALY. 77

" Well, sir, PU come across," replied Biggar, taking up his
glass of water, crossing the gangway, and walking up the empty
passage behind the front Opposition bench.
His voice, however, got weaker and weaker, and though
there remained unread at least twenty pages of the bulky blue-
book he held in his hand, he sat down at five minutes to nine
o'clock, ha-ving occupied the time of the House for four hours
less ten minutes.
At midnight O'Leary moved the adjournment of the debate,
a proposition Disraeli good-humouredly combated. O'Gorman
immediately followed the Premier, but though his interposition
was welcomed by a loud cheer, he contented himself with the
bare declaration of his intention to support the motion for the
adjournment. Hartington suggested that as the House had had
the patience to listen to Biggar for four hours, it might perhaps
be inclined to sit for some hours longer, to give Irish members
an opportunity of saying what they had at heart to say — a sug
gestion endorsed by general cheering. Butt supporting the
motion for the adjournment, the House divided, and the motion
was negatived by 345 votes against 63. On the announcement
of the figures, O'Gorman rose, and moved the adjournment of the
House. He took the opportunity of informing Parliament, and
acquainting the right hon. gentleman at the head of the Govern
ment, that if the liberties of his country were to be destroyed by
a despotic and insolent majority, " those liberties," he repeated
in a profound voice, " those liberties shall die hard."
Disraeli said after the tragic declaration they had just heard,
the House would probably not be in a position to continue
the debate, and accordingly, the Major having with some diffi
culty been induced to withdraw his motion for the adjournment
of the House, on the clear understanding that the adjournment
of the debate should be agreed to, the latter course was adopted,
it being twenty minutes past one in the morning.
Apr. 23.— Kenea- House crowded to-night to hear Kenealy move
Judges ^ ^'^^ ^ Royal Commission to inquire into the con
duct of the judges in the Tichborne case. He
began by explaining that he had moved for a Royal Commission
rather than a Select Committee because he had grave doubts of
the possibility of members of the House of Commons coming to

78 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [i875.
a fair decision, seeing that they were so hopelessly prejudiced.
Next he made it clear that he had not been moved to take the
prominent part he had assumed in tbe cause by any wonderful
admiration of his late client. During the course of the trial
he had made no secret of the fact that "the man" was no hero
to him. He had undertaken the office of advocate as a matter
of duty, and if he had declined it he would have been a traitor
to every principle of right and every principle of honour. He
did not intend to re-try the Tichborne case in the House of
Commons, nor did he intend to go into all the technicalities
of the law of the case. That, he added, amid loud laughter,
he would leave to any little pettifogging lawyer who might
follow him.
After this exordium he proceeded to dwell upon the popular
agitation which, he showed, commencing at the period when after
the trial in the Nisi Prius Court the Claimant went through
the country and was received as if he were an emperor or a
king, had risen like a mountain stream, and had now grown to
the dimensions of a mountain torrent that rolled over all the
land, and had, incidentally, placed the present Government in
power and banished Gladstone and his Ministry from the
Treasury Bench. After stating some grounds of alleged
resemblance between " the cases of Cochrane and Tichborne,"
he proceeded, notwithstanding his promise not to re-try the
case, to state " a few reasons " why he believed the Claimant
was Tichborne. There was some laughter when he slowly and
impressively stated as the first reason for his belief that " a more
perfect gentleman in manner than Tichborne never crossed the
drawing-room." But this was instantly repressed, and the
House listened with patience to the familiar story of Lady
Tichborne's recognition of " her son," and to a minute examina
tion of the Claimant's hair, at various stages of his progress
from Australia to Milbank. Encouraged by the laughter
which a personal hit at Lowe drew from members below the
gangway on the Ministerial side, he entered upon a bantering
attack upon the party amongst whom he stood, and gave them
some advice as to their future conduct, which fell rather flat.
The House slightly thinned during a wearisome review of
the Pittendreigh forgeries, and Sir John Coleridge's alleged
guilty knowledge of them. Attention was momentarily re-

1876.] DE, KENEALY. 79
aroused by the reading of a letter dated 14th November, 1873,
which, he said, the Claimant had personally addressed to Glad
stone, then Prime Minister, protesting against the appointment
of Coleridge to the Lord Chief Justiceship. " That letter," he
gravely added amid suppressed laughter, " failed to produce any
effect, and Coleridge was appointed to the vacant judgeship."
A reference to a statement alleged to have been made by S.
Morley brought up that member with the emphatic declaration
that it was " perfectly untrue." The Speaker pointed out that
it would be open to Morley to make any statement he pleased
when Kenealy had finished. Kenealy, who in the excitement of
the moment had got out on to the gangway and was re-called
by cries of " Order ! " quietly observed that whether it was
true or false was a matter for the hon. member to settle with
his constituents. At twenty minutes past six Kenealy, summing up some of
the reasons why the Royal Commission he asked for should be
granted, gave the general impression that he had reached the
close of his address, an impression confirmed by his turning
round and arranging his papers as if about to resume his seat.
But it tumed out that he was only about to approach what he
called the second part of his case, namely, tbe conduct of the
judges at the trial at bar. He dwelt upon this at some length,
alleging a long series of instances of the hostile feeling of the
presiding judge towards his client, and characterising his charge
to the jury as "the most one-sided summing up he had ever
heard." At twenty minutes to eight he concluded his address
without any attempt at peroration, having spoken for' three
hours less five minutes before a perfectly silent and attentive
audience. Whalley seconded the motion for a Royal Commission,
and the question being put, the Attorney- General rose to
reply. Morley, however, claimed precedence on a personal
question, and this being conceded, he repeated with circum
stance his emphatic denial of Kenealy's statement that he
(Morley) had told some of his constituents at Bristol that Sir
John Coleridge did not believe that the Claimant was Arthur
Orton. Another of the statements relied upon by the Prittlewell
and other petitioners was disposed of by Milbank, who intro
duced some warmth into the proceedings by his protest against

80 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [i876.
the manner in which Kenealy had made use of Mrs. Milbank's
name to support the charge against the Lord Chief Justice; A
letter read from Lord Rivers to Kenealy on this subject indicated
that there was a split in the Tichborne camp — at least. Lord
Rivers intimated that he could not reconcile Kenealy's conduct
in this matter with his notions of a man of honour and a
gentleman. The Attorney-General replied with comparative brevity,
declaring that Kenealy had shown no grounds for the grant
ing of the Royal Commission for which he moved. Whalley
made a long and discursive speech. Henry James rose from
the front Opposition bench, and delivered an elaborate reply
against the case presented by Kenealy. He construed the
meaning of the resolution as being that the House of Com
mons were invited as a grand jury to return a true bill against
the judges, a result which he ventured to characterise as an
attack upon the institution of trial by jury. The House of
Commons, he argued, had no jurisdiction in the matter, and he
challenged Kenealy to cite a single precedent of such a resolution
as he had submitted.
Just on the stroke of eleven o'clock Disraeli began in a some
what stiff and laboured manner to criticise the speech of the
member for Stoke. But as he proceeded he warmed to the
subject, and in his most animated and effective manner ridiculed
the sort of evidence and argument which Kenealy had brought
forward in support of his charge against the judges. After
passing a high eulogium on the character and ability of the Lord
Chief" Justice, he urged that, in considering his lordship's conduct
off the bench, it was necessary to take into account his idiosyn
crasies. He was a genial and social man, who did not enter a
saloon with Rhadamantine gravity. And he asked, amid loud
cheers, were the casual conversations of such a man to be made
the foundation for the gravest charges brought forward in one
of the gravest assemblies in the world ? He humorously described
the Lord Chief Justice's endeavours to fence Mrs. Milbank's
questions about Lord Rivers's friends, and his final failure. He
recited the laughing answer — "Tell Lord Rivers, with my compli
ments, that he will have to accompany his friend into penal ser
vitude" — and then, dropping his voice to its profoundest depth,
and stretching out his hands, he cried in scornful tones —

1876.] DB. KENEALY. 81
" For this all England is agitated, for this we are dancing
upon a volcano, for this the morrow is big with fate, and,
perhaps this House may never assemble again."
Bright, who followed, avowedly devoted himseK to the task
of addressing the crowd outside, who were accustomed to hear the
merits of the Tichborne trial discussed only by Kenealy and his
friends, and, like Disraeli, he was loudly cheered on resuming
his seat. After some remarks in reply from Kenealy, the division
was called at twenty minutes past twelve. The first time the
question was put from the chair Kenealy alone cried " Aye ! "
On ¦the question being repeated, he was silent, and there appeared
a prospect of the resolutions being negatived without a di-vision.
But Whalley came up with the reserves, and persistently calling
out " Aye ! " the House was cleared for a division.
During the interval, and before the question was put again,
Whalley and the member for Stoke held a brief conference, the
result of which was shown by their both calling out " Aye "
when the question was finally put. The House accordingly
divided, and whilst all the crowd thronged into the " No "
lobby, considerable anxiety was displayed as to who might go
with the " Ayes." A group of members assembled at the head
of the lobby, and presently a ringing cheer was heard. A few
seconds later, the burly figure of Major O'Gorman hove in
sight, the hon. and gallant gentleman cheerily waving his hat
in response to the applause and laughter.
This was the only support Kenealy received, and when Mr.
Winn, with commendable grammatical accuracy, announced
that " the Aye to the right is one, the Noes to the left are 433,"
the result was greeted with loud laughter, in which the Major,
Kenealy, and everybody else heartily joined.
Apr. 26. — The O'Gorman resumed , the debate on the motion to
Major on _q Jjj^q Committee on the Peace Preservation
threatening o
letters. (Ireland) Act. The Major was loudly cheered
on presenting himself, but he was, particularly
at the outset, scarcely so completely master of the House as he
is when, according to his custom, he speaks nearer the mellower
hours of midnight. As he proceeded, however, he warmed to
his theme, and made a great point by the recital of an anecdote
about " a singularly beautiful girl," who wanted her father to
G

82 A DIABY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [1875.
leave his country house in Westmeath and ga and live in
Dublin. The father, who was fond of field sports, declined to
move to the town, and after for some time persisting in his
resolve, he began to receive threatening letters, purporting to
come from the Ribbonmen. Still he would not go ; and finally
he received a letter "delineating his coffin." Then he got
frightened, went off to Dublin, and permanently took up his
residence there. In a short time the daughter married, and
after the breakfast— for, as the Major added parenthetically,
"of course there was a breakfast" — tbe girl threw her arms
round her father's neck, and confessed that it was she who
had written all those letters, and had " delineated her father's
coffin." From this story the Major argued that threatening letters
were myths in Ireland, and he put it to Disraeli, as "the fore
most man in the world," whether he would not refuse to take
over a legacy like this " from those blockheaded Whigs." The
Major did not leave any ambiguity as to whom he might mean
by this phrase, which gained considerable effect from being
delivered in a thunderous voice, for he pointed straight down
at the front Opposition bench, The season was at hand for
slaughtering the innocents.
" Let the right hon. gentleman, I beseech him, begin by
slaughtering this guilty Bill, The altar is before him, let him
immolate this Bifl." With which remark the Major, coming
abruptly to a conclusion, resumed his seat.
Apr. 27,— Biggar The aftemoou questions over, the Speaker was
ge?a.-' ^^''^'" ^'^°^^ *° call on the first motion, that of Chaplin,
with respect to horses, when Biggar, who had
made several attempts to catch the right hon. gentleman's eye,
finally succeeded, and created a profound sensation by observing
that he " believed there were strangers in the House." This
action, utterly unpresaged by notice, and absolutely unexpected,
was received in dismayed silence. After a few seconds' pause
the Speaker rose, and said —
" Do I understand that the hon. member for Cavan per
sists in his intention of noticing strangers ? "
" If you please, Mr. Speaker," Teplied Mr. Biggar, and the
House, recovering its voice, broke forth in a loud and prolonged

1876.] DR. KENEALY. 83
groan, amid which the sound, perhaps unprecedented in the
House of Commons, of hissing was heard from some members
below the gangway on the Ministerial side.
" In that case," rejoined the Speaker, " I have no option
but to order that strangers should withdraw."
The galleries over the clock happened to be specially crowded.
In the Peers' Gallery were the Prince of Wales, the Earl of
Shrewsbury and Talbot, Lord Lucan, Lord Grey de Wilton, and
other peers, attracted by the debate on Chaplin's motion. The
German ambassador occupied a seat over the clock. The Prince,
the peers, and the ambassador, of course, came under the
common term of " strangers," and met the common fate. The
only persons other than members allowed to remain in the
House were the ladies in the cage over the press gallery.
As soon as the last stranger had disappeared, and all the
doors were locked, Disraeli approached the table, and was
received with a loud outburst of cheering. The Premier, who
did not attempt to disguise the strong feeling under which he
laboured, said with much vehemence that there might be occa
sions when it was for the good of the public service that the
rule which prohibited the presence of strangers at their debates
should be put in force. But he very strongly reprobated that
rule being exercised simply to gratify the caprice of a single
member. The House of Commons was, possibly with the
fewest exceptions, an assemblage of gentlemen, and he trusted
that whatever political changes might take place it would so
remain. He did not hesitate to say that the course taken by
the member for Cavan was discreditable. Fortunately the rules
of the House left in his hands a means of combating such a
capricious action, and he should avail himself of them by
moving that the order which required strangers to withdraw
during the debate should be suspended for to-night.
This proposal was greeted with loud cheers, renewed when
Hartington seconded the motion, observing that he could not see
upon what grounds or upon what pretext Biggar had taken the
action. Newdegate, whose Monastic and Conventual Bill stood
first on the orders, said he was one of the Select Committee ap
pointed several sessions ago to inquire into the working of this
rule, and had voted for its retention. He now appeared much
shaken in his con-viction of its desirability, and solemnly asked
o 2

84 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [ws.
Biggar " why he had put it in action." Thus adjured, Biggar
rose, and in a hurried, scarcely coherent manner, explained that
the course he had taken was simply and purely in " the interests
of the Press." Sullivan had given notice of his intention to
" see strangers," but he had withdrawn it at the instance of
Hartington. Dillwyn had now withdrawn the motion of which
he had given notice, and so Biggar had stepped into the breach.
He now, amid loud groans and other vocal signs of dissent and
disapprobation, in shrill tones declared that he would " do it
every night." Dillwyn explained that he had not withdrawn
his amendment, but had simply postponed it for a moment,
" and," he added, " unless the House in the meantime comes to
some satisfactory conclusion, I shall certainly bring it on."
Dodson suggested that as Biggar had declared his intention
of pursuing a similar course on each succeeding evening, it
might be well to extend the terms of the resolution before the
House by adding the words " until further notice." Bryan,
rising from the ranks of the Home Rule party, indignantly, and
amid renewed cheering, repudiated any connection with Biggar
in this matter.
" I think," said Bryan in a loud voice, " that a man should
be a gentleman first and a patriot after," a sentiment which
drew forth a fresh burst of cheering.
Bowyer and Brooks having also washed their hands of any
connection witb Biggar, Ronayne said he thought there had
been repudiation enough, and he, for one, would stand by
Biggar. Fay also, though in a less emphatic manner, defended
his colleague, laying stress on the circumstance that Biggar
had not, when he moved, been aware of the presence of "an
exalted personage " amongst the strangers. Lowe took the
opportunity of announcing on the part of Hartington that he
was quite prepared to carry out his pledge to bring forward a
resolution dealing with the matter, and was even now engaged in
considering the terms of it.
The motion to suspend the rule excluding strangers from
the debate was then put from the chair, aud was met with a lond
and general shout of " Aye ! " Biggar did not oppose it, and it
was declared carried. The Speaker ordered the doors to be thrown
open, and the members of the Press and other " strangers " re
turned, amongst the first to enter being the Prince of Wales, who

1875.] DR. KENEALY. 85
had surveyed the scene from the doorway under the gallery.
Prince Christian had arrived in the meantime, and now took his
seat -with the rest in the Peers' gallery. Chaplin at once pro
ceeded with his motion, by which he desired to direct the atten
tion of the Government to the national importance of taking such
steps as might be desirable to prevent the deterioration of " the
stock of horses which remains." At the outset he observed that
a more uncalled for, a more unwarranted, a more offensive mode
of interrupting business than that from which they had just
suffered he did not remember.
" The hon. member for Cavan," he added amid cheers,
"appears to forget that he is now admitted to the society of
gentlemen " — a rebuke at which Biggar audibly chuckled.
May 3.— On an- Disraeli has recently rather conspicuously bent
swenng ques- j^^g energies in the direction of pointedly an
swering questions put to him from all quarters
of the House, and his rising has come to be looked forward to
with intense interest by a body of gentlemen of whom it might
sometimes be thought that their dearest wish in life was to be
amused. His answer the other night to a question put to him
about the relations between Germany and Belgium was very
good, except that the joke was manufactured on exactly the same
lines as were used for the one with which he turned aside a ques
tion put a week earlier on the relations between Belgium and
Germany. In cases like these the Premier begins by gravely
repeating the terms of the question. Next he proceeds to criticise
their construction, and to hint that they are not so precise as the
magnitude of the interests discussed requires. Having thus
given importance to the question by a display of anxiety that
there should be no misunderstanding as to its bearings, he in his
most solemn manner heaps together in a sonorous sentence all
the biggest words that occur to him in connection with the sub
ject ; and having by these tricks led the House up to a pitch of
expectation that an important declaration is about to be made, he
suddenly drops his voice, quickens his utterance, and attains an
absurd anti-climax by the enunciation of some rounded period sig
nifying nothing.
! Ward Hunt rather affects Lowe's mannerism in answering
I questions j but, owing to difference in mental calibre, where Lowe

86 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [i875.
was snappish and witty. Ward Hunt is only snappish and rude.
Sclater-Booth, when answering a question, suggests the image
of a fountain discharging a stream of water. He always stands
in exactly the same position, with a piece of paper in his right
hand, his body erect, head slightly thrown back, face absolutely
expressionless, and fiow of words copious and fluent. Gathorne
Hardy replies seriously, and very often with . point. John
Manners takes an exceedingly plain, not to say feeble, view
of matters brought under his notice, and does not always succeed
in impressing the House witb the conviction that he knows
something about them.
But the most delightful answerer of questions, as far as
manner is concerned, is the First Commissioner of Works.
Lord Henry Lennox finds his seat at the obscurer end of the
Treasury bench, and when the bench is crowded, as it naturaUy
is at question time, he has quite a long and difficult journey to
accomplish before be emerges into full view at the table. He
comes up -with a refreshing briskness, skirting the ponderous
person of the First Lord of the Admiralty with a little skip that
is not the only thing to remind one of Lord Dundreary, and
gracefully laying his hat on the table, begins his reply always in
exactly the same terms, which are too evidently modelled upon
the form of correspondence prepared for use in Government
offices. "Mr. Speaker, sir : in reply to the question of my hon.
friend tbe member for Mid London, I have to state that — "
It is a peculiarity which Henry Lennox shares with perhaps
five other men in the House, that he can refer to members sitting
in all parts of the House as his hon. or right hon. friend. Such a
pleasant circumstance is the natural result of an invariably frank
and courteous manner of speech. The First Commissioner of
Works not only makes himself thoroughly master of the matters
which are from time to time brought under his notice at the
question hour, but he succeeds in conveying his official views and
intentions thereon in a modest, clear, intelligent, and courteous
way.

CHAPTER VII.
STORMS BREWING.
Parliament and the Press — The Major as Aristides — Gladstone roused — McCarthy
Do-wning rebuked — Don Quixote, M.P. — The Major tries to "make a
House " — Sir Charles Adderley and the Merchant Shipping Bill — Total
Collapse — Disraeli's Decline — La-wyers in Parliament — A County Member —
Parliamentary Jesters.
May 4.— Parlia- Early in the Session Charles Lewis, who came
PrTss.*'"^*''^ in with the new Pariiament for Londonderry,
achieved much personal notoriety by bringing the
printers of the Ti-mes and the Daily News to the bar of the
House, on a charge of breach of privilege in connection with
reporting the proceedings of the Select Committee on Foreign
Loans. After some insignificant proceedings the printers were
begged to go away, and the incident dropped. But it raised the
burning question of the relations of the Press and Parliament,
and led to a series of lamentable scenes, of which Biggar's esca
pade the other night is a sample. To-night Hartington brought
forward a series of resolutions designed to set the relations of the
Parliament towards the Press upon a more modern common-sense
footing than they were left by the still unrepealed standing
order which makes it a breach of privilege to report the pro
ceedings of the House. In the course of an erudite speech
Hartington observed that by keeping on their books a rule
whieh ignored the presence of an agency to which members and
the public were alike greatly indebted, they were placing them
selves in a false position. The resolution he submitted formed
rather a rule for the guidance of the House than an alteration of
the law which related to the relations of Parliament and the
Press. Mitchell Henry was able to speak in the most hopeful
manner of the possibility of Biggar's ultimately " conforming
himself to the atmosphere of the House," and hoped that the House
would not lay too much stress upon what had lately taken place,
and would refrain from "legislating in a panic." Amid many
evidences of impatience, he sketched a plan of reform in the

88 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [i875.
reporting of the debates, the main feature of which was that
there was to be an official reporter who, sitting iu the House
all night, was, single-handed, to take a verbatim report of the
debates, which report was to be published in extenso at the ex
pense of the nation, and, Henry said, the newspapers would
compile from this volume such report as they desired to give !
An amusing scene occurred towards the close of his remarks.
" I have shown clearly," he said, whereupon a loud shout of
" No," burst forth. " I have shown clearly," he repeated, and
again the merry shout of " No, no," responded. He gallantly stuck
at it for some minutes ; but in the end numbers prevailed, and
before he was allowed to proceed he was fain to modify his state
ment, and put it that he had " endeavoured " to show clearly.
Disraeli said when he had been asked by Sullivan to take
up this matter he had declined, because he had not felt qualified
to deal with a subject which had baffled persons more competent
than himself to grapple with it. What Mitchell Henry and
Newdegate wanted was, he said, amid prolonged laughter,
"a Speech Preservation Act." He was not prepared to sup
port the proposal, and as far as the general question raised
by Hartington's motion was concerned, he was of the opinion
that after all the difficulty was not so real, and that when
it did arise, the House had within its grasp a sufficient
means for its prompt and ready removal. Lowe caustically
illustrated the beneflts of the system which the Premier
had lauded by citing the recent case of breach of privilege,
in which, he said, the representatives of two journals had
been dragged to the bar of the House by a process unknown
elsewhere in the country, whilst it was acknowledged on all
hands that they were innocent of fault.
Lowe, who had been loudly cheered by the Opposition
throughout his speech, was followed by Gathorne Hardy. But
before he had completed his opening sentence Sullivan rose, and
with a sweep of his hand towards the Press Gallery said —
" Mr. Speaker, I espy strangers over your chair ! "
Loud and repeated cheering from the Opposition followed
this movement, the applause being renewed again and again
when the Speaker, observing that he " had no alternative but to
order strangers to withdraw," gave the necessary directions.
This was at twenty minutes past twelve, and the House re-

1875.] STOEMS BEEWING. 89
mained with closed doors for upwards of an hour. In the interim
Hartington justifled the course Sullivan had taken, while
Gathorne Hardy attempted to smooth over the difficulty by
moving the adjournment of the debate.
The Premier had said the difficulty was not real, and when
it did arise the House could promptly deal with it. And here,
peremptorily closing the mouth of a Cabinet Minister and up
setting the whole arrangement of the House, was a single mem
ber demanding that the galleries should be cleared. No swifter
or more crushing reply was ever given to an empty argument,
nor has Pariiament ever witnessed a speech answered with such
dramatic effect.
May s. — The All afternoon on the Irish Sunday Closing
tidls™"^^^" Bill. The Major, who, speaking early in the
afternoon, had not the crowded audience which
usually hangs upon his utterances in the House, was very
emphatic in his opposition to what he called " a puny Bill, a half-
and-half measure." That in assuming this decided position he
was not free from personal risk he did not hesitate to declare to
the House. There were, he said, persons who " called themselves "
his constituents, who had not hesitated to threaten him with
their opposition when he presented himself for re-election.
" Let it be so," added the Major, with simple dignity. "The
Athenians ostracised Aristides. I am ready to be ostracised by
my countrymen for a similar reason."
May 7. — Glad- Gladstone's retirement from the leadership of the
s one rouse . Liberal party is much such another -withdrawal
from the conduct of affairs as the captain of a ship effects when
he tums in for the night. The first mate is left in charge of the
ship, but on the slightest emergency the captain is to be called.
To-night Gladstone was called out on the Budget resolutions, and
came up fresher and more vigorous than he often was in the
more recent days of his nominal command. In the many per
sonal encounters which have passed between himself and Disraeli,
it has, in eight cases out of ten, been the latter who was the
aggressor. Gladstone is very rarely given to personal attacks in
Parliament; most of the passages that will be best remembered
in Disraeli's history are personal hits at his adversaries or his

90 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1876
political friends — ^it has not always mattered which, as the
Marquis of SaUsbury could testify. To-night Gladstone, perhaps
unusually moved by the Premier's untold iniquity in proposing a
morning sitting for the discussion of a financial measure, was
very lively in his thrusts at "the right hon. gentleman the
member for Buckinghamshire," as, with a marked avoidance of
the ordinary mode of referring in debate to the Prime Minister,
he persistently called him.
All the while he was speaking Disraeli sat furtively glancing
at his ancient rival, who after a delusive abdication had come
back again to the very steps of the throne, and conclusively
showed to-night that, notwithstanding the leasing of his town
residence and the sale of his china, it would not be safe to reckon
without him. f
Mayio.— McCar- On the termination of the labours of the Com-
rebuked."^"'"^ mittee on the Peace Preservation Bill, McCarthy
Downing expressed his acknowledgments of the
courtesy with which the debate had been conducted by the
Government. It seems that since then Biggar and O'Gorman,
moved by a common impulse, have written asking by what
authority he made such a statement on the part of the Irish
members without consulting them. Downing now proposed to
read his reply to O'Gorman, whereupon the Major, "rising to
order," demanded that his letter should be read too. This done.
Downing read his rejDly, the point of which was that he had made
the acknowledgment not for all the Irish members, but for some.
of them. Hereupon the Major rose again, and requested
Downing " to read his answer to tAat letter." An indefinite vista
of letters and rejoinders thus opening up, a protest was success
fully raised.
Then Biggar, prefacing his rising by calling out, "A
personal statement, if you please, Mr. Speaker," proceeded
when on his feet to observe that " in justice to the House and
himself," his letter to Downing should be read " vevbattim."
The strong emphasis laid upon the second syllable of the word
thus spelled gave rise to a burst of laughter, which lasted some
time. The Speaker, interposing, ruled that Biggar had already
exceeded the limit of debate, and, after some words from
Ronayne, who incidentally likened McCarthy Downing to a

1875.] STOEMS BEEWING. - 91
convict at the gallows and her Majesty's Ministers to Calcraft,
the matter dropped.
May 28. — Don If Whalley had lived three hundred years ago, he
Quixote, . . jnigti-t bave realised the fancy of Cervantes, and
ridden forth with helmet on head and lance in hand, a flesh-and-
blood Don Quixote. He is quite as addle-pated as the immortal
knight of La Maneha, and is scarcely less simple-hearted, less
chivalrous, or less valorous. In an age when all mankind is
striving for place or power or gold or fine feathers, Whalley is a
person who should be cherished and dealt tenderly with. All his
life he has been fighting windmills, bruising himself against the
stone walls of the mill, and being battered by the sails, simply
because where other men saw windmills he beheld "monstrous
giants," and held with Don Quixote that he would be " doing
God good service to remove so wicked a generation off the face of
the earth." It has been in vain that the Sancho Panzas of the
world have insisted that the giants were only windmills.
Whalley has steadfastly answered, "If thou art afraid, get thee
aside and pray, whilst I engage with them in fierce and unequal
combat." Up to within recent years it was the priests who were his
monstrous giants, and night and day he fought against them,
coming up smiling time after time when he had been knocked
over by the long arms of ridicule and contempt. He had his
mission committed to him, and he performed it; and though
we may smile at his lack of sense, let us do honour to his
courage and self-devotion. A fresh evil spirit has entered into
him now, and his last state threatens to be sevenfold worse
than his first. Twice he was up to-night ; once with a long
speech, in which, patiently facing the storm of laughter and
contumely that greeted his rising, he once more pleaded the
cause of " the unhappy man now in Dartmoor Prison."
I have never felt inclined to laugh at Whalley, being sad
rather, and the sentiment is deepened when I see this preux
chevalier made the tool of so contemptible and gross a creature
as Kenealy. Whilst the " member for Stoke " is away in the
provinces, filling his pockets with the coppers of the working
classes, poor Whalley is pulling the chestnuts out of the fire for
him at Westminster. It is a saddening spectacle; and the

92 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1875.
growing signs of the coming end are welcome. Born out of due
season, Whalley may not be a Don Quixote, and so has degenerated
into a Mr. Dick. Do not his best friends thihk the time has come
when he should be handed over to the care of Betsy Trotwood ?
June 17. - The At least a wcck before the adjournment for the
Major tries Whitsuntide recess the figure of Major O'Gorman
to make a ° ...
House." faded from the House. He had been toiling ter
ribly during the debates on the Coercion Act,
walking in and out for the momentary di-visions with all the
tireless vigour of an elephant in its native jungle, and it was not
strange that he should forestall the holidays. To-night he has
come back, and the House smiles again. It was a little after
eleven o'clock, and Kenealy was on his feet, with a large sheaf
of notes, and the plainly expressed determination to make a long
speech on introducing a Bill for triennial Parliaments. The
House, having endured on Friday an oration from this truculent
and empty adventurer, was not able to stand another day ; and
so with one accord the large majority walked out, leaving a
score of gentlemen on the benches. It being yet early, there was
a large attendance of members, and they lingered in the lobby to
watch the issue of the pending count. Quite a throng of men were
standing at the door, laughing and chatting, and straining their
necks to look into the House without catching the Speaker's eye.
A count was called, the bells carrying the news to the utter
most nooks of the building. Suddenly the fioor of the lobby
vibrated to a well-known tread, the doors of the corridor leading
from the dining-room were thrown back, and forth came the
Major, panting and puffing and glowing with the consciousness
of a great purpose.
Charging among the crowd that stood in the doorway, the
Major scattered them right and left as if they were ninepins. In
vain they tried to bar the way, and laughingly urged him to stay
with them. His brow was stern, his eye beneath flashed like a
falchion from its sheath, and answering nothing, he pressed for
ward, and strode into the House, followed by a ringing cheer
from the lobby. It was a forced march, a dauntless charge, and
a plucky dash for rescue. But it availed nothing. Kenealy was
counted out, and not caring to face the jovial throng in the lobby,
gathered up his papers, and slunk away behind the Speaker's

1875.] STOEMS BEEWING. 93
chair, leaving the air purer, and giving the Major an opportunity
of instantly serving out refreshment to the rescue party.
June 18. — Sir " Sir Charlcs Adderley is a dull man," Bright
ley'^and the ^^''^ Said, and Words were rarely better mated.
Merchantship- Sir Charles would have made an admirable
^™^ ' ¦ country gentleman with an intelligent steward
to manage his farms and sell his hay. He is kind of heart, up
right in character, excellent in intention, and assiduous in busi
ness. But he is always a day behind the world. He is the sort
of man who, if a joke were made contemporaneously with the
entrance of the soup, would, having in the meanwhile brooded
over it, startle the company by a burst of laughter as the fish
was being removed. If the world would only stand still for
twenty-four hours, and so give him an opportunity of starting
fair -with it, he might get along pretty well, at least for a week
or two. But as the solar system at present works Sir Charles
plods heavily behind, just intelligent enough to be troubled with
the consciousness that there is something going on that he
cannot quite comprehend, yet not able to grasp it fully. It is
pitiable to see him sitting on the Treasury bench to-night.
It is- nearly midnight, and after struggling for five hours with
the shipowners, he has retired from the fight, and is sitting
there with do-wncast head, pulling at his moustache and biting
his forefinger. Even the Major, greatly as he has dined, has
seen, as through a mist, how feebly and helplessly the President
of the Board of Trade flounders in the meshes of his own Bill.
" Mos' 'xtror'nary ! " the Major thundered forth just now
— "mos' ¦'xtror'nary, sir! Right hon'able genelman quite in
capable expressin' 'self ! " They hung on to the Major's coat-
tails ; they prodded him in the side as if he were a prize bullock
on show j they whispered in his ear ; they cried " Order ! " in
an angry tone not often used towards the general favourite;
and they invoked the authority of the Chairman, by which
combination of influence he was at length induced to forsake
the war-path on to which he had suddenly and fiercely leaped.
But it was felt that he had stumbled on the truth, that the
President of the Board of Trade had quite lost his head, and
was for the moment mentally as helpless as Joe Willett when
he sat bound in a chair amid the ruins of the Maypole bar.

94 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [i876..
This collapse of the Merchant Shipping Act Amendment
Bill makes Sir Charles's case hopeless. Not much is expected
from a dull man, and if these difficulties had come upon him
suddenly and without notice his utter failure might have been
overlooked. But for many weeks past he has been doggedly
labouring at this Bill. He has been in daily consultation with
the shipowners, and even embarked on a tour of inspection
through the principal seaports, seeing the ships and the water
for himself. It may be that he has attempted too much, and
that, like a weak youth who has " crammed " for his examina
tion, his mind has given way under the strain just when his
special knowledge came to be tested. However it be, there is
no question that Sir Charles Adderley is at this moment in a
state of coma, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who has
no more to do with the Merchant Shipping Acts than has the
Postmaster-General, has taken the direction of the debate out
of his hands, and is trying to make the best of the hopeless
muddle into which it has slidden.
June 19. — Total Worse and worsc. At the morning sitting to-day
CO apse. p^Q^ gj^^ Charles Adderley came down refreshed by
a night's sleep, and cheery with the conviction that he had at
last seen his way through the difficulty about those pestering
advance-notes. Several shipowners had placed amendments
upon the paper. Finally it was resolved to accept the amend
ment standing in the name of Bates, not because it was
better than others, but because Bates is a supporter of the
Government who showed a dangerous amount of restiveness
last night, and whom it might be well to mollify. Accordingly
Sir Charles, full of this great scheme of pacification, having
carefully scanned the amendment through his eyeglass and
gathered some notion of what it meant, submitted it to the
Committee. Alas ! the Committee would have nothing to do -with it.
Once more the storm of obloquy rattled around the head of the
hapless President of the Board of Trade, and the cry for the
withdrawal of the clause rising from the Opposition benches was
echoed on the Ministerial side. To give way further appeared
too much even for the present Government, and Northcote,
coming to the aid of his colleague, who had dropped his eyeglass

1875.] STOEMS BEEWING. 95
and hopelessly collapsed, declared that the clause must in its
amended form stand part of the Bill.
The decks were being cleared for action, amid the jubilation
of the Liberals and the grim silence of the Ministerialists, at
least a score of whom were committed to opposition. It was
quite possible that the Government would be defeated, and
absolutely certain that their majority would be dangerously
small. Whilst the talk was carried forward. Hart Dyke went
up to the Treasury bench and held a whispered consultation
-with his chief, who had entered the House just before the
Chancellor of the Exchequer interposed. What the Whip
said will remain a secret, but its effect was seen when, a
few minutes later, the Premier, rising and pulling himself to
gether with a shrug of the shoulders, made one of the most
audacious speeches I ever heard, even from him. He threw
over Adderley and the Chancellor of tbe Exchequer, and gave
up the clause over which there had been all the fighting
of last night and to-day, at the same time endeavouring to
impress his audience with the conviction that if such a step
were a matter of satisfaction to them, to him it was the
realisation of a wish he had secretly cherished ever since he had
seen the Bill in print.
So the division was averted, and once more Sir Charles
brought out his eyeglass and anxiously wandered over the bulky
volume of the amendments to see what those terrible ship
owners were up to next. He found out soon enough, and in
spite of concessions made with both hands, when at seven
o'clock the sitting was suspended, collapse had set in again
with increased severity.
June 24. — Dis- Disraeli has never been the same man since that
raeUs dechne. fatal frenzied moment when, stirred by his old
hatred for Lowe, he suddenly seized the clumsy and inadequate
weapon Lewis extended to him in the matter of the proceedings
against the printers of the Times and Daily News, and dealt a
wild blow at the meek white head on the other side of the table.
Up to that very night business was progressing in Parliament
with a- happy ease and regularity that presaged a fruitful session.
Since that very night everything has gone wrong, and Disraeli,
of whom erewhile it was truly said that he touched no difficulty

96 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1876.
without smoothing it away, now touches no question, however
simple, without turning it into a difficulty.
The difference in the aspect of the House last session is the
more marked by reason of tbe sudden contrast. Disraeli then held
not only the majority but the minority in hand. This skilful
ready management was not less conspicuous in the early part of
this session. He did much as he would with tbe House, getting it
to work as long as he pleased, to leave things undone if he
thought it advisable, to smile when he was gay, and to shudder
at a shadow when he was solemn. Then came the blind Fury
against innocuous Lowe, and with abhorred shears it slit the
thin-spun thread by which the Premier held in leash the many-
minded assembly. Never since that night has Disraeli been
himself again as manager of the tlouse of Commons. He has,
in truth, gone from bad to worse, floundering in the mud of
his own act, and when he might have risen he has been held
down by the frantic struggling of Adderley and the rest.
To-night he was in a condition almost unrecognisable. A
week or two ago he announced with some pomp that he would
himself introduce the Agricultural Holdings Bill, and as he is
not given to making speeches unnecessarily, expectation was
naturally highly wrought. But, unhappily, before he might
commence his speech to-night he had to go through the
humiliating ordeal of confessing that he had blundered, and
was fain formally to withdraw a resolution affecting the manage
ment of the House, which it is only fair to suppose had not
been placed on tbe paper without due consideration and an
absolute certainty of its acceptance. Perhaps this upset him,
and spoiled the great speech that was to be. Certainly the
attempt was a lamentable failure, and the House observed -with
sorrow the feeble grasp, the wandering vision, the uncertain
utterance, the infelicitous illustration, and the irrelevant argu
ment of its former master. Disraeli felt it too, as, broken in
spirit and wearied in body, he sat down amid the cheerless
silence of the inattentive House.
July!.— La-wyers How is it that the available talent whence a
in Parhament. ^^^^^ Minister may select the Law Officers of
the Crown is, as proved by the result, so exceedingly poor and
unsatisfactory? The number of lawyers in the House of

1875.] STOEMS BEEWING. 97
Commons is larger compared with that of any other special
profession represented, whilst the official prizes held out to
clever men are of the highest and most substantial character.
The course of promotion, too, is regular and rapid. A man
may hang about an under-Secretaryship of State for years
and look no higher than finally to be Secretary, a promotion to
whieh he has no prescriptive right, and may only hope to earn.
With the barrister who, being in the House of Commons,
steadily fixes his eyes on the Solicitor-Generalship, the ease is
dififerent. Once made Solicitor-General, whilst the immediate
professional advantages are soothingly solid, the Lord Chancel
lorship is a plum which no one can say hangs above his reach.
Take the case of Coleridge. Ten years ago the height of
his professional distinction was limited by the Recordership
of Falmouth. In 1865 Exeter gave him a seat in Parliament.
In the last month of 1868, little more than six years ago, he
was made Solicitor-General, and for nearly two years has been
Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. And yet no one,
except perhaps the Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas,
would say that Coleridge is a man of extraordinary parlia
mentary ability, or that his success as a Minister of the Crown
was even an average one. He was, to tell the truth, a most mal
adroit man in office, and did a good deal, in a way that will be
recognised when the history of the Administration comes to be
written, to hasten the discomfiture of Gladstone's Government.
What happened as an immediate consequence of Coleridge's
being provided for on the bench illustrates still more forcibly
the breathless speed with which fortune carries onward a
barrister who once gets his foot in the stirrup. Henry James is
a mature young man of a certain degree of fluency and smart
ness, who, more successful than that other mature young man
Huddlestone, found a seat at the general election of 1868. Up
to that period he was absolutely unknown out of the Oxford
Circuit, where he was recognised as a rising youth whose genius
had been fitly, not to say lavishly, rewarded by promotion to
the office of Postman in the Court of Exchequer. The first
fruit of his political success at Taunton was gathered when, in
the very year he took his seat in Gladstone's Parliament, he
was made a Q.C. James of course selected a seat below the
gangway, whence he occasionally delivered fairly pointed spieeches

98 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. ims.
of no particular breadth or depth. Once he made a great hit
by bearding Gladstone and causing him to lose his temper.
After that his promotion was rapid, and the same year that saw
him nominated Solicitor-; General hailed him Attorney-General.
At the rate of progress obtained he might have been made a
judge before Parliament met; but happily Gladstone resigned,
and James enjoys the strange distinction of having gone
into the recess in August with one Parliament a private
member, and reappearing in March, with another, an ex-
Attorney-General who had been promoted in due course from
the Solicitor-Generalship.
On the other side of the House it is no better. Baggallay is
Attorney-General by right of promotion, and no one likes to say
anything unkind of so amiable, modest, conscientious, and hard
working a man. But did be show to-night, for example, when
in charge of the Judicature Act Amendment Bdl, any of those
qualities which one looks for in the titular head of such a splen
did body as the English Bar ? Is this bald speech, this easily
swayed opinion, this feeble grasp, this mildly belated air, be
coming in the leader of men who are marked by the possession of
the keenest and the most highly trained faculties ?
As for Holker, that mystery of mysteries,, that faintly
smiling, as through a horse-collar, rustic, he has not yet got
over the feeling of astonishment amounting to stupefaction at
finding himself Solicitor- General and " Sir John." His ap
pointment is perhaps one of the most inscrutable ever made
to an office which has had its glory dimmed by much dulness.
He is worse even than the Lord-Advocate, because physic
ally there is more of him. Few people notice the tall, high-
shouldered man, with whiskers of inoffensive hue, who softly
walks in and out of the House like a patriarchal and pros
perous rabbit who has come to terms with the ferrets, and -regu
larly pays his blackmail. Gordon rarely does anything in his
Ministerial capacity save draw his salary, and see that the title of
the Sheriff's Court (Scotland) (No. 2) Bill is correctly printed,
and duly appears on the orders on successive Government nights.
But he is so quiet and mouse-like that, as we should in any case
have to include the salary of the Lord- Advocate in the estimates,
no one grudges him his little sinecure. Moreover, in his case
Disraeli really had no choice. Strange as it may appear, a

1875.] STOEMS BEEWING. 99
country in which Mr. Saddletree was a natural growth has sent to
the Ministerial side of the House of Commons no other practising
barristers except Gordon and Montgomerie. Witb Holker all
the circumstances are different. There are several able lawyers
in the rank-and-file of the Conservative party, whose elder and
superior claims were set aside for his.
Talking about him the other night L. said, " As I see his
heavy countenance and hulking form set in a prominent place on
the Treasury bench, the constantly, returning thought is that
which occurred to George III. in -view of the apple in the
dumpling, and I wonder how the Dizzy he got there."
July 7.— A Coun- To-night, whilst the House was in Committee on
ymem er. ^|^g Judicature Bill, Ormsby-Gore entered at his
usual hour of ten o'clock, dinner being so far digested that a
gentle walk across the lobby and down the floor of the House
would not be harmful. There was not present a single layman
except himself. When he reached his seat behind the Treasury
bench, he put up his eyeglass and slowly surveyed the scene with
the intelligent expression peculiar to him. Then barricading
himself behind his ample shirt-front, which rose above his chin,
he resolved himself to sleep, perchance to dream. But it was
only a light doze, such as sometimes overtakes the butterfly in
the bosom of the rose, and ever and anon he awoke, and over the
barricade, whieh was gradually rising to the level of his eyes,
curiously regarded the Committee.
Happy North Shropshire ! For fifteen years Mr. Ormsby-
Gore has come down for you to questions ; for fifteen years he
has, punctually at the hour of seven, gone out to dress for dinner
for you; for fifteen years he has carefully dined for you; for
fifteen years he has, for you, come back regularly at ten o'clock ;
for fifteen years he has voted for you exactly as the " party "
voted ; for fifteen years he has, from half -past ten till midnight
or later, slept for you the sleep of the well-dined man, secure in
the protection of the barricade; for fifteen years his carriage
has rolled up for you and for him, and taken him off to his bed,
where he has dreamed that the agricultural labourer has got into
Gladstone's clothes, and has whisked away from under his very
nose a liver wing he was just about to stick his fork into, the
plates being laid out (in that odd way in which affairs range
H 3

lOO A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1876.
themselves in dreams) on the table of the House of Commons.
Once it was rumoured that Disraeli was about to make this self-
denying senator a peer. But it came to nothing, and here he is
to-night dozing and snorting, and staring around at the Com
mittee. July 13.— Parlia- It is a striking and a saddening evidence of the
mentaryjesters. gi^eep-hke character which the House of Commons
shares with all assemblies of mankind, that when Bernal Osborne
was a member it invariably laughed when he opened his mouth.
In times past Osborne had earned the character of being
"^ funny ;'¦* and so, just as the rear ranks of a fiock of sheep will
jump at a place where a bar stopped the way of the leaders,
albeit the obstruction has been removed since they passed on,
so the House laughed consumedly when the member for
Waterford made a few commonplace and often impertinent
observations. Those who had gone before had been wont to
laugh on these occasions, and so laughed we. When Water
ford displaced Bernal Osborne in favour of that genuine though
unconscious humorist Major O'Gorman, the House of Commons
felt as forlorn as if the clock had stopped, or as if the Speaker's
chair had been set up where the Serjeant-at-Arms now has his
modest box. It is wonderful what an assistance some people
derive from knowledge of when, ¦with whom, and at whom they
are to laugh. It saves an immense amount of trouble, and
gives a temporary unity of feeling to. a divided assembly, which
is cheery and sociable.
With the banishment of Bernal Osborne the laughter-stop
was gone from that great organ the House of Commons, and
members, deprived of the guiding hand of custom, feebly and
timidly laughed at promiscuous jokes, and often laughed in the
wrong place. Sir Wilfrid Lawson's claim for the vacant cap
and the ownerless bells was eagerly welcomed and gratefully
conceded'; and after cracking unheeded jokes for many sessions,
he suddenly found himself promoted to the proud position of
chief jester to the House of Commons. The change was one
upon which the House is to be congratulated; for whereas
Bernal Osborne was merely fiippant, and earned a laugh because,
being devoid of certain sensibilities, he was able to indulge in
rude personalities from which a gentleman would shrink, Wilfrid

1875.] STOEMS BEEWING. 101
Lawson is really humorous and often witty. He is gifted with
a large fund of common sense, notwithstanding his prevailing
craze, and has fiashing through his mind those bright lights
which reveal hidden points of resemblance between apparent in
congruities, the sudden making clear of which mainly constitutes
what we call humour. He not only thinks of good things to
say, but says them well.
Nothing is more obvious than that his ion-mots are carefully
prepared at home, and brought down to the House on a slip of
paper. This is a weakness he wisely makes no attempt to hide.
There is the slip of paper held in his hand. Members can
see him glancing at it, and by certain mannerisms of the voice
have learnt to anticipate by some seconds the precise stage in
his speech at which a joke is to be taken off the list and used.
But not'withstanding this habit, which falls short of the highest
style of humorous speech, Lawson is most successful in the
delivery of his preserved jokes. He does not hurry over their
utterance as if he were afraid they would miss fire, as Lowe does ;
nor does he in enunciating them hug them with grand-maternal
affection, as Scourfield fondles those rickety witticisms with
which he from time to time afflicts the House. He makes his
points well and coolly, in the easy conversational style best
suited to their genus.
In this respect a wide difference is presented by the manner
of Leatham. He is one of the most determined ,and cold
blooded manufacturers of epigrams. Some of his produce is
exceedingly good; witness that definition of the character of
the legislation of Disraeli's Ministry during the past session —
" not law-giving, but leave-taking." * Nothing could be neater
than that, and if Bright had been the speaker all the newspapers
would have rung the changes upon the phrase, and it would
have served as a watchword at Liberal ward meetings up to next
Christmas. But Leatham spoils his own wit in giving it utter
ance. There is a fatal air of deliberate preparation over his
lightest jokes that damps human appreciation. He brings his
smart things on to the platform in a bundle all ready made up
and labelled, and hands them over to the audience as if they were ;
packets of tea or half-pounds of sugar.
* A reference to the almost unvaried permissive character of the legislation
promoted by the Govemment.

102 A DIABY OF TWO FABLIJJIEXTS. [isrs.
Discussing in the .S/iecfafor Locke's definition of wit,
Addison says, "Every resemblance in the ideas is not that
which we call wit unless it be such an one that gives Dehght
and Surprise to the reader." Surprise, in the sense here meant,
is ob\-iously an essential element in the creation of wit. Bnt it
is not less obvious that the principle should be carried out
farther and in another direction, and that the manifestation of
the flash of wit or humour should be as unexpected as the
establishment of an artificial congruity of the apparently incon
gruous, whieh is wit itself. No one likes to take his wit in
a succession of prearranged courses, as if it were a dinner or a
Turkish bath. Is there anything more dreary than a volume
of " jests," even though it embalm fragments of the choicest
'wit of the age? Can any one read the "Book of Snobs" all
through at a sitting -without a feeling of nausea or at least
of weariness ? An evident set purpose is the pall of -wit, and
Leatham's sharp sayings, good as they may be when born in his
study, are all stiff corpses when the time comes that they should
gaily dance about the ears of the public.

CHAPTEE Till.
MR. PLIMSOLL.

" A 'Working-man's Memher" — A fiery Celt — Plimsoll's Defiance— Eeconcilia-
tion — Porster and the Leadership — ^At the SoEean Gate.
July 15. — "A Macdonald, the member for Stafford, who got in
member.""^^^ ^* ^^^ general election as "the working-man's
member," has of late been under a cloud -with his
old friends and supporters. It has been said that he is some
what susceptible to the subtle influence of companionship,
however remote, with " noble lords." Apparently the best way to
meet such an aspersion would be to trot out the working man, and
shove him up against the Prince of Wales. Accordingly, when,
last Thursday, Disraeli gave notice of his intention to move to
day for a vote to meet some of the expenses of the Prince of
'^ ale-'s -visit to India, Macdonald rose, and in an impressive

ISTS.] ME. PLIMSOLL. ' 103
manner stated that he should " feel it his dooty," in the name of
the working man, to oppose the vote. So here he is to-night,
standing far out on the floor of the House, as is his modest wont,
oscillating from side to side as if he were training for the office of
pendulum, and rubbing himself about the waist with his right
hand the while he emphasises his nothingnesses upon the attention
of the openly contemptuous House by the shaking of the left
forefinger. G. explains this curious, restless motion of tbe right hand
over his waist, into the bosom of his frock-coat, and back again
to the waist, by the suggestion that Macdonald is feeling for
the h's he drops as he goes along. But a more rational ex
planation is that the man is ill at ease in the company in which
he finds hirhself, and really does not know what to do with
his hands, which, under such circumstances, are always a prime
difficulty. The result is irritating, but not nearly so much so as that
other habit of slowly and emphatically uttering nothing, which
Macdonald has brought to provoking perfection. " Let me," he
said just now, "remind hon. gentlemen of what 'as occurred
within the past week " (pause, whilst he takes a fresh swing,
puts his hand in the bosom of his coat, and shows a consciousness
of the gathering of heavy frowns on his brow) . " Last night there
was a meetin' in a large town in the North " — (another pause, a
fresh s-wing, and the hand is slowly withdrawn from the bosom of
the coat, and bestowed upon the roomy waist). " It was a large
meetin'." (Pause.) " It took place at Leeds." (Pause: and the
hand slowly seeks the shelter of tbe bosom, as seagulls hide them
selves in the valleys from the coming storm. The House is quiet
now, and listening. The expression of intensity deepens on the
face of the orator. Captain Gosset clutches his sword. Ormsby-
Gore buries his chin behind the barricade.) " An alderman was
in the chair I "
That is all we hear for some time, for the House, highly
tickled by this absurd anti-climax, designed to produce quite
other effect, breaks forth in a peal of laughter, which resounds
again and again, and makes an end of Macdonald for the present.
But he is irrepressible, and shortly after he has resumed his seat
his irritating " 'Ear, 'ear, 'ear, 'ear ! " rattles through the
House ; for even when he has had his turn, and others speak, he

104 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [im.
must needs remind the world of his continued existence by in
consequential cackling..
Locke, who is not so frequently in the House as he used to be,
and is not famihar with this new feature of Parliamentary debate,
was taken aback when the " 'Ear, 'ear, 'ear! " suddenly broke out
behind him to-night, and displayed a disposition to argue the
matter. " The hon. member says ' Hear, hear ! ' when I show he is
altogether in the wrong. What does he mean ? "
But this indignant remark was only a fresh proof of the sim
plicity of Locke's mind. Macdonald's " 'Ear, 'ear, 'ear ! " has
no more to do with arguments advanced in debate than the inter
jections of a parrot have with the course of the conversation they
interrupt. He had been sitting unnoticed for some minutes, and ¦
thought it was about time the House of Commons should be' re
minded of his presence. It was an accident — unfortunate,
perhaps, but not criminal — that the cackling should have fallen
due at that precise moment. But Locke need not have made such
a fuss about it.
July 16.— A fiery At one o'clock this morning, just after the third
^^^^' division in Committee on the expenses of the visit
of the Prince of Wales to India, and whilst the bar was blocked
by the slowly departing throng of members -who had waited to
hear the figures announced, Captain Nolan, dashing through the
half-opened door leading from the lobby, charged straight at the
crowd, which he parted right and left, as if he were a projectile
from one of his own improved guns. Rushing up to his seat below
the gangway, he turned bis fiushed face and flashing eyes towards
the Chairman, and claimed to be heard on a question of privilege.
At that moment the Committee had been cleared for a division.
The glass was turned, and till the sand ran out the Chairman
might not speak when thus addressed. So Raikes sat still whflst
all tbe Committee roared at Nolan, instructing him and entreat
ing him to sit down. But they might as well have shouted to
Niagara to stop its flow. The blood of the Nolans— a hot fluid
in the coolest state of the thermometer — was at boiling heat,
and with body erect, head thrown back, eyes blazing, and hands
clenched, the gallant Captain stood and glared upon the
tumultuous Committee, and so stood till the interval was

1875.] MB. PLIMSOLL. 105
passed, the sand had run out, and the tongue of the Chairman
was loosened.
Presently the explanation of this stormy irruption was
forthcoming. Nolan had placed upon the paper an amendment
to the vote of £100, the estimated expense incurred in the matter
of proceedings taken against magistrates and the constabulary in
Ireland for acts done by tbem in the execution of their duty.
Not being in his place when the vote was in due course proposed,
he had lost his opportunity of stating his objections — not finally,
for he could do so with precisely equal effect when tbe report of
the Committee was brought up. His absence was an accident for
which certainly neither the Chairman nor the Committee was to
blame, and with an ordinary member and on an English Bill would
never have been heard of out of family circles. But looking
through those distorting spectacles which he hastens to put on,
Nolan beheld the Government deliberately drawing up a dee-p
design to prevent his doing justice to Ireland by moving this
particular and important amendment ; saw the Chairman of Com
mittees, bribed by the promise of increased salary, give his consent
to become an accomplice in the fell design ; and watched with
rage and scorn as many as fifty or sixty otherwise upright
English gentlemen agree to do their part in the plot by blocking
up the bar at the very moment when he would have entered the
House !
July 22. — Piim- When, at a quarter past four, public business
soil's defiance. j xi tt j. j *j i j_
commenced, the House presented its usual aspect,
save that it was perhaps exceptionally crowded, in anticipation
of a statement on the course of public business which the
Premier was prepared to make. The last question on the
printed list was one by Charley, and was concerned with the fate
of the Infanticide Bill. Disraeli rising to answer this query,
proceeded to say that when the other day Hartington had asked
him to make a general statement as to the fate of Bills on the
orders, he had felt a difficulty in replying, it having been put
without notice. He had also been influenced by extreme anxiety
to get the Merchant Shipping Bill passed this session. If the
Agricultural Holdings Bill were, as he had hoped, to pass through
Committee this week, they should have been able to deal with
the Merchant Shipping Bill. But that was not now likely, and

108 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [1875.
he saw with unfeigned and unaffected regret the impossibility of
passing the Bill this session. He could promise the House that
if next session he occupied the position he now held, he would
take the earliest opportunity of dealing with the Bill.
Goschen having briefly expressed his deep feeling of regret
that the Merchant Shipping Bill should have been saeriflced for
the sake of the Agricultural Holdings Bill, Eustace Smith was
proceeding to make some remarks to the same effect, when the
Speaker reminded him that an opportunity would be afforded
for discussing the matter when the motion was made for the
discharge of the order. Smith promptly sat down, and Plimsoll,
rising from the cross bench before tbe chair of the Serjeant-at-
Arms, cried out in a loud voice —
" I beg to move the adjournment of the House."
The position occupied was one from which it is not usual to
address the House, and being reminded of this by members
near, he acce^Dted a seat further within the limits of the House,
vacated in his favour by Lord Francis Conyngham. Plimsoll,
who was evidently labouring under profound emotion, went on
to protest against the abandonment of the Merchant Shipping
Bill, entreating tbe Premier " not to consign some thousands of
men to death." There were, he said, shipowners of burglarious
tendencies outside, who were well represented inside the House,
and who had defeated the measure by crushing it under the
weight of obstructive amendments.
Hereupon cries of " Name, name !" came from the Conser
vative benches, to which Plimsoll, whose excitement was momen
tarily increasing, answered —
" Oh, I'll give names."
Standing out on the floor, and raising his arms aloft, he
went on to say that the Secretary at Lloyd's had told him that
for thirty years he had not known of a ship being broken up on
account of being worn out. Ships passed from hand to hand
till they reached some needy shipowner, who sent them out to
sea with a freight of precious human life. "Ship-knackers"
these men were called, and Plimsoll declared that he had heard
a Secretary to the Treasury say that a member of the House
was " nothing more than a ship-knacker."
Amid loud cries of " Order," the Speaker rose and pointed
out to Plimsoll, as he had done to Smith, that the proper time to

1875.] MR. PLIMSOLL. 107
discuss the Merchant Shipping Bill was when the discharge of
the order for its committal was moved.
" Very well," said Mr. Plimsoll, " then I give notice that I
will on Tuesday ask the right hon. gentleman the President of
the Board of Trade whether certain ships (a list of which he
read) , which were lost at sea, were owned by Edward Bates,
and whether that gentleman is Edward Bates, a member of this
House." At this point the excitement of the House was scarcely less
intense than that of Plimsoll himself. Exclamations burst
forth from every side, amid which Plimsoll, rushing towards the
middle of the floor till he faced the Speaker's chair, stamped his
foot and cried out at the top of his voice — ¦
" I am determined to unmask the villains who sent these
men to their graves."
The Speaker rose, and the shout of " Order, order ! " became
a continuous roar ; but Plimsoll stood in the middle of the floor
gesticulating and repeating that he would unmask the villains.
With some difficulty he was induced to resume his seat, when
the grave voice of the Speaker was heard expressing the " hope
that the hon. member for Derby had not applied the word villain
to any member of the House."
" I did, Sir," Plimsoll shouted, again leaping into the centre
of the floor, " and I do not mean to withdraw it."
The Speaker still standing, and it being an elementary point
of the etiquette of the House that two members shall not at
the same moment be standing up to speak, several members
endeavoured to bring Plimsoll back to the bench. But he,
violently waving them off with his hand, stood his ground, and
the Speaker proceeded to observe that " the observation of the
hon. member was not altogether Parliamentary."
" I must decline to withdraw it," Plimsoll said with em
phasis, at the same time drawing out a large sheet of white
paper, and advancing towards the table.
The Speaker, whose calm manner and deliberate accents
formed a strange contrast to the excited demeanour of Plimsoll,
added that as the hon. member declined to withdraw the ex
pression, he must leave his conduct to the judgment of the
House. " And I shall be very glad to submit to it," rejoined Plimsoll

108 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [i875.
from his 'vantage-ground on the middle of the floor, "and
there," he added, rushing up to the table and laying the piece
of white paper beside the Mace, " is my protest against the
conduct of the Government."
Even after this Plimsoll showed no disposition to retire to
his seat, but still stood on the floor, whilst indescribable con
fusion reigned on the benches on each side. Disraeli showing a
disposition to rise, Plimsoll, violently shaking his fist at him,
said some words the purport of which could not be gathered
above the din of voices.
For a few moments the Premier stood at the table waiting
to speak, whilst Plimsoll stood almost within arm's length of
him, gesticulating now in the direction of Adderley, who
occupied a safe position at the remote end of the Treasury
Bench. With great difficulty Plimsoll was got back to his
seat, and, the noise partially subsiding, Disraeli called upon the
Speaker to " exercise one of his highest duties and reprimand
the hon. member for Derby." Concluding by formally moving
that he be reprimanded, Disraeli sat down, and the Speaker
rising again, said it was according to the practice of the House
that the member thus signalised should be heard in his place
and should then .withdraw.
Plimsoll made no attempt to '''speak in his place," but
promptly rising and excitedly talking as he went, he walked
rapidly towards the door. Charles Lewis, standing at the Bar,
amid a throng of members watching the scene, made some.
remark as he passed. Turning upon him with a sudden fierce
ness that made him precipitately draw back several paces,
Plimsoll loudly exclaimed —
" Good God ! don't you know that thousands of men are
sent out to drown ? "
When the doors had closed on Plimsoll, the Speaker formally
put the question that he be reprimanded. Haiftington, whilst
supporting the motion, suggested that it would be to the dignity
and advantage of the House if action might be deferred to give
time to Plimsoll to cool down. A. M. Sullivan, who had fol
lowed Plimsoll out, and who now returned pale and breathless,
pleaded in terms which the House accepted by loud cheering,
that consideration and indulgence might be extended to the hon.
member. He was, Sullivan testified, in a condition of extreme

1875.]

ME. PLIMSOLL. 109

excitement, the result of overstrained anxiety and excess of
work. If further action might be deferred for a week, Plimsoll
would be the first to regret what he had done, in so far as he
had sinned against the decorum of the House.
Disraeli at once accepted this explanation, and moved, in
place of his former resolution, that Plimsoll be requested to
attend in his place on that day week. After some words from
Fawcett and Bass, the motion was agreed to, and the House,
subsiding suddenly from a state of intense excitement, was tbe
next moment calmly considering in Committee the clauses of
the Agricultural H6ldings Bill.
July 29.-Recon- Plimsoll entered shortly after four o'clock, and
, ciliation. ^^^-^ j^-^ ^gj^j gg^^^ below the gangway, when he
was warmly greeted by members near him. In due course a
series of notices of motion with respect to tbe new Merchant
Shipping Bill was given by Norwood, E. J. Reed, Mac-Iver,
Monk, and Eustace Smith. When the questions had been
disposed of, Lowe, who had for some minutes been standing at
the bar with a paper in his hand, was called by the Speaker, and
advanced to the table with the Report of the Select Committee
on Foreign Loans.- Plimsoll immediately after rose, and was
cheered by some members below the gangway on tlie Opposition
side; but the applause did not extend beyond these benches.
When, however, he had read so far through his statement
as to make known his intention to apologise to the Speaker of
the House for his " transgression of Parliamentary usages," the
cheering became general. It was renewed even more heartily
when he added that he " apologised in no grudging or reluc
tant spirit, but frankly and sincerely." At the same time he
intimated that he " did not withdraw any statement of fact."
Having concluded the reading of his apology, Plimsoll with
drew, and the Speaker called on the orders of the day, the first
of which was for the adjourned debate on the motion that " Mr.
Plimsoll, the member for Derby, for his disorderly conduct
be reprimanded in his place by the Speaker." Disraeli rose and
was received with loud cheers. Speaking in an unusually
emphatic manner, he said that had he been aware of the cir
cumstances stated by Sullivan on the last occasion this question
vvas before the House, he should not have moved the resolution

110 A DIARY OF TWO PABLIA2IENTS. [1875.
now before tbem. He should have looked upon Plimsoll's eon-
duct as the result of a condition of mind overstrained by
his devotion to a cause of the greatest importance. Having be
come aware of these facts, he should bave declined to press
his motion, even if Plimsoll had not appeared in his place and
apologised. But the member for Derby having been restored to
that state of temper which becomes a member of that assembly,
and having made a complete and satisfactory apology for what
would under ordinary circumstances have been a great indis
cretion, he should move that the order for the adjournment of
the debate be discharged.
The Speaker was about to put the motion when Bentinck
pointed out that Plimsoll had made grave charges against a
member of the House, which he had declined to -withdraw.
Bentinck thought that for the sake of tbe honour of the House
Plimsoll should be called upon either to retract those charges
or to proceed further with them. This speech was heard in
silence, and the Speaker had again put the question, when
Newdegate rose, amid murmurs, and supported the view taken
by Bentinck. No one offering to continue the discussion, the
question was again put, and was unanimously agreed to amid
loud cheering.

Aug. 1.— Forster It is the common explanation of the restless and
and the Leader- disproportionate activity shown by Forster during
the session now practically closed, that he is
" bidding for the leadership of the Liberal party." That is the
remark forthcoming whenever he makes a declaration on any
subject, from the county franchise to the Colonies, and it is
worth noting, if it were only as indicating the existence of a
widely spread belief, that the uncouth Forster, like the primly
. dressed General Troehu, " has a plan." This frequent tuwhitting
may have for grand motive-power the desire to keep Forster's
name before tbe public, in the event of anything turning up —
Hartington in the House of Lords for example. But it may be
traced to the simpler action of natural garrulity and the craving
for food for vanity, so easily supplied by the cheers of an
audience and the simultaneous occupation of the leader-writers on
the morning papers. Forster's chances of tbe leadership of the
Liberal party were pushed with much vigour when, last February,

1875.] MR, PLIMSOLL. Ill
the office was officially declared to be vacant. They did not then
succeed in landing him in the desired position, and they are
not nearly so good now as they were nine months ago.
A weighty reason why it was thought that Forster would do
for leader was that he was one of the two possible candidates, and
it ^as believed that the other one would not do. That reason
exists no longer, for Hartington, after the trial of a session and
a recess, stands much higher in public opinion than he did when
the barren honour of leadership was thrust upon him. He has
maintained throughout the session a quiet, manly, and modest
demeanour which won the respect and esteem of the House. He
was always there when wanted, and he was never there when he
had better have stayed away — a much more difficult lesson for
statesmen to leam. As a speaker he has greatly improved in
clearness of diction and ease in delivery, and as he gets a firmer
grasp on the great truth that it is not necessary to make a long
speech in order to express the views which an intelligent common-
sense man holds on a given question, he will still further improve.
His style will not carry him, or rather will not carry his audience,
through a speech of longer dm-ation than twenty minutes, and
happily there are not, on the average, two occasions in a session
when any man on either of the front benches need speak for more
than twenty minutes in order to make clear his meaning and give
due weight to what he has to say. What Hartington had to say
on the current events of the session was always sensible, and was
sometimes conspicuously wise.
It should not be forgotten that it was he who, by his presence
of mind and ready resource, saved the House of Commons from
a hopeless predicament into which no less a person than Disraeli
was leading it on the memorable occasion of Plimsoll's dance of
defiance. When the member for Derby had been safely piloted
over the bar, and out into the cooler air of the lobby, Disraeli,
utterly distraught by the excitement of the scene, hurriedly pro
posed that he should be brought back and reprimanded by tbe
Speaker. The House, not knowing what to do, silently acqui
esced, and in a few minutes Plimsoll would have been once more
standing on one leg on the floor of the House, and, so ungovern
able was his passion at that moment, might even have done
something desperate with the Mace — perhaps made a clean sweep
of the Treasury bench with it. Hartington, interposing, .sug-

112 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [i876.
gested that it might be better to adjourn the debate for a week,
by which time Plimsoll would have had an opportunity of cooling
down, a shrewd and discreet evasion of the difficulty which Disraeli
promptly adopted, witb the happiest issues as the event proved.
Hartington sees farther and clearer than some of his contem
poraries who are always going about -with a telescope to their ^e,
and who, staring sapiently into the far horizon, occasionally
tumble into a ditch. He never truckles even to his own sup
porters. He is not given to shuffiing either with his legs or his
convictions. He never stoops to a subterfuge, and scorns to
embarrass the enemy by the clever little dodges permissible on
front benches. He is not a genius, and will never dim by com
parison the fame of Fox, nor overshadow the greatness of Pitt.
In a game of parliamentary strategy Disraeli would probably get
the better of him. But he is a sturdily honest English gentle
man, whose name and personal character are a tower of
strength to his party, and whose leadership is a pledge that its
policy will be straightforward and intelligent, bold if need be,
manly and true always.
As for Forster, it would be a rash thing to say that
he will never be the leader of the Liberal party. In the
land of the blind the one-eyed man is a king, and putting
Bright, Lowe, and Harcourt on one side, as for various reasons
ineligible, sheer necessity would drive the Opposition under
Forster's wing, supposing Hartington were to retire to-morrow.
But in calculating ordinary chances, it would be prudent to take
into account the fact that, except in rare crises of political excite
ment, it is the House of Commons, not the country, that chooses
the leaders of party. Forster has not succeeded in endearing
himself to the House of Commons, and probably there is only a
single person in the House who ardently desires to see him in
the position of leader, and he sits upon the front Opposition
bench. In the country principles are everything, and person
ality nothing at all. In the House of Commons personality is a
great deal, and sometimes is held of weightier account than a
shade more or less of principle. Did not that distinguished
Conservative, Lord , Palmerston, hold the Liberal party in
bondage for six years ? And have not the Conservative party
even suffered education at the hands of that enhghtened
Radical, Disraeli?

1875.]

MR. PLIMSOLL. 113

Absurd as the statement may appear to the practical public
outside tbe House, it is nevertheless true that if Forster would
brush his hair, would refrain from buying ready-made clothing
that never fits him, would not sprawl in his seat, would keep
his knees quiet when he is speaking, and would abstain from
unseasonable chuckling when he refers to " my honourable
friend," or to " the noble lord opposite," his chances of having
a right to sit in the seat out of which he, towards the end of
last session, hterally elbowed his unassuming leader, would be
nearly doubled. Whilst, if he could only change his nature,
and show himself a modest man of polished manner, who
thought more of the audience he addressed and less of himself,
his ultimate success would be assured. In the meantime it is cer
tain the House of Commons will accept as leader the Forster with
whom it is now too familiar only when it cannot help itself.
Aug. 2.— At the Disraeli will, if he lives to the 21st of December,
Scsean Ga e. ^^ seventy years of age, even according to the
moderate estimate of the number of his years which is always
accepted in polite society, though Society politely whispers
behind its hand that there has been a mistake in somebody's
reckoning, and that the Premier is at least three years older than
he thinks. Still seventy is not so old for a worker with his in
tellect that one need be uttering the sad farewell. At seventy
Palmerston was yet a twelvemonth out of reach of the final
prize of his political life; and for eleven years after he had
celebrated the anniversary that awaits Disraeli he filled the office
of Prime Minister, and led the House of Commons as it had
never been led before, and has been led only for a brief inter
mittent period since. Brougham at seventy was gaily entering
upon a new tract of scientific research ; and there are few things
more certain than that Johnny Russell, who was a contemporary
of Cardinal Wolsey's, who revised and suggested many alterations
in the proofs of De Argumentis Scientiarum, who was the real
author of the Letters of Junius, who was a schoolfellow of Lord
Byron, and who introduced the Reform Bill of 1832, is quite
ready to-day to form an Administration. M. Thiers, setat seventy-
eight, talking to some one the other day, observed that he was
getting rather tired of political life, and must write a book.
" I am weary," he said ; " the hour of retirement has strack.
I

114 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. IW5.
I must think of my Memoirs. I commenced that work forty
years ago, and as yet have only written a few notes. I wish at
least to finish this before I die : it will be my last legacy to the
French people."
Bryant, who is the same age as Thiers, is now engaged upon
a history of the United States, and has got so much as the Intro
duction already in the hands of the printers. -Cato began to
leam Greek at eighty, and Plutarch was older than Disraeli when
he commenced to take lessons in Latin. At sixty-eight Dryden
proposed to himself to translate the " Iliad " ; and about the same
age Dr. Johnson, yearning after a knowledge of the subtle
beauties of the Dutch tongue, applied himself to acquire that
language. Chaucer did not begin the " Canterbury Tales" till
he was fifty- four; and Longfellow, who is a mere chicken of
sixty-eight, is turning out verse every day.
" At sixty-five," Gladstone wrote to " my dear Gran-ville," in
one of the early days of last year — "at sixty-five, and after forty-
two-years of a laborious public life, I think myself entitled to
retire on the present opportunity."
This apparent wail for rest is really another instance of the
vitality of old age. When Gladstone proposed to himself and
" dear Granville " that he should retire, he had simply pictured a
joyaunce of work of another sort, and in his mind's eye saw him
self seated in his study forging thunderbolts for the astonishing of
the unsuspecting Pope. It is ten weeks short of two years since
that letter was written, and we know how Gladstone's vow of
repose has been kept. He has poured out pamphlet after
pamphlet, and has shaken the very foundations of the Vatican.
He has pleased Whalley, endeared himself to Newdegate, cut
himself adrift from Ireland, and greatly bored a large number of
people who really cared nothing about the Vatican Decrees, but were
obliged to read the pamphlets and articles because they were
written by Gladstone, and were talked about at dinner and in
society. He has felled at least one tree, has sold all his china)
and after the lapse of a few weeks at the opening of last session
he was most regular in his attendance upon the House of
Commons, where he delivered one or two telling speeches. But,
on the whole, there is much probability about the surmise that
never during the last forty years has Gladstone spent such a
miserable time as that which has elapsed since the date of his

1876.] MR. PLIMSOLL. 115
letter to Granville ; and no one need be surprised if presently he
make a clean breast of it, frankly confess that he cannot longer
live the life of the past session, and beg that the yoke may once
more be placed upon his neck. With characteristic impetuosity
he made the mistake of retiring before he was ripe for rest, and
anticipated the natural course of events by at least ten years.
All these ancient illustrations and modern instances appear to
show that Disraeli is as yet in the noontide of his strength and in
the heyday of his genius. But facts are rather against the deduction.
Disraeli's personal failure during the present session is one of its
most familiar and striking phenomena; and there was some
thing about the manifestation which suggests that it was not a
passing weakness, but an irrevocable lapse. It was as sudden
and complete as if a well-used bow, bent just beyond its strength,
had cracked, and though, being of toughest wood and finest
temper, it could still shoot arrows in the sportive game, it might
never more play its accustomed part in the emergency of battle.
DisraeU did not, in that way familiar to all hard-working men,
gradually sink, as if he were weary, and would, if he might have
a brief rest, cDme back brisk and ready as before. He suddenly
and astonishingly broke down whilst in th.e full career of success
ful leadership. One day bright, clear, high-spirited, and full of
resource, on the next he was hazy, blundering, weak, and certain
only in the sense that having before him two ways he would not
fail to take the wrong one.
This is a spectacle painful to all who, utterly apart from
political predilection, feel a strong personal interest in Disraeli,
and are as proud of his many brilliant successes as if he were of
their own kin or college. It would be a sad sight for gods and
men to behold one who, by indomitable pluck, tireless energy, and
brilliant genius, has won his way from an apparently hopeless
level to the premier rank of an English statesman, continue to
hold his place on sufferance. That a past generation of the
House of Commons roared with laughter at the pretensions of
the youthful Disraeli is one of the proudest recollections in the
Premier's career, as showing from what depths he has, single-
handed, fought his way upwards. But that a new generation of
the House of Commons should turn aside from him to hide the
compassionate smile would be a pitiful ending.
Already we have in the House an instance of the melancholy
I 2

116 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [1875.
that attends a veteran who, murderous of his own fame, super
fluous lags upon the stage on which he once was a brilliant star.
What does Disraeli think when he sees rise from the corner seat
below the opposite gangway the bowed form that once used to
spring up to point the nervous finger at him, and hears the
mumbling tones of the voice that erewhile rang out sharp sen
tences amid the plaudits of the crowded House, or above its not
less gratifying murmurs ? * It is passing sad when these ghosts
of great men feebly walk the public ways, and destroy a reputa
tion which no other hand could diminish. Who shall tell how
much the fame of Brougham was marred by that last twenty
years of his life ? And how many times in the course of a twelve
month are the admirers of Lord John Russell, jealous of his fame,
pained by the meddlesome perversity of the venerable man, who
with an earl's title, has succeeded to the splendid heritage that
was gathered by the sturdy Liberal chief in the half-century
which followed on the year 1810 ? King Solomon is by common
consent called " wise " ; but due credit is not paid to his highest
claim to the title — that when he had proffered him " what he
would," he forbore to ask for long life. Swift, himself one of the
most mournful instances of men who have lived too long for their
reputation, recognised this truth, and created the Struldbrugs.
But Disraeli is, I trust, many years distant from the day when
he shall finally retire from political life ; nor is such a proposal
suggested. It is Priam sitting at the Scsean gate, watching the
fight in the plain below, that is recalled to the mind when one
thinks of Disraeli's abdication.
" There sat the seniors of the Trojan race
(Old Priam's chiefs, and most in Priam's grace).
The king the first, Thymoetes at his side ;
Lampus and Clytius, long in council tried ;
Panthus and Hicetaou, once the strong.
And next the wisest of the reverend throng ;
Antenor grave, and sage Ucalegon,
Lean'd on the -walls and bask'd before the sun :
Chiefs -who no more in bloody fights engage,
But -ndse through time and narrative with age,
In summer days like grasshoppers rejoice."
Disraeli, sitting in the corner seat behind the Treasury bench,
would be a more honoured and a more powerful personage in the
* John Arthur Eoebuck.

MB. PLIMSOLL. 117
House of Commons even than Priam was in Troy. He would not
have, as he would not need, the full company of the seniors. But
if he pleased,' Henley might figure as the sage Ucalegon ; Lord
Robert Montague, who has been sorely wounded by his nominal
chief, might, on occasion, be equal to the part of Thymoetes ; and
Beresford-Hope, whose correspondence with the Ulysses who
launched Six Resolutions against the Public Worship Regulation
Bill is scarcely secret, would do credit to the fame of Antenor.
The position indicated has a nearer parallel in the life of Sir
Robert Peel, and is indeed thereby robbed of its originality.
But that would not prove an insuperable objection to Disraeli,
who has never shown a too stubborn dislike to adopting the
example, and sometimes even the words, of other people, and,
-with a slight re-colouring or a trifling alteration of form, pre
senting them as his own. As compared with the retirement from
office of Peel, Disraeli would now have advantages which may,
and very probably -will, be out of his possession if the aet be de
layed over another year. Peel retired under the shadow of a
crushing defeat, and his abdication of party leadership was simul
taneous with the ousting of his party from office. Disraeli is at
the present moment the head of a party which, albeit its feet are
of clay, towers aloft with the " excellent brightness " and the
"terrible form" of the image Nebuchadnezzar saw in his
dream. Around the Ministry the prospect is calm and prosperous
and peaceful, as was the state of Europe when, a few weeks before
the war broke out between France and Germany, Mr. Hammond
surveyed it from the window of the Foreign Office, and re
ported to his chief. Earl Gran-ville. To resign the command at
such a time would be an act absolutely free from all comment,
save of admiration for a man who, after long labour and unsur
passed success, sought some measure of the rest he had e'arned so
well. Actually, Disraeli on the corner seat behind the Treasury
bench would not be one whit less influential than Disraeli the
Premier dozing in the seat assigned to the holder of his office. He
would be the most prominent man in the House of Commons ; the
speaker for whose cheerful and witty sentences the assembly would
wait ; the statesman for whose advice parties on both sides would
look ; and the experienced counsellor, above suspicion of bias,
whose word might settle half the little difficulties which now

118 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1876.
occasionally disturb the serenity and waste the time of the House.
There is no man who could play such a role -with the grace, the
skill, and the bonhomie of Disraeli ; and not its least winning re
commendation is that its prompt acceptance by him might spare
for many years to come one whom England would not willingly
let die.

SESSION 1876.

CHAPTER IX.
THE QUEEN OPENS PARLIAMENT.
A stately Scene in the Lords — Sir Stafiord Northcote's Oratory — G-rant-Dufi —
Sir Stafford Northcote and Lord Hampton — Sir. Lowe's Lack.
A stately scene The scene in the House of Lords to-day was not
in the Lords. indebted for any portion of its splendour to the
glory of sunlight falling through the richly stained windows
of the chamber. It was, in truth, as murky a day as might
be, and before the company began to assemble the House looked
all the drearier by reason of the alterations made in it to meet
the necessities of the great occasion. The rows of cushioned
seats had all been deprived of their backs, and so placed
on an equality with the woolsack, whilst narrow benches,
covered with dull crimson cloth of a shade distinctly different
from that of the permanent seats, were set about in different
portions of the chamber. Thus the cross benches in front of
the bar, where the Prince of Wales is accustomed to sit and
whence the Duke of Cambridge is used to speak, were placed
longitudinally, and the space thus gained was fllled in with the
narrow strips of raised plank referred to. The confusion of
colour was not pleasing to the eye, and it received a final touch
. of discordance when the peers assembled, dressed in robes of yet
another shade of the all-pervading crimson.
Compensation was to be found by glancing to the right of
the throne, where, in close clusters, sat some hundreds of ladies
in full evening dress, wherein all the softer colours of the
rainbow were represented and sweetly blended. Happily, tbe
ladies preponderated in point of number, and reduced as nearly
as possible to the minimum the inartistic effects of the oddly
made cloaks of the peers, which seemed all misfits. The whole
of the floor of the House, save the front row of benches and

120 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1876.
the seats improvised in the centre of the chamber between the
bar and the woolsack, was occupied by ladies, whilst a bright
garland ran round the full length of the gallery to the right,
continued in the opposite gallery for two-thirds of its extent,
and met in a tangled skein of colour in the Strangers' Gallery.
Where the garland stopped, in the gallery to the left of the
throne, the Lord Mayor sat, and, dressed in his richest robes,
toned off the colour till it was lost in the quiet uniform of an
attache of the German Embassy, who leaned over the railings
at the extreme end. Baron de Grancy, military attach^ of the
French Embassy, sat on the right hand of the Lord Mayor, and
near him Sir John Glover, his breast glittering with medals
won in many a dashing enterprise.
According to the arrangements made by the Lord Cham
berlain, the peeresses had had placed at their disposal the whole
of the benches on the floor of the House (save the flrst) to the
left of the throne ; the daughters of peeresses had the second
line of seats in the rows to the right ; behind them, in the left-
hand gallery, and in the Strangers' Gallery, were the untitled
ladies who had obtained tickets of admission ; whilst the
friends of the Diplomatic Corps occupied the long gallery to
the right.
Amongst the earlier arrivals of the peers was the Duke of
Richmond, scarcely recognisable in the gay uniform of a lord-
lieutenant. Lord Aberdare, Lord Cardwell, and Lord Hampton
came in fully robed in their scarlet cloaks, tippeted -with ermine,
and tied at throat and shoulder with broad bows of black ribbons.
By one o'clock the ladies were nearly all seated, and the peers
began to arrive in large numbers, taking up their places on
the front benches, and amongst the closely packed rows of
seats before the bar. Like the temporal peers, the Bishops
had relinquished their usual seats, retaining only the front
bench. The seats at the back of this were railed off, and appro
priated to the use of tbe Diplomatic Corps. Early arrivals of
this distinguished body were the Spanish Minister and General
Schenck, the representative of the United States, who wore the
uniform of his rank in the American Army. Count Beust, the
Austrian Ambassador, was the first representative of the great
European Powers to present himself, and he took his seat at the

1876.] THE QUEEN OPENS PAELIAMENT. 121
end of the front bench furthest from the throne. The tall
figure of Count Miinster was presently seen towering high
above the Duke of Richmond, with whom, in passing, he
stopped to chat. Count Schouvaloff took his seat next to Count
Beust, then Count Miinster placed himself ; then the Marquis
d'Harcourt ; and late and last Musurus Pacha, glittering -with
gold lace, diamonds, and orders of merit, and capped with a
plain crimson fez. Whilst the Queen yet tarried, the repre
sentatives of Austria, Germany, Russia, France, and Turkey
chatted in friendliest fashion, and it might have occurred to
Gathorne Hardy, who came in and stood for a moment looking
on, that his official occupation was seriously threatened -with
extinction. When the Bishops arrived, preceded by the Bishop of
Lichfield, who had the bench all to himself for nearly half an
hour, they disposed themselves partly on the solitary bench
reserved for them, and principally on the broad-cushioned bench
in front of the woolsack. That their lordships wore their
lawn was occasionally made clear ; but like the rest of the
peers of Parliament, they had thrown over their ordinary dress
the loose-fitting robe of crimson, in their case distinguished hy
a deep tippet of ermine falling half-way down the back. Then
came the Judges, in -wigs and gowns, and sat down dos-a-dos on
the other broad-cushioned bench in front of the woolsack. It
seemed hard work for all their learned lordships to arrange them
selves in so small a space, but its elasticity was further demon
strated when five minutes later the Lord Chief Justice entered,
and had to be accommodated. At twenty minutes to two the
Lord Chancellor entered, preceded by the mace, and took his
seat on the woolsack. Then it seemed as if, save for the Throne
and the chair to the right of it, there was no empty place in
all the Chamber.
Up to this time semi-darkness reigned in the House, and
a thin mist partially obscured the long lines of colour that
led up to the solitary empty space where the throne stood, with
the State robes of the Sovereign spread open upon it. At a
signal from the Lord Chancellor, a flood of light fell upon the
scene from the gaseliers in the roof, lighting up the fair faces,
the softly coloured dresses, and the boundless wealth of jewellery
that glistened on arm and neck and breast and head, and

122 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [im.
trembled like a sea of light with every movement of the
wearers. Whilst the buzz of conversation which the sudden trans
formation scene thus simply effected was at its height, the Duke
of Teck entered unnoticed, and stood near the steps to the left of
the throne. A few minutes later, with a swift rustling sound,
the whole company rose to their feet, and silently welcomed the
Duchess of Edinburgh and the Duchess of Teck, who entered,
escorted by the Duke of Edinburgh and the Duke of Cambridge.
The royal ladies were led to the woolsack, which the Lord
Chancellor vacated, and were seated facing the throne. The
Duchess of Edinburgh wore a dress of blue velvet trimmed -with
sable. Her head was adorned with a coronet of diamonds, and
as she sat with her back to the general company, there might be
caught a glimpse of a scarlet ribbon worn crossways over her
breast and caught behind by a diamond clasp.
Both the Duke of Edinburgh and the Duke of Cambridge
wore the unsightly peer's robe, but underneath were plainly
visible on the one the uniform of a captain in the navy, and on
the other that of a fleld-marshal of the army. The Royal
Dukes sat at the end of the front Opposition bench closer to
the throne.
At twenty minutes past two the head of the royal procession
arrived, in the persons of the four gorgeously clad heralds, who,
bowing low as they passed before the royal ladies seated on
the woolsack, crossed and took up a position to the left of the
throne. Then followed Norroy King of Arms, Clarenceux King
of Arms., Garter King of Arms, the Gentleman Usher of the
Black Rod, and the Earl Marshal, who, each stopping to bow
to the two duchesses, crossed over, and, with other officials
and Court dignitaries, stood in a dazzling group to the left of
the throne.
Once more the company rose, as the Queen entered, the Mar
quis of Winchester and the Duke of Richmond preceding her, the
one bearing the cap of maintenance and the other clasping with
both hands the sword of state. As the Queen turned to the left
to take her place on the throne, the Princess of Wales lightly
stepped forward and sat down in the centre of the woolsack, her
slight flgure set with great advantage between those of the
Duchess of Teck and the Duchess of Edinburgh.

1876.] THE QUEEN OPENS PAELIAMENT. 123
The Queen was dressed in a robe of imperial purple, so
dark that it might have passed for black. On her head, sur
mounting the white pointed cap familiar in many of her
portraits, was a miniature crown of diamonds. Round her neck
was a magnificent necklace of diamonds ; a large diamond glis
tened like a star on her breast ; and the jewel of the Order of
the Garter shone on the broad blue band of ribbon worn across
her shoulder. Conspicuous amongst so much splendour were
the simple black fan her Majesty carried, and the black gloves
which covered hands and -wrists.
The- Princess Beatrice and the Princess Louise, who followed
close behind, accompanied her Majesty to the throne, and
during the ceremony remained standing on either side. The
Princess Louise wore a dress of lilac silk, slashed with bars of
black velvet, and the Princess Beatrice a maize-coloured frock,
trimmed with dark green velvet. As the Queen took her seat
on the throne she nearly lost her crown, owing to the entangle
ment of her long white strings, which fell backward from the
cap, and which, as her Majesty seated herself, caught under her
dress and almost pulled the cap off her head. The Princess
Beatrice succeeded, not without difficulty, in rescuing the strings,
and a footstool being placed by the Lord Great Chamberlain, Her
Majesty was finally arranged on the throne, the robe of state
being partly thrown over her left shoulder by the Princess Louise.
The company remained standing till, by a slight gesture, the
Queen commanded them to be seated, and a pause followed
whilst Black Rod was despatched to summon the Commons.
During this interval, the Lord Chancellor, who had gone out to
meet the procession, and had returned in the train of the Queen,
stood behind the Prince of Wales's chair. The Marquis bf Win
chester, with the cap of maintenance, stood on the steps of the
throne to the right ; the Duke of Richmond (his uniform now
hidden under his peer's robe) to the left ; whilst the Lord Privy
Seal, the Earl Marshal, and the Lord Great Chamberlain, stood
before the throne.
The perfect silence which reigned through the chamber
after the Queen was seated was broken by the rush of many
feet, and from behind the Bar were seen advancing the Speaker
of the House of Commons, with the Serjeant-at-Arms carrying
the mace, and close at their heels a turbulent throng. These

124 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1876.
were the " Gentlemen of the House of Commons," to whom a
portion of the speech was specially addressed, and when they
had arranged themselves, not without considerable noise and
some cries of " Order ! " from noble lords comfortably seated on
the floor of the House, the Lord Chancellor advanced to the foot
of the throne, and, kneeling, offered her Majesty the document
containing the speech. The Queen mutely signed to the Lord
Chancellor to keep it, and, rising, his lordship returned to his
old position by the empty chair of the Prince of Wales, and there
read the speech in a voice which resounded to the uttermost
parts of the chamber.
When the end was reached the Queen rose, and bowing first
to the left and then to the right, walked out, followed by the
Princesses and the procession, having opened Parliament -without
uttering a single word. As she departed the brilliant company
rapidly melted away, and tbe Session of 1876 had commenced.
Feb. 14.— Sir staf- For a man who, as he wrote to " my dear Gran-
OratOTr^""*^' ville " something more than a year ago, " at the
age of sixty-five and after forty-two years of a
laborious public life," thought himself " entitled to retire,"
Gladstone is uncommonly regular in his attendance at the
House, and is singularly ready to fling himself into debate.
To-night he sat with both gloves off, taking notes voluminously
under the very nose of Stafford Northcote, who was moving in
Committee the resolutions necessary to give effect to the purchase
of the Suez Canal shares. Lowe was at it too, with his memor
anda held within an inch of his eyebrows, and the gleam of
battle lighting up his benevolent visage. On the whole the
position was rather a trying one for the Chancellor of the Ex
chequer ; but he acquitted himself admirably, and his speech was
a model of conciseness which Cross would do well to take home
and study.
That right hon. gentleman, as was testified by his speech on
introducing the Commons Bill, is developing in an alarming
manner evil tendencies that have been apparent ever since his
success in the matter of the Artisans' Dwellings Bill. One of
these failings is a taste for archaeological research ; the other
for what in theatrical parlance is known as " playing to the
gallery." To begin at the beginning is an excellent rule;

1876.] TEE QUEEN OPENS PAELIAMENT. 125
but when one having charge of a Bill for the Preservation of
Commons in the year of grace 1876 goes back to the year 1801,
and argues in detail for and against legislation which took place
then, it would seem to be pushed a little too far. What the
House of Commons wanted to know from Cross was, what was
he going to do about commons to-day, caring little what he
thought of the disposal of the question in 1801, seeing that
many places which at that date were commons are now, in the
language of the Licensing Act, " populous places." But Cross
would have his innings ; and when he had exhausted 1801 he came
up, fresh and smiling, on 1845. In the same way he is not to be
denied his carefully prepared but woefully familiar little perora
tion, in which, with tears in his voice, he utters some amiable
aspirations after the welfare of om' old friend, the Working Man,
or as, with a characteristic touch of originality, he generally calls
him, " the labouring classes." Then there follows the inevitable
cheer from members below the gangway opposite ; some one
rises to pay a tribute to the good intention with which the Con
servative Home Secretary paves the common -causeway ; and
Cross, with an annotated copy of his Bill on his knee, sharply
turns over the pages with an air of absorbing interest, which in
timates that he does not hear these trifling compliments, but is
looking for something in the Bill.
Stafford Northcote is a bigger man than Cross. He is indeed
big enough to forget himself when addressing the House, in the
sense that Gladstone and Bright forget themselves, and in the
sense that Stansfeld, Shaw Lefevre, and other official small fry,
do not. His task to-night was most difficult ; his accomplish
ment of it left little to be desired. Nothing could be clearer
than his marshalling of facts. He possesses few natural gifts of
oratory, save the prime one of capacity to make a clear statement
on an involved case ; and it is pretty to note that his solitary af
fectation of oratorical grace is strictly copied from Disraeli's
manner. When the Premier has worked himself up to a certain
pitch in his argument he indulges in a curious gesture, which he
in his tum must have acquired from observation of children
bathing. With elbows pressed closely against his sides, hands
open and slightly tumed inwards towards each other, he is accus
tomed in the heat of his oratorical passion to throw out his
hands, palms upwards, jerkily towards the House, as if he were

126 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1876.
splashing it -with water which reached up to his own breast. This
is a gesture which Northcote has caught to perfection, and now
there remains for him only to consider on aesthetic grounds
whether it was worth the trouble of acquisition.
Feb. 15. — Grant- Grant-Duff, who rarely comes to the House now,
^^^' looked ill to-night. He is, I always fancy, the
most aggressively intellectual-looking man of the present gene
ration. It is not for nothing that his birthplace should chance
to be named Eden. But it should have been Eden before the
Fall, and that it is unhappily otherwise is indicated by the postal
direction, which instantly brings us down from the clouds by
adding to tbe address the words, "near Banff." That is the
one flaw in Grant-Duff's self-serenity, the drop that embitters
the wine of his life. Eden would have been bearable ; but
" near Banff ! "
Taking Banff as standing for mankind and mundane affairs
generally, we may put it that Banff is the bane of Duff's exist
ence. He could get along very well if his soul were not daily
vexed by the general density of the minds with which he comes
into contact, and with the particular incompetence of our public
men. He has struggled long and nobly to regenerate the world
in which he finds 'his mind engulphed and tarnished, as a meteor,
falling from the starry sky, is suddenly dulled and extinguished
amid the clay of a ploughed field. He mingled freely with
contemporary youth in the academic grove, what time stern
manhood was engaged upon the architectural undertaking since
so grandly accomplished. He did not disdain to wear such
honours as our poor Universities have at their disposal. He
wrote a book in which " European Polities " were not only
" studied," but were directed. Later he took a " Political
Survey," in which everything was settled for the present gene
ration, and the expense of town houses and other charges inci
dental to attendance upon the supererogatory meetings of a
superfluous Parliament might have been spared, not only to
the House of Commons, but to the House of Lords and to
the other distinguished assembly known as Convocation. He
has been Lord Rector of the University of Aberdeen, and
has descended to the care of the pettier interests of the people
of India.

1876.]

THE QUEEN OPENS PARLIAMENT. 127

From distant Elgin he has at stated intervals instructed
the world on current events, and the world has turned a deaf
ear to a voice attuned for flner tympanums than the waves of
sound are wont to strike against in the gross atmosphere of
Banff. He has no joy in life outside himself, and walks in
lonely misery amidst the strange people who exist around him.
It is, in truth, a sad thing when a superior being thus gets
astray in a lower planet, hke a mental Gulliver cast adrift on
Lilliput. The inhabitants are many in number, and hopelessly
bind him 'with the tiny threads of their ignorance, their pre
judice, and their folly.
Feb. i8.-sir staf- There was a stout flght in Committee to-night
ford Northcote qj^ ^]^g ^Q^g for the salary of Lord Hampton on his
onLordHamp- . i rn i> -n- /-i- •! n
ton. appointment to the office of First Civil Service
Commissioner. The opposition was grounded
on the allegations that the office was a sinecure specially
created for the profit of Lord Hampton ; that his lordship was
at the time of his appointment past the age at which civil ser
vants are superannuated ; and that in any case his salary was
£500 a year more than his predecessor had received. Anderson
referring to the noble lord as " an ornamental commissioner,"
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, springing up, warmly observed,
amidst prolonged laughter, that he " must protest against Lord
Hampton being in any sense considered as an ornamental com
missioner." ' On a division the vote was agreed to by 87 votes against 62.
The Committee immediately divided again on an amendment by
Mundella to reduce the vote by £500. In this case the Minis
terial majority was reduced to 16, a progress much cheered by
the Opposition.
Feb. 21. — Mr. Many people have wondered how it should have
owes c . come to be a settled point in the opinion of poli
ticians that Lowe will never be the leader of the party he adorns.
In respect of keenness of intellect and classical culture he has not
his superior on the front Opposition bench ; as a parliamentary
debater only Gladstone and Bright excel him. Mentally to com
pare him with Harcourt, for example, is to conjure up a vision of
a rough nugget of gold linked with a specimen of Brummagem

128 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [1876.
bijouterie, ornate in workmanship and brilliant with bits of
coloured glass. Yet Harcourt's chance of leading the Liberals in
the House of Commons, absolutely infinitesimal as it is, is pre
ferable to Lowe's. How should this be ?
Lowe himself supplied the answer to-night, and it might well
stand alone without enlargement or illustration. In order to
lead a popular assembly one must sympathise with it, or at least
understand it. Lowe's speech to-night on the Suez Canal
debate demonstrates his positive inability to understand the
House of Commons, or to sympathise with the sentiments of the
English people. No one has keener sight for a canker-spot in a
fair and apparently healthy body than Lowe. He swoops down
on a solecism like a hawk on a sparrow. But he can only see
the solecism or the canker, and whether, counting all the cost, it
is worth exposing, is a consideration he is unable to take into
account. Just as he is by physical infirmity obliged to read his papers
through a microscopic lens, so through mental infirmity he
takes a microscopical view of questions of State policy. An
inscrutable but alh-wise Providence has deprived him of the
sense of perspective. Thus, when he came to look at the
question of the purchase of the Khedive's shares in the canal,
and observed that £100,000 had been paid to Rothschild as
commission on the arrangement for the transference of the
purchase-money, that feature seemed to him to be exactly the
same size as anything else in the prospect he was regarding, and,
lying conveniently under the lens of his microscope, he came
down to-night and devoted much fervour and skill to its exposi
tion, to the total exclusion of consideration of the larger question*
of the effect which the purchase might have upon England's in
ternational position.
Nothing could have been less wise, unless it were that re
ference to the Alabama claims and the little crow of triumph
because, when he, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, had a pay
ment of three millions odd to make to a foreigrn state, so far
from incurring a charge of £100,000, he had actually made
the neat little commission of- £5,000. The matter thus put,
Lowe's triumph was legitimate. It undoubtedly was a clever
and desirable thing that a Chancellor of the Exchequer, having
a sum of three millions to pay to a foreign state, should

1876.] THE QUEEN OPENS PARLIAMENT. 129
honourably have saved £5,000 by a careful study of the ex
change, market and the prompt seizure of a favourable opening ;
and the cleverness became all the more brilliant when contrasted
¦with the action of a Government who had actually paid £100,000
in order to effect an interchange of four millions. But here be
comes apparent Lowe's fatal failing. He was utterly blind to
the importance and significance of the facts that, whilst the
transaction in which the £5,000 was saved was one in which
England had, not without a smarting sense of degradation, paid
an indemnity she had long protested she would not pay, the
transaction in which the £100,000 had been la-vished in commis
sion was one popularly believed to have perpetually secured an
open highway to India, and at the same time to have lifted
England high in the estimation of Foreign Powers. Moreover, it
was the Gladstone Ministry that paid the Alabama claims ; it
was the Disraeli Ministry that bought the Suez Canal shares."
Here were two events held by common consent to be typical
of the two extremes of a cringing domestic policy and a spirited
foreign policy ; and in the very heyday of the House of Com
mons' newborn enthusiasm for the latter, -with the popular
acclaim at the news of the Suez Canal purchase ringing in his
ears, Lowe haggled about an item of a hundred thousand
pounds in the purchase money, and with a bewitching air of
modesty asked the House to admire tbe Minister who had
saved £5,000 in settling a debt paid on strict commercial
principles as being the cheapest way of purchasing the for
bearance of a choleric nation that possessed Dablgren guns and
Monitors !
Disraeli is a man of considerable resources, and is gifted
with a larger share of constructive genius than might be
thought by people who form a judgment on this point only
by reading his novels. But if for a full week he had given
his nights an'd days to contriving a plan by which the criticism
of the Opposition on the Egyptian stroke of State should not
only be nullified, but should be made ridiculous in the eyes of the
House of Commons and abominable in the ears of the pubhc, he
could not have devised anything better than Lowe accomplished
in this brief passage of his speech to-night. And yet here was
Lowe peering round the house in palpable astonishment at the
burst of derisive cheering that followed his argument, apparently
J

130 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [1876.
wondering whether he had unconsciously upset an inkpot or acci
dentally knocked a tumbler of water over Forster's legs, which
were, as usual, loosely disposed in the neighbourhood of the seat
of the leader of the Opposition, much to the terror of Lyon
Playfair, who also affects that quarter, and will certainly some
day be trodden on by his burly colleague. There is no ap
peal from the general verdict, that Lowe will never be in the
House of Commons anything other than a free lance, a cap
tain of forlorn hopes, whose value as an ally is chequered by the
gaping wounds he, sometimes undesignedly, inflicts upon the
friends he cherishes and the cause he has espoused.

CHAPTER X.
ME. Disraeli's decadence.

The Mayor of Lost-withiel — Nobbling the Ballot-box — The Major on the War
path — Mr. Fawcett as Diogenes — A portentous Quarrel — Mr. Disraeh's
Management.
Feb. 29. — The Dilke made his annual speech on Unreformed
wrthiei.°*^°"" Corporations. Better than ever. Amongst the
many good stories he told was one about the
'Mayor of Lostwithiel. It seems that when his worship gets
drunk an effort is made to get him on the bridge which crosses
the river and push him over the borough boundary line into the
county, where he may be dealt -with by the county police.
As he himself is the chief magistrate, and practically the cor
poration, a difficulty naturally arises when he is summoned for
getting drunk within the borough limits.
Mar. 9. — Nob- Ritchie called attention to the remarkable success
bungthebauot j-gcently obtained by the Irish members in se
curing days for bringing on their Bills and
resolutions. How this is done is highly ingenious. When a
member desires to bring on a motion or to introduce a Bill, he
writes his name on a list, ruled with numbered lines, which lies

1876.] MR. DISRAELTS DECADENCE. 131
on the table where sit Sir Thomas May and his learned assistant-
clerks. Say there are a score of names written on the paper,
running down line upon line from one to twenty. When the
Speaker takes the chair, the assistant-clerk, finding twenty names
on the list, writes the figures 1 to 20 on a score of slips of
paper, and, folding them up, places them in a box, which he
shakes up as if he were about to throw a main with Sir Thomas.
Meanwhile the numbered list of names is handed to the Speaker,
and the Clerk, placing his hand in the box where the twenty
counters are, draws one, and calls aloud the number, which may
be 15. The Speaker, looking down the list, finds that Newdegate
is No. 15, and calls out " Mr. Newdegate ! " Whereupon
the member for Warwickshire rises, and in a voice and with
a mien suggestive of the untoward circumstance that he has
just been drawn for the scaffold, or at least for conscription,
gives notice that he will on that day four weeks bring in a
Bill providing for the regulation of Monastic and Conventual
Institutions. Newdegate has in this imaginary case had the good luck to
be drawn first, so, taking precedence with his motion, chooses
his own day. He fixes " this day four weeks," because, accord
ing to the procedure of the House, that day is sure to be clear
of private members' business. Members balloting may name
any day, within one day of four weeks of the date of the
ballot, for bringing on their motion. The first four weeks of
a session are invariably filled up by the rush of motions of
which notice is given on the opening night. But, as will be
perceived, the working of the arrangement necessarily leaves
" this day four weeks " clear. Accordingly that is the date
generally seized upon by the lucky man who comes first out of
the ballot.
With respect to Wednesdays another rule obtains. Wed
nesdays are available for appropriation in advance throughout
the session, even from the opening night ; and it was on this
point that the strategy of the parliamentary veteran of the
Home Rule party was brought to bear with a success that has
nonplussed Parliament, has steeped the soul of Newdegate in a
deeper shade of melancholy, and has added a fresh note to the
wonderful diapason of Beresford-Hope's voice. It was brought
about in this manner. There were a certain number of Bills
J 2

132 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [1876.
and motions which the Home Rulers desired to bring in — say a
score. There were upwards of forty Home Rule members
present on the opening day of Parliament, and every man of
them wrote his name down on the Speaker's list as a token of
his desire to give no-tice of a motion. The list numbered eighty-
five, and it is evident that thus the Irish members had nearly a
full half of the chances of the ballot. The first Irishman
called, whoever he might be, gavC' notice for the earliest day on
account of the most important motion on the list of the party.
The next took up the one of second importance, and so on to the
end. Motions and men sometimes got oddly mated, but that
did not matter. They got in a large number of their Bills
on the most favourable conditions, swallowing the Wednesdays
wholesale, and making ruthless havoc with the precious heritage'
of the Tuesdays and Fridays.
But the strategy did not stop here. The Bills and motions
left over from the first ballot were arranged in a list according
to their relative importance. The united forty wrote their
names down one after another on the notice-paper on tbe follow
ing night, and each man, furnished with a list, sat in his plaee
waiting the time of the ballot. Say that a Bill for Amending
the Law of Entail in Small Parishes in Ireland stood first on
the list, and the name of Mr. Biggar issued first from the
ballot-box. Biggar's notions upon entail are naturally limited,
and may be erroneous. It is possible that business associations
may lead him to suspect that entail is one of those foreign
importations which come to this country in tin boxes her
metically sealed, 'warranted to be purely pickled, and designed
to compete in economical households with the honest Enghsh
ox-tail. But that makes nothing. Biggar will rise, and with
the prefatory and defiant " Mr. Speaker, sur ! " will give notice
of his intention, " on this day four weeks," or on an early Wed
nesday if any be left, to introduce a Bill for Amending the
Law of Entail in Small Parishes in Ireland. Before the day
approaches Biggar will have been primed 'with ai-guments and
facts by Butt, and will be able to discourse learnedly on entail,
and demonstrate beyond cavil that it is a device deliberately
invented for the completer oppression of Ireland.
The next member among the Home Rule party whose name
is called will take charge of the succeeding Bill on the list,

1876.] MR. DISRAELTS DECADENCE. 133
and so on till all the available places are occupied. Then would
be presented the spectacle, so familiar in these early days of
the session, of Irish member after Irish member called upon
in due order by the Speaker, and indicating by the silent raising
of his hat that he has no notice to give (all the " party's "
Bills or motions having been placed), whilst the discomfited
English and Scotch members, marvelling at their persistent ill-
fortune, are fain to follow suit, and to defer their notice till
another day.
This is wonderfully clever, though slightly unscrupulous,
and justifiable only by the axiom that declares all fair in love
or war. The net consequence is that the long- familiar title
" Ecclesiastical Wednesday " has become a misnomer, and the
Wednesdays of the current session are given over to Ireland.
Mar. 7 (4.16 a.m.). The Major has just left us, his disproportionate
thl wSth°" Isg's ^eary with the burden of a body they have
carried round the division lobby seventeen times
within three hours, not to take into account occasional excursions
into the middle of the floor of the House; his sides aching
with the tumultuous heaving of his gigantic bosom; his voice
hoarse with shouting defiance in the ear of the Saxon ; but with
his crest raised by the proud consciousness that he has made a
great fight for Ireland, and his soul serene with the certainty
that the O'Gormans who have gone over to the majority will look
down with satisfaction on the inheritor of their name, whose
proudest boast is that he always votes with the minority.
During' the few years the Major has been with us in the
House, he has frequently distinguished himself by his enlightened
advocacy of the rights of Ireland, and the privileges of Irish
members. He excelled himself this morning, and demonstrated
once more, and more than ever conclusively, that as long as
Purcell O'Gorman can, by what convulsive action soever, draw
his breath, so long shall a champion be forthcoming for sad-eyed
Erin. The proceedings three hours ago were at least intelligible.
Anderson, nominating the Committee on Referees, had included
in the aggregate of twenty-one only two Irish members, and
these were not Home Rulers. The formality had been com
pleted without consultation with Nolan, the Home Rule

134. A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [1876.
Whip ; and it was decided to raise the question in a formal and
parliamentary manner by challenging Anderson's motion that the
Committee should consist of twenty-one members, and insisting
that it should be twenty-three.
It was the fixed and deliberate intention of the Home
Rulers to take three divisions by way of unmistakably record
ing their protest. That done, Sullivan and Nolan wanted to
stop. But when men put a heavily loaded wagon on a steep
incline, they ought to be sure their break-power is sufficiently
strong to bring it up short when the proper moment has
arrived. They had set the Major going, and the Major was not
to be stopped till he had run down. There he sat, with hat
pressed over his eyebrows, arms folded, mouth twitching, stomach
heaving, and Patriotism oozing out in thick beads of perspiration
on his cheeks. In vain, Sullivan, Cowen, and even Nolan, im
plored him to desist, declaring that, if Ireland were not saved,
honour was satisfied. In vain the little band he had gallantly
led to defeat besought him to retire. Like Horatius " in another
place " — " Bound turn'd he, as not deigning
Those craven ranks to see ;
Naught spake he to Lars Porsena,
To Sextus naught spake he."
He only heaved and panted with an emotion that becomes
sacred if we consider in what cause it was born, and judiciously
saved his breath to shout the " Noes have it ! ',' when the Speaker
affirmed that the majority was with the Ayes.
" It's scan'lous ! perfickly scan'lous ! " he roared when the
addition of Sclater-Booth's name was moved. The Speaker
mildly objected to the word, and suggested its withdrawal.
"Withdraw ! " cried the Major, in a voice of thunder, rushing
on to the middle of the floor.
A thrill went through the House when members beheld the
Major standing there, and none could say what he would do
next. "Withdraw!" he roared again; " qf course I'll with
draw. f"
Everybody breathed again, and some one, affecting a hysterical
excess of courage, suggested to the Major that he had better
retire from the middle of the floor.

1876.] MR. DISRAELTS DECADENCE. 135
" What ! " he retorted, with a fine scorn of the petty etiquette
of a Saxon assembly ; " mus'n't I speak outside that bit of
carpet ? "
But he returned to his place, and presently panted out at the
head of a band of nine members, once more to record his protest
against the attempt to ride roughshod over Ireland in the matter
of a Committee on Referees.
The end was inevitable ; for as there were only twenty-one
members to be proposed, and as four, being Irish or Scotch, were
held to be unobjectionable, it followed that there could be only
eighteen divisions, inclusive of one on the aggregate number of
the Committee. In a momentary fit of mental abstraction the
Major permitted the name of Francis Goldsmid to pass un
challenged ; and though he woke up, and gallantly strove to have
it put up again, so that he might object, he failed.
This reduced the possible number of divisions to seventeen,
and the Major was in them all. His following diminished, his
co-teller gave up exhausted, hope had fled, defeat was inevitable.
From a minority of twenty-one the little band of patriots had been
reduced to eleven, then to ten, then to nine, then to seven, and
finally to three. But the Major faltered not, nor did his purpose
fail. The murky sky was paling in the East ; the early milkman
judiciously prepared his wares under the half -opened and wholly
unsuspecting eye of the new morn ; the drowsy night-cabman
drove slowly homeward ; pallid faces and wearied eyes were
turned angrily towards the Major through the dawn-stricken
gaslight of the House of Commons. But he, resolute and relent
less in the cause of a country which, though down-trodden, is not
dead, went on his way to the bitter end, and is at this moment
fiercely glancing around Palace Yard in search of the cabs which
have, as usual, mysteriously fled at bis approach.
Patriotism is all very well, the drivers of the four-wheelers
say, and a man is quite right to do his duty to his country ; but
they have their horses to pay for and their families to feed, and
they really cannot drive twenty-eight stone at sixpence a mile.
Mar. 10. — Mr. Fawcett is Wantonly destroying his great opportu-
oeenes'^**^ ^^ nities of becoming a power for good in the House
of Commons, and is not only injuring himself, but
is bringing into disrepute the simple principles of honesty and

136 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [i876.
integrity which are beyond doubt the mainsprings of his parha-
mentary action. He would be the Diogenes of the House of
Commons ; and inasmuch as that personage appears to have been
a great bore, tbe member for Hackney must be congratulated on
his successful imitation.
When Diogenes called upon Antisthenes, and assumed a
welcome though he had it not, the cynic is reported to have had
such difficulty in getting rid of his unsolicited disciple that he
struck him with his stick. The answer of Diogenes has been
preserved over two thousand years.
" Strike me, Antisthenes," Diogenes said; "but never shall
you flnd a stick sufficiently hard to remove me from your presence
while there is anything to be learned, any information to be
gained, from your conversation and acquaintance."
Obviously a slight alteration is required in the sentence ; but
it affects chiefly the possessive pronoun.
" Shout at me. Conservatives," Fawcett says, night after
night; "but never shall you find a shout sufficiently loud
to remove me from your presence whilst there is anything to be
learned, any information to be gained, from my conversation and
acquaintance." There are many things against which the House of Commons
revolts, but this pedagogic manner is, perhaps, the most absolutely
insufferable. It has no objection to learn : in fact, it has a strong
hankering after information. But it will not have doses of
knowledge violently thrust down its throat whilst Fawcett holds
its nose. Whilst ordinary speakers instinctively attempt, more
or less skilfully, to ingratiate themselves with the audience they
address, Fawcett, as a matter of habit, does precisely the reverse.
A man need not abjure soap, and live in a tub, as necessary pre
liminaries to being above all other considerations upright, honest,
and truth-telling. Fawcett thinks otherwise, and he is con
tinually rolling his tub about the floor of the House of Commons
till both it and its inmate have become a common nuisance, from
tbe presence of which members (when they can) take refuge in
flight. As this morbid self-conceit grows upon him, and as the
importance of his position as the only honest and unpurehasable
man in Parliament is magnifled in his mind, he loses the art of
clear and effective speaking with which he is naturally gifted, and

1876.] MR. DISRAELTS DECADENCE. 137
which, if well trained, might have lifted him into high authority.
There was a brief period when he appeared to have grown out of
the swaddling clothes of verbosity and undignified meddling
which tripped him up in his earliest advances in favour. The re
sponsibility cast upon him by the accident of a Bill introduced by
hiin becoming a matter of life or death to a strong Ministry
seemed to sober and steady him.* He weighed his words before
uttering them, and as a natural consequence found that nine out
of ten were not worth uttering. Thus he acquired a reputation
for reticence which was a new joy to the House of Commons.
Long accustomed to have the exordiums of his interminable
harangues disturbed by the shuffiing of the feet of members who
passed out, and by cries for the division from those who re
mained behind, Fawcett had the rare satisfaction of hearing himself
called for when he rose simultaneously with two or more speakers
in a debate. Whilst this unaccustomed favour was in full
growth he lost his seat, and the feeling of regret which found
loud expression in the columns of the press was not confined to
the Liberal journals. The honesty of purpose and sterling worth
of the discarded member for Brighton were universally acknow
ledged, and all parties united in the hope that some other and
more enlightened constituency would return him to the House.
The prayer has been answered, with most disastrous results to
an unoffending assembly. Fawcett, the member for Brighton,
was bad enough ; but Fawcett, the member for Hackney, is as
nearly as possible unbearable. All the old faults of his manner as
a speaker remain in aggravated form. He pitches his voice in a
key that must deafen the genial Serjeant-at-Arms, who sits just
behind him ; he mouths the commonest words in a way that
would be ludicrous if it were not lamentable ; and he solemnly,
impressively, and -withal monotonously chants his way through
the long avenues of his speech with a sound and fury of emphasis
that signify nothing, falling as the emphasis does just where
chance may in the regular beat bring it due.
A startlingly comical effect — which it is impossible to convey
in writing without the aid of a stave of music — was brought
about on Tuesday night when, speaking on the subject of the
Railway Passenger Duty, Fawcett had occasion to mention in
complimentary terms the firm of Messrs. Baxter, Rose, and
* The Dublin 'University Bin, 1873.

138 A -DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [i876.
Norton. The rhythm of the phrase lent itself oddly to the acci
dental emphasis just then falling due, and the innocent words
were mouthed with a thunderous modulation, a magnificent scorn,
a blood-stirring contempt, ludicrously remote from the intent
with which they were introduced. In brief, Fawcett speaks as a
young lady writes — in italics ; and the italics, being mechanically
cast about, often turn up in the wrong place.
This mannerism is irritating, but when is added to it an
aggravating and aggressive assertion that the speaker is the only
honest man in the assembly, it becomes clear how Fawcett, whose
singleness of purpose all acknowledge, is a member whose inter
position in debate is greeted with a low groan of despair. It was
not till after long sufferance of the speeching of his three friends
that poor Job burst forth with the bitter cry : "No doubt but ye
are the people, and wisdom shall die -with you." But then Job's
sjjecial forte was patience. Moreover, Bildad the Shuhite .was
quite a modest low-voiced man as compared with Fawcett.
Mar. 17.— A per- Whalley, bringing on once more the Tichborne
teutons quarrel. ^^^^^ ^^^^ ^ fresh interest to the subject by the
indication of a point of departure between himself and Kenealy.
In fact, he went so far as to refer with emphatic gesture to
Kenealy (who sat two benches below him) as " this advocate of
that unhappy man in Dartmoor," and, amid much laughter, de
clined to justify tbe conduct of the member for Stoke, and even
threw doubt on the propriety of the means by which that person
has acquired a large fortune. Cross, in reply, said he had seen
no paper submitted to the Home Office which in the slightest
degree altered his opinion of the justice of the sentence passed
upon the convict Orton.
Kenealy, rising as the Home Secretary sat down, said, in a
slow, deliberate manner, he had considered whether he should
answer the observations of Whalley, and had come to the con
clusion that they were beneath his notice — a decision which the
House received with hearty and prolonged laughter.
Aprils.- Mr.Dis- It is little morc than a year ago Disraeli's adroit
ment "'''"''''" '^^^'^ ^^PPJ' management of the House of Com
mons was the theme of universal praise. He
always knew when to be silent and when to speak, and when he

1876.] MR. DISRAELI'S DECADENCE. 139
•
spoke he always said the right word. Before last session closed
it seemed as if a glamour had come over him, and fi-om the most
skilful he became the most maladroit of Ministers. How far
this glamour has darkened around him in the current session it
would be an old story to tell. It is written in the leading
articles of all the morning newspapers ; it is the chatter of the
clubs ; it is spoken of in the House of Commons ; and, worse
than afl, it is acknowledged in whispers that are daily growing
louder by the loyal party he has educated. It would be a sad
ending to a brilhant career to see Disraeli openly discredited in
the assembly of which he has for thirty years been a chief
ornament. The House has narrowly skirted that dangerous
point within the past fortnight. If things go on as they have
progressed since Parliament met, it will to all men's sorrow be
inevitably reached.
Disraeli is never dull except when he deliberately sets hijnself
to make a speech that shall be grave and statesmanlike ; and as
he rarely does that injustice to his special faculties, he has not,
up to within the past eight months, seriously endangered his
popularity. But of late, in increasing measure, he is losing his
airy grace of manner, just sufficiently spiced with audacity, and
his felieitousness of phrase, always admirably spiced with per
sonality. When these are gone, the House, looking at what
is left, finds that it is not much and is not at all desirable.
Just as a prima donna, accustomed for years to the ap
plause of the multitude, finds her voice failing, and, hysteric
ally rushing for the once accustomed E, comes down with a
shriek on D fiat, shocking the pained ear of the pit, so the Prime
Minister, aiming to be gaily audacious, misses the exact pitch
and becomes simply rude, and where he once drew forth the
burst of pleased laughter now hears the ominous murmur of
subdued resentment.
Another and a more serious charge has been made in journals
not always accustomed to call spades spades, and has been re
peated from his place in the House by a member. Disraeli has
always made a specialty of answering awkward questions in a
manner which shall turn the tables upon his interrogator. He
has had some brilliant successes in this direction, and men have
grown accustomed to look upon an attempt to "draw Dizzy " at
¦ question time in the light of a choice ante-prandial luxury, a

140 A . DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [i876.
sort of intellectual absinthe. But in an assembly where per
sonal honour and actual verity are held dear, tight-rope dancing
over falsehood must be exceedingly cleverly done in order to find
favour. As Anderson bluntly put the case the other day, " the
House likes smart answers, but it likes the truth much better."
This is a great fact which in these days Disraeli appears
only dimly to comprehend. No one says that he would de
liberately falsify facts ; but it remains trile that he is not suc
cessful in making facts clear when he rises ostensibly with such
intent. Moreover — and this is worse than all — he does his
spiriting with truth so awkwardly that he deceives no one,
and the intended victim is infinitely more furious than if he had
been absolutely and neatly taken in. In Trevelyan's " Life
of Lord Macaulay " there is quoted a letter of Macaulay's
which supplies some notion of the position into which Disraeli
has fallen in the House of Commons. Talking about Metter
nich and Cardinal Mazarin, Talleyrand said to Macaulay —
" Le Cardinal trompait, mais il ne mentait pas. Or M. de
Metternich ment toujours et ne trompe jam^ais."
In other days Disraeli might have passed a competitive ex
amination with the Cardinal. To-day, alas ! he is more like the
Prince- — at least to the extent that il ne trompe jamais.
In the systematic efforts to weaken, and finally break up,
the Ministry, Disraeli has not to any great extent, or in any
new direction, been helped by his colleagues. Ward Hunt, it is
true, still blunders along, doing the wrong thing at the worst
moment, and skilfully evading even a momentary stumble on
the right path. Adderley is as benevolently helpless and as
amiably addled as ever; and" Holker is increasingly success
ful in showing with how little knowledge of law, of men, and
of things one may, under Providence, become Attorney-General.
But Stafford Northcote is still a tower of strength to an occa
sionally bewildered Ministry. Cross happily and placidly steers
his course by a line drawn as nearly as possible down the middle
of the floor of the House. Gathorne - Hardy has been publicly
blessed by Sir George Balfour, and has felt the warm tears of
General Shute trickle in pure joy down his back. Sandon is
always ready to deliver a conciliatory and explanatory speech,
fifteen minutes long, in reply to questions from gentlemen
opposite. Selwin-Ibbetson has been away a good deal. John

1876.] TEE MERCHANT SHIPPING BILL. 141
Manners, though he has absolutely abolished telegraph cards,
has issued a firman directing that any person handing in a
telegram may, upon payment of twopence, demand a receipt
for his money; and Hicks-Beach has shown how far human
nature may, under a sense of public duty, bear up against the
clamour of a body of men who appear as incapable of feelings
of gratitude as they are insensible to appeals to reason, and who
see in a request granted or a boon conceded o'nly a fresh opening
for a new demand.
On the opposite benches the enemy is scarcely more formid
able than it was a year ago. Actual union is just as remote,
and the condition of discipline is forcibly illustrated by the fact
that Fawcett is running on his own account a resolution affecting
the Royal Style and Titles Bill, when Hartington has wisely
decided that there has been enough of fighting on this ground,
and that a continuance of the struggle would tend only to the
advantage of the Government.

CHAPTER XI.
the merchant shipping bill.

Sh C. Adderley and Sir John Holker — Mr. Lowe and the Queen — Critics of the
Merchant Shipping Bill — Sir Kobert Peel — The Major on Sunday Closing —
Mr. Disraeli wakes up.
Apr. 26.— Sh- c. It must be admitted that Adderley has been
Sir Joto Holker grievously sinned against ever since he took office
in 1874. The original sin was to make him
President of the Board of Trade, especially at an epoch when
legislation on Merchant Shipping was imperative. This was fol
lowed by conferring upon him the official assistance of Cavendish
Bentinck, a cruel freak, sufficient to ruin a much stronger man.
Next, when by the substitution of Edward Stanhope this last
injury was removed, and there was some hope ofhis receiving
valuable assistance alike at the Board of Trade and in Parliament,
Stanhope is taken ill, and Sir Charles is left single-handed, or
what is infinitely worse, with Holker for assistant.

142 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1876,
It is fair, in regarding Adderley's conduct of the Merchant
Shipping Bill, to remember all this. But there still remains the
public interest to be considered ; and the Premier is daily faced
by the question whether, in politely refusing to allow the Presi
dent of the Board of ' Trade to. withdraw from a task manifestly
too big for him, he is not sacrificing public interest to private
feeling. It is impossible not to observe that Disraeli regularly
shrinks from connecting his own personality with the perennial
failure of the management of the Merchant Shipping Bill. As
surely as the Bill is do-wn for Committee, so surely does the
Prime Minister, ordinarily the most regular and patient attend
ant upon the debates of the House, absent himself from the
Treasury bench. But he must hear something of what takes
place, and cannot fail to have a more or less vivid idea of the
state of hopeless confusion which reigns during the discussion
in Committee on the Bill.
The actual condition of affairs may be sharply realised
by the simple statement of the fact that the Chancellor of
the Exchequer has literally been told off to sit in constant
attendance upon the President of the Board of Trade and the
Attomey-General, ready to take the edge off their blunders.
The public interest apart, such an arrangement is not fair to
Stafford Northcote, whilst it is incredible that a man of spirit,
placed in the position of Adderley, should submit to a procedure
unprecedented in parliamentary history. How is the Queen's
Government to be carried on if the head of a great department
is avowedly so utterly incompetent to take charge of a Bill pro
moted by himself that the head of another great department is
deputed to supervise and to watch him as a nursing-child is
attended in its early efforts to walk ?
To-night, when the House went into Committee on the
Bill, Disraeli and other Ministers who had been present at
question time quitted the Treasury bench, leaving thereon Ad
derley, the Attorney- Genera], and Northcote. Sir Charles took
the nominal lead, answering objections and stating arguments,
with the natural and inevitable result that in about half
an hour the Committee was in a hopeless muddle, and the
Government seriously compromised. Then slowly and solemnly
the Attorney-General rises, gravely leans his hand upon the
table, and uplifting a voice which is like the sound of the

1876.] THE MEECHANT SHIPPING BILL. 143
creaking of many doors, completes the disorder, knocks
away any props the unfortunate President of the Board of
Trade may, inadvertently and unconsciously, have left to him
self, ahd irretrievably confuses the question by placing it in a
cross-light of misconception, and interweaving with it a compli
cation of misrepresentation.
Holker, moreover, introduces a new element into the debate,
which is not slow in working its effect. Adderley, to do him
justice, appears conscious of the fact that Heaven has not blessed
him -with ability quickly to grasp an idea, or hopefully to grapple
with an unexpected argument. There is about him an absence of
self-assurance whieh covers a multitude of offences, and inclines
the House to deal tenderly with his many laches. The Attorney-
General, on the contrary, is aggressively of opinion that, though
household suffrage and the ballot may have sent to the House
of Commons a few dull-brained heavy men of dim mental vision,
none of them sit for the borough of Preston. There is something
dreadfully exasperating in the compassionately superior manner
in which he regards the House when he addresses it. Dogberry
delivering his charge to the Watch is the nearest parallel that
comes to mind. The House naturally resents this, and when, as
conspicuously occurred to-night, the Attorney-General, apparently
not comprehending the question nor recognising the drift of the
debate, makes some astounding declaration the very opposite of
what has just previously been put forth by his colleagues, there is
a howl of disgust and a general movement of impatient contempt.
Then Northcote interposes, and does all that a sensible, able,
habile man may do to patch up the difficulty. Sometimes he
succeeds, at the expense of concessions to the Opposition ; often
he feels that immediate retreat would be too obviously damaging
to the Ministry, and the retreat is covered by a division which
strains party-fealty to its utmost strength.
This may be skilful management combined with cornmendable
fidelity to an unpopular colleague. The questions in which the
public have some concern are, how long is it to last, and whether
it would not be better, since the Chancellor of the Exchequer is
really in supreme charge of the Merchant Shipping Bill, to leave
it in his hands altogether ? The difficulties of dealing with such
a measure are of themselves considerable. But the Merchant
Shipping Act Amendment Bill phs Sir Charles Adderley jo/m^

144 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1876.
Sir John Holker, appears a burden too heavy for any man to carry
through the House of Commons.
May 2.— Mr.Lowe Charles Lewis, unabashed by the way the House
and the Queen, unanimously rcceivcs him, once more appeared
prominently on the scene, bringing forward a motion for returns
relating to the oath of certain Privy Councillors. He explained
that he was actuated in this step by the publication of Lowe's
statement, made at Retford, to the effect that two Prime
Ministers before Disraeli had been asked to pass a BiU making
the Queen Empress of India, and had declined. He said he
had written to Lowe, asking him whether the report was
accurate, and created much merriment by reading the reply
received, in which Lowe bluntly remarked, " My recent speech
at Retford contains nothing relating to you," and therefore
declined to answer his question.
Lowe now said he was arraigned, not as a member of the
House, not as Privy Councillor, but as a spouter at a convivial
dinner. He pointed out the inconvenience which would arise
if the House were to " follow in the line of business " in which
Lewis had set out, and flatly declined to answer any of that
person's questions.
Disraeli said he regretted the motion had been made, but he
regretted still more the speech of Lowe. The statement made
by Lowe was, he said, monstrous if true ; and, if not true,
must be described by an epithet Disraeli could not find in
his vocabulary. Betraying an unusual degree of excitement,
he, amid loud and prolonged cheering from the Ministerial
ists, protested against the conduct of Lowe, inasmuch as he
had commented upon the character of the Sovereign, and had
held up to public infamy the conduct of her chief adviser.
Attempting to cite the testimony of the Queen as to the truth
of Lowe's original statement, he was met by loud cries of
" Order 1 " in the face of which he resumed his seat. The
Speaker, rising, explained the rule which prohibits the intro
duction of the Sovereign's name in debate. Disraeh said it
was a very small matter, and he only desired to say that the
Queen had authorised him to state that with no Minister, and
at no time, had such circumstances happened as were described
in the Retford speech.

1876.] TEE MEECEANT SEIPPING BILL. 145
Lewis offered to withdraw his motion ; but this being
thwarted by members on the Liberal side, a division took place,
when the resolution was caiTied by 91 votes against 37. Lowe
walked out when the division was called. Disraeli, all the
Ministers present, and the Conservatives as a party voted for the
amendment.
May s.- Critics The Merchant Shipping Bill happily passed
°i ^I^L- ^^^' through Committee to-night,, after occupying,
ohantShippmg f. ,.-,.., ^j^.' ¦ i p
Bill. according to Adderley s estimate, six weeks or
Government time. Within that period it has
brought out many new debaters, and has testified afresh to the
catholicity of the mind and the universality of the sympathies
of several distinguished men. Foremost amongst these is
Harcourt, who is ready to take a leading part in debate on
any subject, and knows as much of merchant shipping as he
does of agricultural holdings. Frequently he has sat on
the otherwise not well-filled front Opposition bench whilst the
Merchant Shipping Bill was in Committee, and has amused
himself up to dinner-time by tantalising poor Adderley 'with
profound criticisms on successive clauses. Then he has gone to
dinner, and returning between ten and eleven has thrown himself
into the fray with a hilarity that has occasionally been heavy,
and a subtlety that has sometimes been over-refined. But his
name frequently crops up in the debates all through, and the
eountry may well feel a sense of sweet restfulness, cherishing
the thought that there is one man on the front Opposition
bench who is equal to any emergency, and is ready to care
for us under whatever flag popular rights or interests are
attacked. This is the more welcome in view of the Merchant Shipping
Bill, beeause the hydra-headed leaders of the Opposition have
not taken that part in moulding the measure, or at least in
superintending the process of moulding, which might have been
expected from them. A good stout fight has been made for
the British sailor ; but he has nothing for which to thank the
leaders of the Opposition. Harcourt has, as mentioned, sharp
ened his appetite and assisted his digestion by means of the
Bill. Henry James has made several learned speeches, in which
he has accomplished the easy task of making the Attorney-

146 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm.
General look ridiculous even in the eyes of the learned Judge-
Advocate-General. Forster has said a word occasionally when
he has chanced to be stretching his legs in front of the table ;
and Shaw-Lefevre has seized one or two opportunities of showing
at length how some particular clause or some proposed amend
ment was precisely the same as something which he introduced,
proposed, was about to propose, or was prevented from pro
posing, when he filled the office of his " hon. friend opposite."
It is a peculiarity specially felt in the case of Shaw-Lefevre
that he has in his time filled several offices. He has been
Secretary to the Board of Trade, Under-Secretary for the Home
Department, and Secretary to the Admiralty; and so sure as
any debate springs up on the affairs of any one of these great
departments, so certain is Shaw-Lefevre to jump up, and in
many words rapidly intoned to show how the proposal now
before the House is identical with "a Bill I had the honour
to introduce when I filled the office of my hon. friend," or
" with a scheme I had commenced to work out when I was
at the Home Office," or " with proposals I had matured during
my term of office at the Admiralty." The coincidences are
remarkable; but towards the middle of May their recurrence
grows monotonous.
It is the private members sitting on both sides who have
chiefly made the Merchant Shipping Bill what it is, and a
heterogeneous and remarkable combination of legislative talent
is thus portentously brought to' the front. Plimsoll has,
though now and then evidently with great effort, refrained from
advancing saltatory arguments in favour of his views. He has
invariably addressed the House from the base of a pair of legs,
and though he has from time to time hinted at the knowledge
of black doings has called no one a villain. Norwood has estab
lished a character as a debater of great readiness and power, and
in his share of the management of the bill in the interests of
the shipowners has even given proofs of no inconsiderable skill
as a party leader. His supremacy and authority have been
notably disputed by David M'lver, who sits on the opposite side,
and is an exceedingly affectionate son. M'lver has improved
upon Forster's famous boast of " Quaker parentage " as an
argument for special fitness to deal with a particular subject,
and has advanced in the House the new and startlina: doctrme
a

1876.] TEE MEECEANT SHIPPING BILL. 147
of "hereditary knowledge" in absolute and unquestionable
settlement of the load-line, the exact height to which deck cargo
may be carried, and the precise number of months during which
pork may be safely kept in pickle. Henry Havelock is some
what prone to invoke the memory of his illustrious father in
order to give weight to his own parliamentary utterances ; and
there are three or four other honourable members whose chief
claim upon the attention of the House is that they are the
bearers of names dear to English ears. But the practice of re
minding the House of Commons of one's father is not a whole
some ohe, and may not safely be repeated.
In M'lver's case " my good father," of whom we have
heard several times, possesses the additional disadvantage that
reference to his personality strikes no chord in the bosom of the
British House of Commons. He may have been an estimable
man, and the feeling which prompts his son so often to refer to
him thus affectionately is certainly respectable. But there is no
saying where the flood of family affection shall stop if it be not
sternly dammed. We may in some future debate have Kay-
Shuttleworth, whose innocuous presence is once more restored to
us, quoting the opinion of those three maiden aunts of whose life he
is the joy, and telling the House what is their -view of the
proper proportion of mangling machines to an industrial dwell
ing of fifty rooms.
In addition to a foible for his father, M'lver has during the
debates on the Bill displayed a weakness for dashing in with
impossible amendments, which he urges in breathless tone,
troubles Adderley or the Chancellor of the Exchequer to demon
strate the absurdity of, causes Raikes to put to the Committee,
and then feebly declines to press ; a process which, whilst calcu
lated to cast a glow of satisfaction over the family hearth, as
demonstrating the surprising way in which " David " is
" making way in the House," is rather hard on an assembly
that wants to get its work done.
M'lver's physical incursion upon the debate is not the least
remarkable phenomenon in connection with his personality.
Anyone present during the debates on the Merchant Shipping
Bill -will observe, about three times out of five as successive
speakers resume their seats, a figure suddenly spring up from the
corner seat of the second bench below the gangway on the
K 2

148 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS, [1876.
Ministerial side, and, standing bolt upright, stare from right to
left with white face and widely-opened eyes as if it saw a wraith.
It might be thought it was a fantastic semaphore-signal worked
by electricity, or a life-size Jack-in-the-Box, which Sir John
Hay, who sits smiling near, had secretly projected by pressing
with his foot a powerful spring hidden somewhere under the step
of the gangway. But it is only M'lver rising to " catch the
chairman's eye," and who adopts this peculiar way of snapping
at that organ as if it were a fly and precipitancy a necessity.
M'lver's pertinacity has been fairly successful, but it has not
altogether elbowed out of the debate Watkin Williams, who is
marked by the possession of the rare faculty of never speaking on a
subject -without being master of it, and yet whose share in the de
bates of a Session is considerable ; who is as modest as he is able ;
who is uncompromising in the assertion of his strongly-marked
convictions, and yet is popular on both sides of the House ; who is
a stout friend and a courteous adversary ; but who tempers a
natural spirit of geniality and a constant consideration for the
feelings of others by stubbornly displaying a considerable surface
of crimson necktie.
Nor has the member for Birkenhead quite snuffed out Gorst
with his unaffected concern for the welfare of the Ministry;
nor Lord Eslington, true working-man's friend, with his warm
heart, his strong common-sense, and his unwavering fldelity to
what he regards as the interests of the labouring classes ; nor
Gourley, whose practical suggesjiions are invariably worth listen
ing to, though their effect be somewhat marred by the nervous
ness of the manner with which they are communicated; nor
Ritchie, who at least on one occasion showed that he can give
effective expression to strong and honest feeling ; nor Rathbone,
who is more than ever like a model vestryman; nor Joseph
Cowen, who is the nearest approach to the realisation of the
fabulous creation of the poet's brain, the man who did good by
stealth and blushed to find it fame; nor Morgan Lloyd, who
ought to be a constant delight to the greater portion of man
kind as supplying a living proof of what small measure of mental
virility is needed to make a Queen's Counsel and a member of
Parliament. All these have had their say, and these are the
raen who in a greater or less degree have made the Merchant
Shipping Bill.

1876.]

THE MEECEANT SHIPPING BILL. 149

May IL — Sir The Royal Titles Bill up again on a motion by
Robert Peel. Henry James, designed to restrict the use of the
title " Empress " to matters connected -with the internal affairs
of India. The Government made it a vote of confidence, and the
whipping up was tremendous. Dawson Damer, who has not
been seen in the House since he sat down on Disraeli's knee in
an endeavour to pass between the table and the Treasury bench,
has been brought forth from retirement and gave his vote with
the Government. Peel spoke just now, patronisingly patting
Hartington on the back, and getting in return a slap in the face,
which greatly surprised him.
What a remarkable man the baronet is ! In personal ap
pearance he is a cross between Victor Emanuel and the late
Napoleon III., being not quite so ugly as the former, and con
siderably less profound-looking than the latter. As a Parliamen
tary speaker he is not a bad imitation of Smollett. But he has
less literary culture, and, when setting himself to raise a laugh,
trusts more to absolute buffoonery than to incisive if coarse in
vective. He made a terrible mess of a reference to his late
brother's Victoria Cross, which was evidently intended by way of
peroration, but got in at the wrong place, and became part of a
sentence that ended in chaos ; and he betrayed his fragmentary
acquaintance with a familiar parable by talking in the singular
number of " the young woman " who forgot to trim " her " lamp.
On the whole, though the House laughed loudly, as it will laugh
at anything after dinner and a long spell of dull debate, the ex
hibition was not creditable to " Sir Peel," or honourable to the
name he bears.
May 12. — The The Government were defeated to-night on a
day closing.™' motion movcd by Richard Smyth in favour of
Sunday Closing in Ireland. The motion was
carried by 224 votes against 167. Gladstone warmly supported
it, and was followed, after profuse declarations of diffidence at
the conjuncture, by Major O'Gorman. After defending the
Chief Secretary for Ireland from the strictures of Bright, the
Major addressed himself to the arguments of the case, contri
buting as his share the axiom that " a man has a right to take as
much liquor as he can walk away with." He proceeded, amid
roars of laughter, to draw an affecting picture of respectable

150 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1876.
farmers in Ireland denied under the operation of the proposed
regulation the privilege of "taking something on a Sunday."
" Men who love their landlords, and whose landlords love
them." " Men," the Major added in a tremulous voice, whilst
the crowded House roared with laughter, " whose lives Plutarch
might have written."
" If you pass this Bill," he thundered in conclusion, " you
will have a revolution in Ireland to-morrow, or," he added,
when bis voice might be heard above the roar of laughter, " or,
you ought to have one."
Tben he sat down, and Disraeli abandoning his evident pur
pose of addressing the House in reply to Gladstone, the division
was called.
Junes.- Mr.Dis- House met to day after the Whitsun Recess.
raell wakes up. ^j^Qnggt Others Disraeli came back to work
happily recovered from an illness which was not without grave
concern for those who had closely watched its effects upon the fra
gile frame. He began to take a distinct turn for the better on the
Tuesday night before the adjournment for the Whitsun Recess,
when he saw Bright and Lowe have " a little turn-to " on the
question of Parliamentary Reform. Up to the moment when
Lowe rose the Premier had sat mute and motionless on the
Treasury bench, with head sunk on' breast, lack-lustre eyes
looking steadfastly at nothing, and cheeks sallow and sunken.
He was roused by the sound of a familiar voice talking, as it
had talked nine years ago, about Reform ; and when, as Lowe
reseated himself. Bright rose from his side and girded at his
whilom adversary and sometime colleague with much of the
vigour of the olden time, Disraeli raised his head, shook himself
together with familiar gesture, and though he had seemed as he
entered the House to bring with him strength barely sufficient
to cross the floor, he presently flung himself into the fray, and
astonished everybody — particularly Stafford Northcote, to whom
the task had been specially assigned — by winding up the debate
iiimself. Since that effort his convalescence has been assured, and
to-night it is surely completed. A week's quiet rest at
Hughenden, where he has been lazily watching the washing of
tho sheep and the bedding out of the geraniums, has finished

1S70.]

TEE OPPOSITION SEOW FIGET. 151

the work commenced by the voluntary disburdening of Lowe's
conscience, and every one about the House is happier for the
knowledge that the Premier is better.
Near him, a picture of rude health and subdued intellectual
force, looms Ward Hunt, ¦with the spray from the North Sea
glistening in his beard and the freedom of the rolling wave
visible in his gait.

CHAPTER XII.
THE OPPOSITION SHOW FIGHT.

A "Whip's speech — More words from the Major on Sunday closing — Lord Henry
Lennox and the Lisbon Tramways Co. — Lord Sandon and Lord Prederick
Cavendish — Mr. 'Whalley and the Jesuits — An all-night sitting — Mr.
Disraeli's rejuvenescence.
June 9.— A 'Whip's Towards midnight, during the discussion on the
speec . Civil Service Estimates, there happened one of
those incidents which make memorable rare nights in the re
volving Session. Adam made a speech, nay, two speeches !
Why Adam's oratorical essays should be subject for special
remark, or who indeed Adam is, are queries that would doubtless
rise to the lips of the average reader of parliamentary debates.
And yet Adam is alike one of the most popular and the most
indispensable members of the House. The chief whip of the
Liberal party at a period of sudden reverse, when the issue
of a summons to a division is identical with an invitation to
assist at a defeat, he has never lost heart or abated one jot
of hope or spirits. Cheery amongst the cheerless found, he
has performed his thankless and weary task just as care
fully, completely, and assiduously as he was wont to do when
his two-scored missive brought a safe majority for Gladstone,
and a note with "three lines" filled the Liberal benches and
thronged the bar and the galleries with the overplus of eager
adherents. The influence of regular preponderance or of unvarying
defeat is a force in politics the weight of which only a whip
can justly estimate. Under such circumstances as the Liberals

152 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm.
found themselves two years ago, and even in the vastly im
proved condition of to-day's affairs, the hardest thing in the
world is to get the minority to make tbe most of itself. With
an assured majority of from fifty to seventy at the command of
the Government, members in Opposition are apt to be careless
whether the majority be fifty or seventy.
" We are sure to be beaten, and one more or less is no
matter," is the excuse with which many a man in these evil
days permits himself to disregard Adam's notes of urgency.
That is a hard thing when a man is labouring to rally a
disorganised force, and make it show a decent front. To battle
with it day after day, to resist the strong temptation to give up
the unequal struggle in which one's own side is only half
hearted, require the possession of great courage, a strong sense
of duty, infinite patience, and unfailing good temper. These
qualities meet in Adam, and his task is consequently accom
plished with so little friction that its difficulty is apt to be under
rated and its importance undervalued.
In Adam's case the sacrifice made to public duty is the
greater, because he had in the last days of Gladstone's Govern
ment been emancipated from the thraldom of the office of whip,
and had assumed a position in the Ministry ostensibly of a
higher rank, and certainly preferable alike in respect of ease and
emolument. It was as Chief Commissioner of Works that he
retired from her Majesty's Government in 1874, and as such he
was entitled to sit at his ease on the front Opposition bench, to
come when he liked, go home when he pleased, and, when
opportunity offered or could be made, to speak at the House,
showing it how much better the Department of Works and
Buildings was administered as compared with the former ad
ministration of " my noble friend opposite." But when the
new Parliament met it was speedily found that Adam was
indispensable in his former capacity, and without any fuss he
quietly returned to the work his share of which he might
well have hoped was done. Under depressing circumstances,
of a kind which do not befall a great and triumphant party
thrice in a century, he unostentatiously and uncomplainingly
set himself to do the political drudgery of a disorganised and
dispirited party.
It was pretty to see Dyke run in to-night on the news

1S76.] THE OPPOSITION SEOW FIGET. 153
flashing through the lobbies and corridors that " Adam was
up." Sir William knows the fearsome joy of vocally addressing
an assembly one half of which are accustomed to regard him
as a polite though peremptory letter-writer. Like the late
Mr. Hamilton, he also has made his single speech, and
showed, as Adam did to-night, that he is not silent because he
has not the gift of saying in easy straightforward language
what he has at heart to utter. But as a rule the oratorical
deliverance of the whips of this generation do not run beyond
a single speech. Lord Wolverton, when Mr. Glyn and whip to
a triumphant party, made his one speech, being for the rest of
his House-of-Commons existence content with delivering those
brief addresses, often more cheered than the most brilliant
harangues, in which " the Ayes to the Right " were what they
should be, and " the Noes to the Left " fell something below
the computation of the opposite party.
July 12.— More Smyth, following up his success of two months
M?or m™™^ ago has brought in a Bill closing public-houses
day closing. in Ireland on a Sunday. The discussion was con
tinued for some time, the chorus of general ap
proval being varied by Roebuck, who declared that "it was
contrary to the spirit of ci-vilisation to legislate on a subject like
this." Major O'Gorman also was fain to declare himself, after
mature consideration, " not the least more friendly to the Bill
than he was before." He drew largely on his own experience to
show how hurtful the passage of the Bill would be to the commu
nity at large, and how subversive of the finer and more generous
feelings of human nature.
A story he related of what had happened when a field of
hay belonging to him had been "turned" amid a brief gleam of
sunshine in a wet season, particularly interested a now fairly
crowded House. He dwelt at some length upon the injustice
that would be done to the devout farmer in Ireland, who
" having adored his God in the morning went out at two o'clock
on a Sunday aftemoon to get a glass of ale or porter," and con
cluded by " beseeching " English members not to vote for " a
Bill which would, if it became law, inflict upon Ireland a canker
of lawlessness, drunkenness, and debauchery." The Bill was,
nevertheless, read a second time without a division.

154 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1876.
July 17. -Lord The questions disposed of, Henry Lennox rose
Henry Lennox f ^^ Second bench behind the Treasury bench,
and the Lisbon . •' >
Steam Tram- and craved the indulgence of the House whilst he
-ways o. made a personal statement. He proceeded to
refer to Lord Coleridge's remark, whilst presiding at the case of
" Twycross v. Grant," that an explanation was necessary from the
directors of the Lisbon Steam Tramways Company. Lord Henry
said he had joined the board of directors at the request of the
Duke of Saldanha, who had asked him to do so because he was
personally acquainted with Portugal. He knew nothing of the
preliminary contracts or agreements which had been disclosed in
a court of law, nor had he seen those " manly letters " which Mr.
Grant had written, suggesting that the scheme should be aban
doned and the money returned to the subscribers, whieh letters,
indeed had never been laid before the board. His remuneration
as a director was to be £100 a year, in addition to which he re
ceived one hundred shares as a qualiflcation. Of these he re
turned fifty when he left the board. He had bought with his
own money 300 shares, and was a heavy loser by his connection
with the company. He added that he made that statement as an
independent member, having thought it proper to place his re
signation in the hands of the Prime Minister, and await attacks
upon his honour from whatever point of the House they might
come. He was, during the delivery of his speech, twice applauded
from both sides of the House, and a general cheer marked the
conclusion of his short address.
Disraeli next came forward, thinking it due to his noble
friend and the House that he should " state what he knew of this
affair." He had, he said, on Friday, received a written intimation
from a gentleman opposite, informing him that he would
to-day make certain charges against Henry Lennox. He had
communicated this fact to his noble friend, who said "these
things" had happened five years ago, when he was a private
member, and he wished to defend his conduct from the same posi
tion. He had, therefore, tendered his resignation. The House ¦
had heard his statement, and Disraeli " could not reconcile it with
his feelings to precipitate a decision."
Trevelyan, "the hon. gentleman opposite" referred to, cor
rected Disraeli in his account of the communication that had
passed between them. After what had just happened he would

1876.]

TEE OPPOSITION SEOW FIGET. 155

not enter further into the case. He had very good reason for
calling the attention of the House to the matter, believing
it necessary to bring about, as a tribute to public morality,
the result which had just been announced. Lennox, who was
deeply affected whilst Disraeli was speaking, sitting -with his
face buried in his hands, left the House as soon as Trevelyan
had finished.
July 19. - Lord Mundella, whom no one would suspect of having
Sandon and j.gg^^ "Don Juan," once described Lord Sandon as
Lord Frederick

Cavendish.

" the mildest-manner'd man
That ever scuttled ship or out a throat."

That was a wonderfully happy description at the moment,
hitting off the situation in a couplet. The first impression one
gains of the Vice-President of the Council is, that his manners
are exceedingly mild; and on further observation comes [the
conviction that the mildness covers a capacity for righteous
wrath upon occasion shown, and masks a pretty strong deter
mination to carry out deliberate purposes. To Lord Frederick
Cavendish belongs the distinction of having demonstrated the
existence of the wrathful element in the constitution of the
Vice-President of the Council, and of having made him roar
as ungently as if he had no sympathy with the habits of the
sucking dove. It was on clause 13, page 8, line 15, of the
Education Bill, Lord Frederick struck fire. He gurgled out
some remarks which brought the amiable Lord Sandon to his
feet in a state of rage ill suppressed behind the sweet smile
that still wreathed his lips, and Lord Frederick heard some plain
language about his propensity for precipitating peaceful assem
blies into the horrors of war.
The rebuke was not altogether uncalled, for for Frederick
is, tmly, a terrible man for taking unexpected headers into
the surf of controversy. It is perhaps this feature of unex
pectedness which- lends an added force to his sallies. The House
is pursuing a humdrum discussion on some unattractive topic,
when there appears at the table a gentleman who is so singu
larly like an exaggeration of Hartington that the stranger rubs
his eyes and marvels if it can be that distinguished statesman
before he became amenable to the culture of experience and

156 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS: [im.
Parliamentary practice. But it is only Lord Frederick Caven
dish, and presently there will be a little row.
Lord Frederick when addressing the House, stands at the
table in precisely the same attitude as Hartington, only more so.
He has the same lack of clearness of tone, the same fault of
dropping his voice when he reaches the culminating point of
his sentence, and the same tendency to fall into a sing-song
intonation. Only all these peculiarities are exaggerated and
magnified, and we have the opportunity of knowing how much
worse Hartington might be if he were to try. One result of
Lord Frederick's peculiar style is that he is very difficult to fol
low through a speech of any length, and thus the larger portion
of members have the luxury of surprise added to the little grati
fication of a row, when, after dozing off under the influence of
his morphitic eloquence, they are roused by a ery of " Oh I "
or a shout of " Order ! " and find that he has been " saying
things " about somebody opposite.
Thus he moved Sandon to anger this morning, and the
Committee on the Education Bill beheld the unusual spectacle
of the noble lord in charge of the measure fiercely hitting out
at the noble lord who had just sat do-wn, and laying to his
charge the sin of throwing tbe apple of discord among a com
pany of peaceably-disposed men. But Sandon's anger was of
brief duration, and wound up with a comically earnest protest
against the conduct of the person who could have made him
angry. On the whole, during a long and wearying debate, con
stantly attacked in front, in fiank, and in rear, accused on the
one side of favouring sectarianism and on the other of favouring
secularism, Sandon has displayed a command of temper and a
faculty of management for which no parallel can be found,
unless we turn to Hicks-Beach when in charge of an Irish Bill,
and he is out of the limits of comparison, for as his difficulties
are superhuman so is his patience supernatural. Save on the
solitary occasion above cited, Sandon has not once placed himself
under tbe disadvantage of losing his temper.
July 20. — Mr. It gives a fillip to the interest which attaches to
tli^Jesits.""* all Whalley's proceedings in the House to observe
that of late his mind has shown a tendency to
converge upon Disraeli, and to see in that otherwise inscrutable

i;75.i THE OPPOSITION SHOW FIGHT. 157
personage the author of much of the evil whieh weighs down
Protestant England. The Prime Minister gave scarcely satis
feetory answers to a series of questions Whalley put to him some
days ago on the subject of the Jesuits. He has sinee been a
suspect, and to-nisrht Whalley did not scruple to accuse Mm of
being an arch- Jesuit, and the head of a Ministry of unques-
tionably Jesuitical tendencies.
It is in these references to forbidden subjects that the mem
ber for Peterborough shows his great natural talent as a debater.
To introduce a direct reference to the Jesuits in a debate on the
subject of Govermnent grants to ioh.X'ls in pocr districts re
quires a d^^ee ol courage and of slrilfnl maniptdation in the
possession of which Whalley stands alone. By devious routes he
reached the inevitable goal to-night, and -was rewarded by the
customary shout of contumely. Even Eaikes, tender as he is to
the idiosyncrasies of members, was fain to rise and suggest
that the Jesuits were somewhat wide of the subject. Then
Whalley made that skilful flank movement by which he at the
same time brought the topic within parUamentary limits, and
struck a heavy blow at fhe Premier by denouncing him as
chief est amongst Jesuits. After this nothing but calamity be
fell the gallant knight, who had not even a faithful Sancho
Panza to ballast his enterprise -with lough-he-wn paving-stones of
practical worldliness. He hurled the newly-found word '¦' Alge
rine " at the policy of the smiling Sandon. He brought down
on his poor grey head a lusty shout of indignation when he
referred to the ^linistry as '' the least honest amongst European
Governments.^' And he brought up Lord Fr-ancis Hervey -with
an angry protest when he poetically referred to the deigy of
the Church of England as " these Sepoys."
How he was snubbed and laughed at ; how plaintively he
thanked the chainnan for " trying to keep biin in order ; " how
often he b^an to finish and how the sound of his voice always
led him on to a fresh discourse, an umbrageous circular road in
the middle or at the end of which the Jesuit was certain to be
hidden ; how time after time he was called to order ; how meekly
he resumed his seat when the ehairman rose to expostulate ; and
how, appearing again, he recommended in subdued tone and
gradually reached the emphatic inflection of voice which intro
duced the " foreign power," is a tale too sad to tell at length.

158 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [isn.
Aug. 3.— An au- The Elementary Education Bill as amended con-
night sitting. si(jered. Lord Rbbert Montague brought forward
an amendment permitting guardians in certain cases to pay the
school fees of poor children. Sandon, in charge of the Bill, re
commended the withdrawal of the amendment, but subsequently
Northcote, amid cheers from the Tories and cries of astonishment
from the Liberals, accepted it. Then began a struggle which
lasted till half-past four in the morning. At eleven o'clock
Northcote made this amazing departure, and the Opposition
began the game of moving the alternate resolutions for adjourn
ment. Four hours later, Dilke, looking as rosy as if he had just
come out of his morning bath, assured the Chancellor of the Ex
chequer that if he were agreeable the game might go on indefi
nitely, there being plenty of men to move the alternate motions,
and that when each had taken his turn the House could divide
again on every successive word of Robert Montague's somewhat
lengthy amendment.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer was yet firm, and still the
ranks behind him hurled defiance at the relentless foe. Then Whit
well rose, and with him a mighty shout from both sides. There
was a general consonance of opinion that the member for Kendal
was not the sort of man who ought to be out till such hours- of
the morning. It was all very well for young sparks like J. G.
Hubbard and Wm. McArthur to be nodding and winking and
boisterously cheering when the gas was put out in the House
of Commons because the morning sun was shining through
the windows. But Whitwell ought to be in bed, and the House
had no hesitation in expressing its decided opinion on that point.
In vain he smiled sweetly upon the turbulent throng. Equally
ineffectual his sterner mood, when he squared his shoulders, fur
rowed his brows, and wrestled furiously with the contents of
his trousers-pockets. The House would not hear him ; and after
standing thus for the space of ten minutes, and nearly ruining a
new though roomy pair of pants, he sat down.
Last of all came George Balfour, commissioned by Adam to
move the next amendment. This was a great occasion for the
gallant Major-General. His parliamentary career had not
hitherto been a happy one. Flouted by his own side when he
has expressed his desire to take part in the debates, laughed at
by the other side when he has himself made occasion to interpose,

1876.] TEE OPPOSITION SEOW FIGET. 159
and regarded from all sides as a member from the sound of whose
voice mankind instinctively flee, Sir George recognised that at
last his hour of triumph had come. Hastily winding himself up
to go for an hour and a half, he rose, and in tones whose plain
tive solemnity arrested the attention of the House, began :
" Mr. Speaker, the time has now come when it falls to my
lot to bear my part in this historic debate. It is an occa — "
Alas that the shameful story should have to be told I A storm
of laughter suddenly fell upon the orator, flashing round his
astonished head, surging about his trembling legs, hopelessly
drowning his melancholy voice, and casting upon the Speaker
the responsibility of supposing, in the absence of direct evi
dence, that he had concluded by mo-ving the adjournment of the
House. The fun was growing in intensity, but it was also getting a
trifle wearisome for hard-worked Ministers no longer in their
teens. There was no help for it, so the Chancellor of the Exchequer
agreed to the adjournment, and the graceless Opposition gave a
yelp of delight at having won the day.
Aug.g.-Mr.DiB- There is current a pretty saying of Earl Russell's
veMsrancef ^" ^^out Disraeli. Somebody observed to the " gal
lant old gentleman," whose absence from the
leadership of affairs P. A. Taylor just now deplored, that the
Premier was failing — that he displayed a curious indifference to
the course of events, and was by no means to be brought to the
point of decision as to what Bills in the Government programme
were to be pushed forward and which allowed to fall in the rear.
" Ah ! " said Earl Russell, -with a pitying shake of the head,
and a complacent glance at his o-wn legs, " Disraeli is getting very
old." It is true that Disraeli is only thirteen years younger than
Earl Russell. But statesmen are notoriously long-lived, witness
among living contemporaries Thiers, Gortschakoff, Russell, and
J. G. Hubbard ; and though Disraeli is no chicken, it would
'not be safe to regard him as a played-out patriarch. Moreover,
the remark is inopportune, because Disraeli has within the past
few weeks developed a rejuvenition whieh is little short of a
miracle. Just before the Whitsuntide recess he was so ill that
the gravest apprehensions arose amongst his friends. With his

160 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [i876.
usual pluck he came down to the House at question-time, and
crawling to the Treasury bench threw himself into his seat, where
he reclined for an hour or so with haggard eyes and sallow
cheeks, indrawn and corpse-like. After a while he was obliged
even to forego this show of sprightliness, and for three or four
days his familiar presence was missed from the House. Upon his
return he rapidly grew well again, and it is a long time since
he looked so well as during the past six weeks. With the re
covery of his health came back also his happy adroitness in
managing the House in little things, and his personal ascendency
has increased in proportion.

CHAPTER XUI.
DISRAELI NO MOEB !

The Major's departure— The last of Mr. DisraeH, M.P.— Sir Stafford Northcote
— Mr. Gathorne Hardy's disappointment — Mr. Disraeli's young men —
Ex-Ministers — Successes of the Session.
Aug. 11. — The The Major has gone, and there is room for an ad-
Major's depar- ditional couple of members on the back seat below
the gangway. He has been welcomed in the
eountry that has much reason to be proud of him with the sound
of harp, sackbut, and psaltery, and with the lilting verse of the
national song-writer :
" Of aU the M.P.s
That Parliament sees
From session to session, I'll -wager
Neither Saxon nor Scot
Can pretend that they've got
A member to match The Major.
, Our portly and ponderous Major,
Om: mighty magnificent Major—
, The councils of State
Have no man of such -weight.
Or such girth, as our ho-wld Irish Major."
Thus the song- writer ; and whilst acknowledging the accuracy of
this personal description, one is glad to note by the next verse

1876.] MB. DISBAELI NO MOEE 1 161
that a due sense of the Major's position in the House is beginning
to manffest itself in Ireland :
" "When he rises, the House
Is as mute as a mouse.
They kno-w he's no foolish rampager —
But soon the "Hpar, Hears,"
And the thundering cheers.
Are brought out by the speech of The Major.
By the po-werful speech of The Major —
The roof-shaking speech of The Major — ¦
Be it early or late
The members -will -wait
To hear a broadside from The Major."
There was a time not far distant when it was the custom in
some Irish newspapers to speak of the Major as a buffoon, and to
talk of the character of Irish parliamentary representation suffer
ing at his hands. Nothing could be remoter from the truth than
this impression. The Major has nothing of the buffoon about him,
and ff it were possible to take him as an average specimen of the
culture and breeding of the Irish member it would be a happy
thing for Ireland. He is a gentleman, even of courtly bearing,
who has had the benefits of a classical education and the company
at "the mess-table of one of her Majesty's most distinguished
regiments. So far from being a buffoon, he is terribly in earnest,
and it is this earnestness which boils and bubbles over — catching
up his ideas as they issue from the brain and casting them into a
caldron whence they are poured out before the House a seething
and incongruous mass — that makes him one of the most irre
sistible speakers that ever addressed the House of Commons.
That in cooler moments he is capable of marshalling his ideas
and arguments in a fair train was shown by his speech on moving
the second reading of the Municipal Franchise (Ireland) Bill.
That he has a keen and ready wit, quite apart from the quality of
unconscious humour, is proved by a little incident that happened
a short time ago. One of his constituents, being fully possessed
by the conviction that the Major, having got into Parliament, had
only to ask in order that the Government should give, cast a
longing eye upon a local postmastership — let us say at Bally-
mahooly — that had fallen vacant, and wrote to the Major to secure
the reversion of the office. The-Major replied in a letter that
would have looked exceedingly well in the local paper. Whilst

162 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [isre.
protesting his great anxiety to serve so respected a man as Mr.
Tim Doolan, he declared that he never would stoop to accept a
favour at the hands of a Saxon Government.
" Never shall it be said," so the letter concluded, " that by
favours done, the English Government had a hold on yours truly,
Purcell O'Gorman."
The Irish patriot in Waterford was, however, not able at the
moment to see matters through this fine atmosphere of sentimen
tality. It is all very well to contemn " Castle influence " when
it is exercised in behoof of your neighbour, and to denounce with
shrieks, and if necessary with shillelaghs, any man who might be
suspected of having taken a bribe from the Government. But
when you want a post-office for yourself, it is quite another pair
of sleeves. So Tim Doolan thought, and he wrote again, urging
the hon. and gallant member to use his influence in high quarters
to secure the desired office. The Major answered 'with grave
dignity, repeating his objections; whereupon Tim, uttering an
epistolary " Whirroo ! " came down upon his parliamentary re
presentative with some strong language, in the course of which
he reiterated his belief that the Major had only to write a line
and the thing would be done.
On receipt of this the Major sat down and wrote the follow
ing epistle : — " House of Commona.
"Sir, — I am in receipt of your letter of the Sth inst., in -which you state that I
have ' only to -write a line ' in order that you should obtain the appointment you
desire. I have therefore much pleasure in hereby appointing you Postmaster of
BiUymahooly. — I am, sir, your obedient servant,
" Tim Doolan, Esq., 'Waterford." " Purcell O'Gokman.
And the Major has never heard from him since.
Aug. 12. — The Oucc more the revolving seasons have brought
raeh" Mp' °'^' ^^^^^ ^^^ ^"^6 when the House of Commons is
voiceless, and in the gloomy chamber the Speaker's
chair, swathed in unbleached calico, looms through the mist of
the quickly-closing autumn nights like a ghost whose unsubstan
tial liver is touched with spiritual jaundice. Once more we have
seen the select throng of members crowd in single file between
the Treasury bench and the table, ambitious to mark the close of
a useful Session by shaking hands with the Speaker. Once more,

1S76.]

ME. DISEAELI NO MOEE! 163

and for the last time this Session, the " Who goes home ? " of
cheery Mr. Hartley has rung through the resounding lobby, and
there has been no answer save the shuffling of the rapidly-de
parting feet.
Of most who have thus departed we shall see their faces once
again in the coming year. But one has gone forth who never
will return. Little did I think, when I somewhat impatiently
listened on Friday week to Disraeli 'winding up the debate on the
Turkish iniquities in Bulgaria, that this was the last speech he
would make in the House of Commons. Forty years has
Disraeli dwelt in this wilderness of talk ; and now his voice is
for ever hushed as far as we may listen, and we shall see his face
no more. It is a pity for his fame, though it may be a just re
tribution for his faults, that his last recorded speech in the House
should have been such a poor one. It was occasioned by a
blunder, the outcome of the weak side of his political character,
and it was marked by all those littlenesses of composition and
manner that mar his speeches. Not being of a grand nature
he would probably bave failed had he taken leave of the House
in a set speech, such as that in which Sir Robert Peel announced
his retirement from office. To do that well a man must be
of a genuine nature, and capable of unaffected speech. Disraeli,
charged with such a mission, would certainly have soared
on the wings of magniloquent phraseology into the empyrean
heights of sentiment, and might have brought tears into the
eyes of John Manners. But he would not have touched the
heart of men as Gladstone or Bright would under similar
circumstances. We can well have dispensed with a set oration,
but it would have been a happier dispensation of events if
Disraeli might have gone out amid an accidental pyrotechnic
display of epigram and banter.
The actual speech, when the writer of history comes to study
it as throwing a light on the character of this remarkable man,
will satisfy Justice, as it marks the level reached by Disraeli
when he has had to grapple with the serious side of political
events. But no one would have grudged the effect that would
' have been gained if, in recurring to " Disraeli's last speech ih the
House of Commons," the student of history had found a finished
specimen of the skilful fence, the light satire, or even of the
crushing invective with which the Premier in these later years
L 2

164 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. me.
bas charmed the House of Commons. What he will actuaUy
find is so many words full of sound and fury signifying nothing —
except that the Premier had by reckless dealings with facts been
led into a hole, and that, lacking the largeness of nature which
prompts a man who has made a mistake frankly to acknowledge
it, he had for half an hour condescended to quibble in order to
prove that he was standing on level ground, and that the person in
the hole was Forster.
Though little more than a week has elapsed since his volun
tary act of political stultification was made known, men's minds
have already adjusted themselves to the altered state of things,
and pictures of the House of Commons without Disraeli are
familiar enough on the retina of the mental vision. Stafford
Northcote will naturally occupy, though he may not fill,
Disraeli's place, and the House will only become so many
degrees the more commonplace and humdrum. At first sight
this change may appear a personal advantage for Hartington as
removing from the scene a renowned opponent. But in some
respects it will be found that the noble Marquis will be a serious
loser by the new order of things. In times past it has been a
relief, refreshing to the honest soul, to turn from Disraeli -with
his hollowness, his disingenuousness, and his artificiality of all
kinds, to the simple solidity, the manly straightforwardness, of
Hartington. In this respect the point of contrast will be re
moved, for Stafford Northcote is only a degree less straight
forward and honest than the Leader of the Opposition.
The degree is marked at this point — that whilst Hartington
will positively go out of his way to tell a damaging truth, and
is absolutely incapable of existing within arm's length of a possible
misapprehension which if left unshattered might tend to his
advantage or to that of his party, Stafford Northcote has been
so long trained in diplomatic usages that he might not so re
gard his duty. To illustrate precisely what is meant, I should
say that whilst Stafford Northcote was able early in the Session
to make a statement about Egypt which, without precisely
affirming anything, conveyed to the public mind the impression
that the financial prospects of that country were in a favourable
condition, Hartington would have been wholly incapable of
making such a speech. Yet not the slightest slur rests upon
the character of the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the matter.

t)

1876.1

ME. DISEAELI NO MOEE! 165

Sir Stafford As a leader of the House of Commons, Stafford
Northcote. Northcote -will certainly prove himself eminently
respectable, and may even be more. He fails in one essen
tial quality, and the House will miss the light hand on the
rein whieh often guided it safely over spongy morasses and
by the verge of dizzy precipices. For twenty years, -with.
the interval of Gladstone's supremacy, the House of Com
mons has been accustomed to be won over by a joke, or to
be soothed by an epigram. Gladstone lacked the sixth,, and
not least precious, sense of humour, and often slaughtered
the foe -with a battering-ram, where Disraeli or Palmerston
would have cheerily tickled him to death with an oiled feather.
Stafford Northcote is head and shoulders less in mental
stature than Gladstone, and is distinctly more dark on this
side of humour than his old master. In truth, when I
call to mind Gladstone's occasional midnight encounters with
Cavendish Bentinck, before that distinguished statesman be
came one of Her Majesty's Ministers, and when I refiect upon
his demolition of Harcourt in the first Session of the new Parlia
ment, when that versatile politician had turned upon his former
chief, and presumed to lecture him from a position actually
occupied by his favour, I begin to suspect that the truer
estimate of Gladstone's character would be that his quahty of
humour and his power of sarcasm are crushed under the weight
of his logical and argumentative apparatus. Life to him is a
very serious thing, and he has not often time to use the lighter
artillery with which some lesser men prevail in the battle.
Stafford Northcote not only shows this same contempt for
the potent arts of raillery and banter, but is wholly incapable of
exercising them. He is a sound, safe man, of matured judg
ment, constitutional caution, generous sympathies, perfect up
rightness, and a wholesome horror of anything savouring of
Toryism. He has of late developed much skill and aptitude for
debate, and has greatly improved in his actual style of speaking.
When a man at the age of fifty-eight, who has been twenty-
one years in the House of Commons, suddenly begins to im
prove, there is no saying what point of excellence he may not
reach. Palmerston, the most successful leader the House of
Commons ever had, is a striking instance of the luxuriant
growth possible of attainment to plants that late in life discover

166 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [i878.
a capacity for flowering in fresh places. Palmerston was seventy-
one when he assumed the leadership of the House, and he
astonished everybody by the finished ease and supreme skill with
which he guided the restive force committed to his care.
Stafford Northcote succeeds to the reversion of the office with
thirteen precious years in hand as compared with Palmers
ton, and who knows what nascent qualities he may not be
possessed of ? He has distinctly improved at an age and under
circumstances when most men's faculties are fully developed,
and their mental habits irrevocably fixed. He may go on im
proving in the warm sun of prosperity till he combines the
bonhomie of Palmerston with the eloquence of Gladstone and the
dexterity of Disraeli.
In the meanwhile what will probably happen for the next
few years is that the tune of the House of Commons will be
pitched by the keynote of a man of respectable talents, busi
ness habits, and common-sense views, who will never disappoint
the expectations formed of him, and will occasionally surprise
the world by going beyond them.
Mr. Gathorne The prominence quietly and skilfully conferred
^otatment'"''' ^J Disraeli upon Stafford Northcote through
the full length of the Session has had the
effect of dwarfing the proportions of his colleagues in the
Ministry. This has notably been the ease with Gathorne
Hardy, who has with ill-concealed chagrin seen a high office, the
reversion of which at one time seemed his beyond dispute, hope
lessly slipping out of his grasp. He has accepted the disposi
tion of events in haughty silence, and the only hint of the real
state of affairs which the House of Commons has received has
been found in the observation of his studious avoidance of con
versation either with Disraeli or Stafford Northcote, his general
abstention from participation in debate not directly affecting
his o-wn department, and his ostentatious withdrawal to the
lower end of the Treasury bench. But what. Hardy has done
in the House during the Session has been well done, and his
skill as a debater was triumphantly and strikingly manifested
when unexpectedly called up in the debate on O'Connor Power's
proposal to release the Fenian prisoners. He utterly demolished
'Bright, and the fact that the great orator had, by a sui-prisingly

1876.]

ME. DISEAELI NO MOEE! 167

foolish speech, laid himself open to the attack, ought not to
detract from the praise due for the skill and force by which the
overthrow was made complete.
m. DisraeU's Ward Hunt has slept a good deal during the
young men. Session, and has to that extent been absolutely
safe, whilst in his waking hours a conviction that his natural
tendency towards bluster must be curbed if he is to retain
so comfortable a lounge as the Treasury bench has not been
without wholesome effect. Sandon may perhaps claim the
crown of merit amongst occupants of the Treasury bench,
having by the exercise of great skill and marvellous patience
carried in the teeth of a stormy Opposition the principal
measure of the Session, making it unexpectedly favourable
to the views of his own party — which, as critics from the
Liberal side are too apt to forget, is the aim and the duty of a
party Minister. Hicks-Beach has preserved his well-earned
character as the most successful Irish Secretary of recent date,
his inexhaustible patience and courtesy having stood the proof
of a third Session during which it has suffered the daily assaults
of Irishmen in and but of Parliament. Another illustration of
conspicuous success in office is furnished by reflection on the
career of W. H. Smith, whose business-like management of his
special department, resulting in a considerable saving to the
national purse, has been publicly acknowledged, not only by the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, but by gentlemen on the front
bench opposite. The office of Parliamentary Secretary to the
Treasury is admirable training for higher posts, and Smith has
paved the way for a promotion which cannot be long delayed,
and which, when it comes, will be satisfactory on both sides of
the House. Adderley having confirmed the opinion of him as
minister, to which people greatly esteeming the man were last
Session reluctantly driven, is, rumour goes, to be made a peer
— a fact which, if confirmed, would render supererogatory re
marks on the so-called " elevation " of Disraeli. John Manners
has gracefully and amiably ambled through the Session, and
would also make an excellent peer.
Du reste, George Hamilton is young, and India large. Cross,
who to-morrow night will be sleeping under the same roof as his
Sovereign at Holyrood, looks back with complacence upon a

168 A DIABY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [1876.
Session throughout which he has on the whole been well satisfied
with himself. Sclater-Booth has passed an innocuous Pollution of
Rivers Bill. The Lord Advocate, contrary to reasonable expec
tation, has carried north his scalp, the removal of which was
seriously threatened by George Campbell and the general body of
slighted Scotch members. That cheery old salt, James Elphin-
stone, is laid up with the gout, and the Treasury bench has
during the latter part of the Session much missed the humanis
ing influence of his presence. Selwin-Ibbetson has been allowed
to speak for the Government at least twice on dreary Wednes
day afternoons; and the Right Hon. Cavendish-Benthick,
Judge-Advocate-General, has preserved throughout the Session
a judicious silence.
Ex-Ministers. Of ex-Ministers there are only two exceptions
to a distinct decline of personal influence as a
net result of the Session. Gladstone is as great a power as
he has been on any day since the 17th February, 1874, and
by more than one speech during the Session has maintained
his old pre-eminence as a parliamentary orator. The other ex
ception is Hartington, and here the statement of the differ
ence may be carried farther ; for the Leader of the Opposition
has not only held his own, but has made long strides towards
the acquirement of a stronger position. As a speaker he has
vastly improved, ha-ving finally abandoned the idea that be
cause he held a responsible position he must needs stretch the
expression of his views on the framework of a long speech.
He now rarely speaks for more than twenty minutes — that
golden mean of time beyond which no man, from the Premier
downwards, needs stray twice in a Session — and frequently hehas
been briefer. Not only as a debater, ready in due season to throw
the light of common sense and high principle on the waters of
debate stirred by pragmatic pretenders or subtle schismatics, but
as a statesman of sound judgment and true political instinct,
Hartington is rapidly making real a position of predominance
which when first conceded was purely nominal.
Successes of the Amongst private members the chief prize of the
Session. Session belongs to Joseph Cowen, an award
made by universal consent, and surprising to no one save the

1876.] MR. DISRAELI NO MORE! 169
member for Newcastle, who cannot conceive how people should
attach so much importance to what he says or does. Cowen's
speech on the third reading of the Royal Titles Bill was one
of the most remarkable and genuine successes achieved in
an assembly not unaccustomed to surprises of that kind.
Subsequent though rare interpositions — as, for example, that on
the Amnesty debate the other week — proved that this outburst
of eloquence was not a mere fiash in the pan. Nature has_
gifted Cowen with the endowment of a simple eloquence
which if it stood alone would move a multitude. But when
he speaks in the House of Commons he addresses an assembly
every man in which is more or less intimately acquainted
with his genuine character, in which enthusiastic chivalry and
world-embracing loving-kindness are balanced by the action of a
keen intellect, a rich fund of practical common sense, and a wide
and close acquaintance with men and books.
Cowen's advances towards the front have been by leaps and
bounds. Dilke's progress has been more deliberate, but not less
certain. The member for Chelsea, who six years ago used to be
howled at by alarmed Tories who saw on his broad forehead
the mark of the Beast, is now one of the most acceptable
speakers in the House, a position gained without sacrificing any
of his principles or withdra-wing a foot from his position at the
outposts of Liberalism. In some respects the House has advanced
towards him; in others, relating to larger knowledge and the
wisdom gained by travel and intercourse with the master-minds
of both hemispheres, Dilke has advanced towards the House of
Commons. However effected, the union is complete, and is
likely to prove lasting.

SESSION 1877.

CHAPTER XIY.
EABL OF BEACONSPIELD.
Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield — Mr. Delahunty — Mr. Chamberlain's first speech
— Terrier and mastiff — Mr. Gibson takes his seat — The Earl of Beacons
field's first speech.
Feb. 8.— Benja- In the House of Lords a brilliant assembly was
BeaeoSfldd"* gathered before one o'clock, albeit the ceremony
at which they had come to assist would not take
place till two. The arrangements in the House were similar to
those observed last year. Noble lords had chivalrously aban
doned to the ladies every part of the floor, save the front row
of benches on either side. The sitting accommodation was
increased by the addition of a number of benches clustered
about the cross-benches where the princes who are also peers
of Parliament usually sit. All the backs were taken off the
benches, an arrangement which, apparently at least, gave a
fuller measure of room. Over the throne were spread the robes
of State, the long sweeping ermine cloak with just the edge
of purple and gold shown as the folds crossed. The wool
sack was in its usual place, but before it, corresponding with the
cluster of seats at the farther end, were a number of backless
benches. The bishops had abandoned their seats for the accommoda
tion of the Foreign Ministers, and shared with the judges these
benches before the woolsack. There were not so many bishops
nor so many judges as last year, a notable absence among
the latter being the Lord Chief Justice, who was prevented by
illness from attending. Lord Chief Baron Kelly, however, was
present, and conversed freely with his learned brethren.
Amid the crowd of peers who by half -past one o'clock filled
the benches, there were not many whose names are familiar as

1877.1 EARL OF BEACONSFIELD. 171
legislators. Lord Hampton was early in his place, and was soon
in conversation with the bishops. The Duke of Richmond and
Gordon, by exception among the Peers, appeared in military
unfform. Lord Gordon, better known as the Scotch Lord
Advocate, seized an unexpectedly early opportunity of taking
his seat as a Peer, finding a place among the crowd near the
cross benches.
The Foreign Ministers, who are always, excepting the ladies,
amongst the earliest arrivals on these occasions, formed a glit
tering mass of colour to the right of the woolsack. First
among them entered the members of the Chinese Legation, in
round high caps and petticoats, looking as if they had just
stepped off the panel of a tea-chest. They were appointed a
place on the fourth bench, where they sat and watched the
varying episodes of the ceremony with the keenest interest. In
the front row of diplomatists the form of Count Miinster
towered head and shoulders above his fellows, of whom Count
Schouvaloff, the Count Menebrea, and the Count De Cassa
Leglesia early became his companions. The Japanese and the
Persian Ministers occupied seats on the second row, in which
Mr. Pierrepoint, the American Minister, sat conspicuous by the
absolute plainness of his dress. In all the crowded assembly he
was the only man who did not wear uniform, or display a
jewelled order.
Count Beust was late in arrival ; and last of all, when there
seemed to be some truth in the rumour that he was not coming,
entered Musurus Pacha. His Excellency greeted with marked
cordiality the representatives of the great Powers, and was
himself welcomed with most cheerful pohteness. He sat next to
Count Miinster, and entered into earnest conversation with him.
At ten minutes to two the Lord Chancellor, preceded by the
Mace, entered and took his seat on the woolsack, in exceedingly
close quarters with learned judges and the lords spiritual, who
were massed on the cross benches before him. About a quarter
of an hour later his lordship received a signal, upon which he
left the House, and everybody knew that Royalty was coming.
With a swift rustling sound, the ladies, who had hitherto
sat with opera-cloaks covering their shoulders, began with one
accord to throw them off, and rose to their feet as the Prince of
Wales entered leading the Princess. His Royal Highness wore

172 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. nm.
the robes of a peer, -with no other difference save that the always
odd-looking garment was tied at the throat with white- silk
ribbon. Quitting the side of the Princess, he took a seat ia the
chair to the right of the throne, whilst the Princess partially
seated herself on the uncomfortably high woolsack, with her
face towards the throne, and her back to the throng.
Hardly had the noble lords and ladies reseated themselves
after receiving the Prince and Princess, than the sound of far-
off trumpets announced the arrival of the Queen. Preceding
Her Majesty on entering the hall came the Pursuivant and
Heralds clad in gorgeous cloth of gold. Their position was at
the left-hand side of the throne, but to reach it was a matter
that took up some time, owing to the necessity of passing be
tween the Prince and Princess of Wales, and skirting the foot
steps of the throne, to each of whom and to which it was neces
sary that all should bow in succession. The admiration of the
skill with which this difficult performance was carried out some
what distracted attention. On looking again to the door on
the right of the throne by which the procession slowly entered,
there appeared a familiar face, but a strangely disguised figure.
It was hard to think that the personage in the red cloak
tipped with ermine, who bore aloft a jewelled scabbard, was
Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield. Passing between the Prince
and Princess of Wales, and taking note of neither, the new
peer took up his position on the left of the throne.
The Queen, following, stopped to shake hands cordially with
the Prince of Wales. After this -greeting. Her Majesty ad
vanced to the steps of the throne and seated herself, whilst the
Princess Louise, who had followed in company with the Prin
cess Beatrice, advanced and threw the ermine robe partly across
Her Majesty's feet. The Marquis of Winchester followed the
Queen bearing the Cap of Maintenance, whilst the Lord Chan
cellor took up his position on the right of the Prince of Wales,
the Princess of Wales sitting alone on the woolsack.
At a signal from the Queen the lords and ladies, who had
been standing, resumed their seats, and the messenger was
despatched to summon the faithful Commons. A long pause
followed, during which Lord Beaconsfield stood motionless by
the side of the Queen unfalteringly bearing aloft the sword, and
with no more expression on his face than he has been accustomed

1877.) EARL OF BEACONSFIELD. 173
to show in the House of Commons when Gladstone, or some
other- gentleman on the benches opposite, has been denouncing
his policy or confuting his arguments.
The silence was presently broken by a confused murmur,
and the tread of many feet ; and in a few moments there ap
peared, walking in something of decorous and dignified order,
the Speaker, preceded .by the Mace, and accompanied by the
Chaplain. But after him the deluge, on the topmost wave of
which appeared the Home Secretary, making vigorous but
futile efforts, gallantly seconded by Childers, to keep back • the
surging crowd behind. When members got close up to the bar,
Stafford Northcote was by some means delivered from the centre
of the crowd, and was passed up, taking his position in the
front near the Speaker.
The Speaker being in his place, the Lord Chancellor advanced
to the steps of the throne, and, on bended knee, proffered the
Queen's Speech to Her Majesty, which she, by a slight gesture,
dechned to receive, and the Lord Chancellor, accepting this
as an instruction to read it, bowed low and turned to face the
House. But he had to wait for some moments whilst the
turmoil consequent upon the arrival of -visitors from the other
House was subsiding, and even after he had commenced to
read there was a tramping of feet outside, where members who
had unfortunately drifted to the rear stood at the doors like
the Peri. at the gates of Paradise.
The Lord Chancellor read the speech in an audible and
deliberate tone, making it quite an easy matter for foreign
Ministers to follow, as they did with much interest, the passage
relating to foreign affairs. The Speech concluded, Her Majesty
rose, and descending the steps of the throne, kissed the cheek of
the Princess of Wales, and as she passed out gave her hand to
the Prince, who kissed it. The whole of the ceremony, as far as
the Queen was concerned, did not occupy more than fifteen
minutes, and upon Her Majesty's departure the crowded benches
were emptied.
The House, however, did not remain long in an empty state.
It would appear that half of the many ladies who attended the
Royal celebration in evening dress had not done more than go
home to change their dress. Shortly after four they began to
reappear, now in morning dress. They took up their seats in

174 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [is77.
the gallery running round the hall, so far crowding it that even
the turret over the throne was occupied. The fioor of the House
was crowded ; and when, shortly after half-past four, the Lord
Chancellor took his seat on the woolsack, the House of Lords
presented an appearance such as has seldom been witnessed
during the present reign.
The attraction evidently was the ceremony of Lord Beacons
field taking the oaths, and this took place without much delay.
At twenty minutes to five the Premier appeared on the thres
hold, clad in peer's robes, the other lords, except the new
peer's sponsors, being in the ordinary morning dress in which
they are accustomed to attend to the affairs of the nation.
Lord Beaconsfield entered preceded by the Deputy Black Rod,
the Garter King-at-Arms, and the Earl Marshal, who led him
within the railings. Here the Earl of Derby appeared, and,
in company -with the Earl of Bradford, presented Lord Beacons
field to the Lord Chancellor. Then the new peer approached the
table, and handed the clerk his writ of summons as Earl of
Beaconsfield and Viscount Hughenden. This done, accompanied
by Earl Bradford and Lord Derby, he walked round to the
viscounts' bench, on which the three seated themselves, and
gravely saluted the Chancellor by thrice raising their three-
cornered hats, which they put on as they sat down. The Lord
Chancellor, also wearing his hat, raised it in acknowledgment of
the salute. Next the three lords proceeded to the earls' bench,
on whieh they again seated themselves and bowed to the Lord
Chancellor, this time with their three-cornered hats in their
hands. Finally Lord Beaconsfield walked out of the House, and,
returning in ten minutes, divested of bis cumbrous cloak, took
up his seat on the Ministerial bench, occupying the place
hitherto appropriated by the Lord President of the Council, and _
having on his left hand Lord Derby and on his right the Duke
of Richmond. There was some cheering on his entrance, but
nothing like such a welcome as was accorded to the Marquis of
Salisbury when, a quarter of an hour later, he entered and took
his usual place on the Ministerial bench. The cheers which
greeted the noble marquis came pretty equally from both sides of
the House, and expressed the general congratulations upon his
recovery from recent illness.

1877.] EARL OF BEACONSFIELD. 175
The interest of the evening was somewhat distractedly
divided between the House of Lords and the House of Commons,
and it must be admitted that the former prevailed. The House
of Commons was well filled when the Speaker took the chair,
notwithstanding the absence of many of the members, who
crowded the avenues of the House of Lords. All the Ministers
having seats in the Lower House were early in their places,
Stafford Northcote on entering being received with slight cheers.
Hartington, Gladstone, and Lowe formed part of the ex-
Ministers who crowded the front Opposition bench, the only
leading member of the late Government absent being Bright.
Feb. 16.— Mr. De- Delahunty, who had quite an enthusiastic recep-
a unty. .^.j^^^^ when he took his seat on Monday, is already
perfectly and cheerfully at home in the House. He has been
about a good deal this afternoon, eating buns in the lobby and
shaking hands with everybody in the House. I understand that
he is convinced as strongly as ever that the salvation of Ireland
is bound up in one-pound notes, and that he will on an early
day, possibly apropos of the Eastern Question, take an oppor
tunity of setting forth his views.
Feb. 17. — Mr. It would be interesting to know exactly what
fcstTpee^"'" impression Walter Barttelot formed of Chamber
lain's probable appearance and manner before he
had the pleasure of meeting him face to face in the House of
Commons. He had evidently evolved some fancy picture, for
his surprise to-night at seeing the junior member for Bir
mingham in a coat, and even a waistcoat, and on hearing him
speak very good English in a quiet undemonstrative manner,
was undisguised. It is reported that Sir Walter expected that
this fearsome Radical would enter the House making "a cart
wheel " down the floor, like ragged little boys do adown
the pavement when a drag or an omnibus passes. The good
Baronet's acquaintance with the forms of the House convinced
him that there would be no use in Chamberlain's presenting
himself in his shirtsleeves and with a short clay pipe in his
month. But on the score of waistcoats there is no Standing
Order, and the Radical might, if he pleased, have paid the
necessary homage to respectability by buttoning his coat across

176 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [1877.
his chest, whilst he gratifled his natural instincts by dispensing
with the superfluity of a waistcoat.
When, therefore, there uprose from a bench below the gang
way opposite a slightly-made, youthful, almost boyish-looking
man, with a black coat fearlessly unbuttoned to display the
waistcoat and disclose the shirt-collar and necktie, Sir Walter
began to stare and to cast side-glances at that other great legis
lator. Colonel Corbett, in the startled endeavour to " know what
he thought of this ? " Moreover, the Radical wore, not specta
cles witb tin or brass rims as Felix Holt would inevitably have
done had his sight been impaired, but — an eyeglass 1 Positively
an eyeglass, and, as far as one might judge looking across the
House, an eyeglass framed in precisely the same style as that
which Colonel Corbett himself wears when his good-humoured
face is turned towards a distant object. Surprise deepened when
the Radical in a low, clear, and admirably pitched voice, and
with a manner self-possessed without being self-assertive, pro
ceeded to discuss the Prisons Bill, opposing it on the very
lines which Sir Walter himself had made his Torres Vedras
when he besieged the Bill last Session.
This was very remarkable ; but there was only one thing for
an English gentleman to do, and that Sir Walter promptly
did. He rose when Chamberlain sat down, and, awkwardly
conscious of disguising his cart-wheel and no-waistcoat theory,
publicly abandoned it, and held out over the heads of Henley
and Beresford Hope the right hand of fellowship to the Radical
member for Birmingham.
It was an affecting scene, and beholding it, one forgot the
comic element and the hidden similitude to the graciously con
descending reception by a Mandarin of a barbarian from London
or Paris whom he has discovered does not go about with his head
under his arm, nor lunch off the broiled bones of his neighbours'
children. When, sixty years ago. Lord Amherst visited Pekin
as an Ambassador, the " Brother of the Moon " then reigning
sent him back to the Prince Regent with the following laconic
epistle : " I have sent thine arabassadors back to their own
country without punishing them for the high crime they have
committed." Barttelot was even kinder in his treatment of
the barbarian from the Black Country.
" If the Hon. Member for Birmingham," he said just now,

1877. EARL OF BEACONSFIELD. 177
"will always address the House with the same quietness, and
the same intelligence displayed on this occasion, I can assure
him the House of Commons will always be ready to listen
to him."
Feb. 18. — Ter- At five o'clock, when Gladstone rose to call at-
ifer and mas- |;e^tiQj^ ^0 -^he despatch addressed by Lord Derby
to Sir Henry Elliot on the 5th of September,
1876, the House was crowded. Every seat on the floor had
been early secured, and members congregated in double row in
the gallery facing the front Opposition bench. The Strangers'
Gallery and the Speaker's Gallery were alike filled, and the
portion of the latter appropriated for the use of Peers was
crowded. Before commencing his speech, Gladstone gave notice
that he would on an early day call attention to the despatch of
Sir H. Elliot, dated the 18th December, and ask who were the
important personages "who, the Ambassador had stated, had
declared that the Turk must be di-iven out of Europe."
The loud laughter which his emphatic reading of this ques
tion had given rise to subsiding, he proceeded to address himself
to his subject. After some preliminary criticisms of the nego
tiations in Constantinople, amid which he found there were
under-currents continually counteracting the representations of
the Government as set forth in the despatches now published,
he protested against the theory advanced in the particular
despatch under consideration, that England had been, would be,
or, he might say, could be placed in the humiliating circum
stance of not being able to perform her treaty engagements.
What these treaty engagements were he inquired at some
length; and after discussing the Tripartite Treaty, he arrived
at the conclusion that the treaty in question must be the
Treaty of March, 1856. He showed with some elaboration that
when in 1871 the Government of which he was the head had
been a party to the revision of the Treaty of Paris, they were,
owing to the existence of war between France and Germany,
deprived of any " leverage for raising the whole question of the
interior affairs of Turkey." He therefore held that the late
Administration were free from the reproach of accusing the
Government of neglecting a question which they had themselves
omitted to deal with. He concluded a speech of nearly an hour's
M

178 A DIARY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1877.
duration by asking Ministers definitively to state whether they
still found themselves bound, after all that had happened in
Turkey, by the engagements of the Treaty of 1856.
Hardy emphatically answered that the Government did so
regard their duty, and went on to state, amid loud cheers from
the Ministerialists, that it had been proclaimed at the Conference,
and' he again proclaimed it, that England would be wrong
in every sense of the word if she were to endeavour to employ
material coercion against Turkey. That at least was the present
view of the Government, but he declined to look into the future
and say what might happen under different circumstances.
After some talk, Chaplin, in a speech of unusual acrimony,
addressed directly to Gladstone, and pointed by frequent ges
tures towards him, laid at his door the whole responsibility of
the European crisis. Cheered by members around him, Chaplin
presently reached a climax at which he told Gladstone that as a
man of honour there was only one course open to him.
Hereupon Gladstone rose to his feet. Colonel Muir rising at
the same moment. The gallant colonel hotly appealed to the
Speaker to know how far these personalities were to be borne,
and Gladstone quietly observed that he also had risen to know
whether he was to be instructed by an hon. member in what
was the only course he might take as a man of honour. The
Speaker ruling that Chaplin was out of order, that gentleman
withdrew the expression; but the temper of the House now
being thoroughly aroused, and cheers and counter -cheers ringing
through the hall, Chaplin, with some warmth, undertook now,
or at any more convenient time, to give Gladstone an opportunity
of defending himself. Cries of " Move 1 move ! " came from
various parts of the House, and Chaplin moved the adjournment
of the House.
" I beg to second the motion,'-' Gladstone said, approaching
the table ; but it was several moments before he could proceed
further, loud bursts of cheering greeting him from the now
crowded benches on the Opposition side.
At the outset he spoke with evident emotion ; but as he
went on he became able to take a less serious view of the inci
dent, and, ill a tone of keen irony, bantered Chaplin, who did
not join in the general laughter, but sat with folded arms and
frowning face.

1877.] EAEL OF BEACONSFIELD. 179
The Chancellor of the Exchequer suggested that the discussion
ha'ving grown unexpectedly warm, it would be better to close it,
especially as there was no issue before the House. He begged
the leaders of the Opposition to make up their minds as to placing
some definite resolution before the House, and he undertook that
the challenge 'would be cheerfully taken up, and a full oppor
tunity found for settling the issue. Hartington called attention
to the fact that the question before the House was a motion for
the adjournment of the debate, and he thought it had better
be accepted. This led to a conversation, in the course of which
Elcho, echoing an observation frequently made on the Conser
vative side, urged the Opposition to " bring the question to
the test of a vote," which A. M. Sullivan said was precisely
what the Opposition would not do. What the Ministers
wanted, he added, amid cheers from the Opposition, was not
discussion but 'division. At twenty minutes to one in the
moming the debate was adjourned.
Feb. 19. —Mr. Gib- Gibson, the newly-appointed Attorney- General
sm takes his f^^. Iceland, took his seat on the Treasury Bench
to-night, beaming with happiness, and in charge
of the Irish Judicature Bill. The Government are fortunate in
obtaining the services of a man like Gibson in exchange for
those of Plunket. As Charles Lewis said, standing just now
Dehind the Treasury Bench, and almost laying one hand on the
head of the new Attorney-General and another on that of the late
Solicitor-General, the appointment of Gibson tempers the general
regret felt at the loss of Plunket. The new Attorney-General
has been in Parliament only for two Sessions, and his advance
ment might be regarded as unduly rapid. But in truth, though
Gibson is glad enough to accept office, the balance of obligation
is on the part of the Government. He is an excellent lawyer,
was born in Ireland, has a mellifluous voice just softened by the
real Dublin brogue, speaks fluently, is conciliatory in manner,
popular with his countrymen, acceptable to the House, and
though only forty years of age Nature has paid him, in the
sight of all men, the subtle compliment of dowering him with a
wealth of snow-white hair, an outward and visible sign of
matured experience and dearly-bought wisdom for which most
men have to wait till their strength be labour and sorrow.
M 2

180 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [is77.
If Gibson has a fault it is a tendency to overlay his argu
ment with words. He has hitherto rarely spoken under three-
quarters of an hour, and has shown no scruple about filling up
the round sixty minutes. Possibly this fatal failing arose from
over-anxiety and a consciousness that he was undergoing a state
of probation under the eye of Ministers. To-night, having
secured the prize which has been dangled before his eyes for a
Session and a half, he was judiciously brief, a hopeful sign for
the future, and an indication that circumstances have only tem
porarily obscured his appreciation of that great secret of
successful Parliamentary oratory — the limitation of speech
within the bounds of twenty minutes,
Feb. 20. — The It was the Housc of Lords that was to-night
con^sfleM'sfl^st *^® ^^^ °^ *^® Parliamentary universe, and
speech. thither fiocked the faithful Commons, as if the
occasion were the opening of Parliament, and
there were opportunity to the fore of a little horseplay in the
lobby. It is years since the two Houses were brought so fully
iuto personal contact. Prince Christian, from his place in the
centre of the gallery, by the bevy of fair ladies of whom the
flower was the Princess of Wales, looked down on a scene of
rare and moving interest. Right before him, full in view, was
the late Mr. Disraeli, sitting precisely as he used to do in the
House of Commons, with legs crossed over knees, arms folded,
head hung down, and watchful eyes covertly glancing up and
down the Opposition benches.
But what a change in his companions 1 Instead of Ward
Hunt lolling all over the bench, sedately sat the slim and
stately Carnarvon. For Stafford Northcote Lord Derby; for
Gathorne Hardy the Duke of Richmond ; and for the ladylike
Lord John Manners, ambling across to his seat as if he were
going through a quadrille, strode the black-bearded Salisbury,
restless and resistless as the sea off Start Point on a stormy
morning. But though the scene has changed the man remains, and
there is marvellously little difference between Mr. Disraeli in
the House of Commons and Lord Beaconsfleld in the House of
Peers. In some respects the difference is to. his advantage. In
the Commons the space between the Treasury Bench and the

1877.] EAEL OF BEACONSFIELD. 181
table is so cramped that a speaker has no room for oratorical
gestures, save at the risk of upsetting his own glass of water
or treading on the toes of his colleagues. In the Lords there
is abundant space, too much, perhaps, for an excitable orator
hke Argyll, whose nationality sometimes asserts itself by the
indication of a disposition to tramp up and down as if he were
playing the bagpipes. Beaconsfleld enjoys this enlargement,
and uses it judiciously, skilfully moving from side to side to
address himself in tum directly to the various sections of his
audience. One doubt that hung on the skirts of belief in the Premier's
success in the Lords was for ever dispelled by his speech to-night.
He can make himself heard in this gilded chamber apparently
with as much ease, and certainly with as little effort on the part
of listeners, as was his wont in the House of Commons. The
House of Lords is, by reason of its defective acoustical pro
perties, the grave of much eloquence. It is not only Lyttleton
whom no one can hear beyond a radius of three yards. Derby,
who when in the House of Commons was heard without an
effort on the part of the listener, may be followed in the House
of Lords only by painful straining of the attention. To-night
portions of many of his sentences were lost before they reached
the gallery. Granville, who has displayed much personal con
cern at the inconvenience, and is fully alive to the particular
advantage of being heard in the galleries, was inaudible in his
opening sentences, and might be followed only when by manifest
effort he fixed his voice, and steadily maintained it, at a certain
pitch. Salisbury has a powerful voice, but conveys to the
listener the conviction that he is shouting. Beaconsfield spoke
apparently as if he were in the House of Commons, and it
seemed as if the notorious acoustical failure of the House of
Lords were a fable.
This ability to make one's self heard is an incalculable ad
vantage by the possession of which the Bishop of Peterborough
has largely profited. There may (or may not) be right Reverend
Fathers on the bench who possess the eloquence of Dr. Magee ;
but of the bevy, he alone is able to dominate the atmosphere of
the House of Lords with clear strong voice.
Another doubt connected with Disraeli's career in the House
of Lords was also brushed away to-night. How would the

182 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. (i877.
older members of this extremely exclusive club receive "the
political adventurer" who had crowned, if not sanctified, his
career, by jDlacing on his own head a coronet ? Would they sniff
at him ? Would they, when he joined in the conversation, raise
their eyebrows in polite inquiry as to who he might be ? and
would they draw around them their skirts as he walked through
their midst ? all which might be easily and effectively accom
plished within due Parliamentary limits. If any, when they
heard that Benjamin Disraeli was about to bloom into Earl
Beaconsfield, thought they would thus comport themselves, they
have found abundant reason to change their intention. Mr.
Disraeli was never more at ease in the House of Commons than is
Lord Beaconsfield in the House of Lords, nor would the personal
supremacy of the one personage suffer by comparison with the
domination of the other.
The House of Lords is not much given to cheering, and
studiously eschews the vulgarity of laughter. " In my mind,"
wrote a formerly distinguished member of the House in a letter
to his son, "there is nothing so ill-bred as audible laughter.
A man of parts and fashion is only seen to smile, but never
heard to laugh. '-"
Men of parts and fashion, of course, abound in the House of
Lords, and it follows that, though the august assembly may
occasionally be seen to smile, it is rarely heard to laugh. No
pieer who has not from early life been tainted with the manner
of the House of Commons ever lays himself out to draw a cheer,
much less to raise a laugh. Granville from time to time utters
polished witticisms or discharges kid-gloved sarcasms, at which
noble Lords smile approvingly, with due avoidance of the "dis
agreeable noise which laughter makes, and that shocking dis
tortion of the face it occasions," against which Lord Chesterfield
warned his accomplished son. Hitherto Salisbury has been the
only man who could at pleasure cause noble lords to scandalise
each other by the sound of voices raised above conversational
pitch, or to create mutual horror by that "shocking contor
tion" of the face by which Supreme Providence has irrevocably
stamped its disapproval of the vulgarity of laughter.
But Salisbury, in addition to being of undoubtedly good
birth, claims the sympathy of his order by the fact that un
toward circumstances threw him, at an impressionable age.

1877.] "WEICE LEADEE?" 183
among another class of society. The story goes that when Lord
W  remonstrated with the Duke of R  for laughing and
cheering when Salisbury addressed the House, his Grace drew
himself up and said in his most stately manner,
" My lord, I do not cheer or laugh at the Marquis of Salis
bury, but at Lord Cranborne, M.P."
Thus Lord Salisbury is suffered; Lord Beaconsfield is
accepted. Throughout his speech to-night cheers and laughter
followed his sentences with a frequency and a heartiness that
might not have been excelled in the House of Commons. The
deprecating air with which noble lords are accustomed to endure
the presence of any man who so far forgets himself as to make
a speech gave way to an attitude of earnest attention. It was
not a good speech, and in the House of Commons would have
been scouted as insufferably heavy. The Premier waded through
a recital of events familiar to every one — at least, in their actual
occurrence, and the mental excitement of comparing Disraeli's
version of facts with accepted records has long worn itself out. But
such as it was the speech was eagerly applauded by noble lords, who
laughed even at such commonplace witticisms as that by which
Granville's disclaimer of an argument attributed to him was
somewhat rudely scorned. It is the latest, but surely not tbe
least triumph of a victorious career that Disraeli should thus
have subdued the House of Lords.

CHAPTER XV.
WHICH LEADEE?"

Indiscipline in Opposition— A Cluster of Orators— Mr. Biggar and Mr. Chaplin-
Sir Hardinge Giffard s-worn in— Mr. Seely— A Deputation to Lord Beacons
field — McCarthy Do-wning crushed again.
Feb.22.-indi8ci- It is many months since " the Liberal Party were
sitiin.™ ^^°' consolidated in the smoking-room of the Reform
Club ; " but it is evident they have not yet been
consolidated in the House of Commons. A bundle of loose sticks,
no hand may touch them but they impotently scatter, and the

181 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. 1877.
impossibility of moving them by a single impulse, or in a given
direction, may be demonstrated by anybody at any moment on
any night of the session. To-night was presented for the edifi
cation of the world, and the amusement of the Conservative
Party, the familiar spectacle of eruptions from various quarters
on the Opposition Benches, each section firing off on its own
account without the slightest reference to the eternal principle
that all well-regulated volcanic mountains have a common crater.
Possibly what took place to-night may be justly attributed
to the recent introduction of a managerial policy of ingenious
questioning. For some time past the proper thing — not ex
clusively prevalent on the Opposition side — when a difficulty
arises, is for some private member to get up and put a question
to a minister or an ex-minister, which question the right hon.
gentleman or noble lord answers with a slight look of surprised
interest, and more or less unsuccessfully hides the fact that the
interlocutory has been what is called "arranged." Akin to this
is a system of Parliamentary kite-flying by which a private
member, at the instigation of gentlemen on one or other of
the front benches, draws up a resolution on a ticklish question,
and precipitates a debate, in the course of which the opinion
of the House may be tested without involving distinguished
members. To-night there was a cloud of notices of motion on the paper
with one, half-threatened from the front Opposition bench,
raising the question of foreign policy.
In moving the adjournment of the House, in order to find
an opportunity of speaking, Mitchell Henry " respectfully
asked the leaders of the Opposition " to state what course they
intended to take, and so relieve private members from the state
of uncertainty under which they laboured. The cry of " Which
leader ? " persistently rising from the Ministerial benches, Henry
apologised to Hartington, and limited the application of his
question to the noble lord.
The Ministerialists were jubilant at this cross-fire of insu
bordination, and indeed the only comfort Liberals may find in
the episode centres in the bearing of Hartington. The turn
given to events by the direct question of Mitchell Henry was
wholly unforeseen, and the noble lord had no time for delibera
tion on the course he was called upon to take. Yet nothing

1877.] "WEICE LEADEE?" 18-5
could have surpassed the manner or been better than the matter
of his brief speech. He took no notice of the unintentional
stab from Mitchell Henry, of the defection of Trevelyan, or of
the mocking cries with which each had been hailed from the
other side. He calmly and judiciously disposed of the ques
tion of business arrangement, and then in a few spirited sen
tences answered the whole case against the Opposition policy,
saying more in its defence than its supporters thought was
possible. It is a pity Hartington is so superbly indifferent. If he
had but a portion of the superfluity of enthusiasm and of
self-assertion that might be found in his immediate neighbour
hood he would speedily resolve the doubt as to whether one
speaking of the controlling influence amongst ex-ministers should
say " the Leader " or " the Leaders " of the Opposition.
Feb. 28.-A cius- It is interesting to observe the various ways in
.ter of orators, -^yjiig];! members accustomed to deliver speeches in
the House cf Commons regard their own performances. Perhaps
the man who most thoroughly, even uproariously, enjoys himself
on these occasions is Beresford Hope. In truth, he somewhat
damages his own case, smothering his good things under pre
dominating guffaws, and strangling his jokes before they are
fully born. The House always laughs throughout Beresford
Hope's speeches ; but it is less at their pointed humour, which
is really excellent, than at the spectacle of the hon. member
roUing about in ecstacy at a joke which as yet has not fulfllled
the period of gestation.
Hope often says exceedingly good things, but he is re
garded as a humourist chiefly on account of the strange noises
and comical contortions of the body amid which his jests are
born. In less marked degree Harcourt takes a mean advantage
of his hearers by privately enjoying his jokes before any one
else has the chance. Sir William, to do him justice, is conscious
of the disadvantage this habit imposes upon a speaker, and in
effectually attempts to smother the chuckle under a prolonged
and unmusical " en'-err-err."
Forster, as becomes one of Quaker parentage, to whom all
subterfuges are vanity, enjoys his o'wn humour so unaffectedly
as to render the enjoyment absolutely exclusive. I never heard

186 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS [i877.
Forster make a joke ; but I have frequently watched the pro
cess of manufacture going on. A joke (made by himself, of
course, I mean), takes Forster first in the knees — more particu
larly the right knee. These (or this) begin wagging more or
less furiously according to the calibre of the joke. If it is a
very good one the agitation is tremendous, and ex-Ministers on
either side begin cautiously but promptly to remove their own
limbs from the vicinity of the spot where Forster is standing.
Gradually the joke mounts upwards till it reaches his shoulders,
which it shakes mercilessly. Next it runs down his arms as
far as his elbows, when they also join in the general commotion.
As this muscular contortion is the commencement of the expres
sion of humour, so its conclusion is a prolonged chuckle, amid
which what remains of the jostled joke is for ever lost. Forster
has had a good time with it, but no one else knows anything
about it, and people are fain to take its existence for granted.
Newdegate enjoys his own speeches, though in another way,
making his own flesh creep with the awesomeness of his tones,
and his own hair uplift itself at the mention of the unutterable
things which, as far as the House is concerned, are frequently
lost in a thrilling but inarticulate whisper. The instances of
members who display any personal discomfort when speaking
are much more rare. Strange to say, the most insufferable
talker in the House, George Balfour, always wears, when gab
bling to the empty benches, a facial expression of infinite weari
ness and pain. A pleading, piteous, restless look on his face
favours the idea that Sir George is the unwilling human ma
chinery through which the disembodied spirit of some departed
member vexes an assembly which was not too good to him
whilst yet he dwelt in the flesh. The theory is that Sir George
does not want to thrust himself, as he does so frequently, upon a
contumelious House. He would rather take that ease to which
a long and honourable career in public life has entitled him,
and enjoy the respect and affection of his fellow inen. But
when he would be quiet, the spirit forces him to his feet, and
gabbles forth through his unwilling mouth, at a rate which no
human intelligence could follow, a collection of words to whieh
no one pays the compliment even of affecting to listen.
The only other members wdiom I can call to mind as showing
any indication of sharing the discomfort of the House when

1877.] "WHICH LEADEE?" 187
-they are making a long speech, are Edmond Fitzmaurice and
Gorst. Strangely enough, both indicate their sympathy with
the audience by the same outward and visible sign, each being
accustomed when speaking to change the poise of his body con
tinuously from one foot to the other, as if he were standing on
heated iron.
One other member who should have been included in the
first list, and observation of whom this evening gave rise to
this disquisition, is Mr. Alderman McArthur, who represents in
the House the intelligence and culture of Lambeth. Perhaps
there is no one who so thoroughly and unaffectedly enjoys his
own speech as the worthy alderman. He does not prematurely
laugh, or privily chuckle, or in any other way cheat his audience
of the full enjoyment of such entertainment as he provides.
What he has he gives openly and freely, with a certain stormy
ingenuousness, and an air of self-conviction that almost con
vinces the House. All he asks is, a day or two to commit to
paper the heads of his speech, with the peroration fully written
out, and a few glasses of water when he rises to speak. To
night Sir James Lawrence, who sat next to him, and undertook
to keep the mill supplied with water, behaved rather shabbily,
feedmg the alderman with only such portion of a glassful as
Sydney Waterlow had left after an oration of nearly an hour's
dnration. The Alderman was so engrossed with the delivery of
his speech that he did not notice the little fraud. Like a fledg
ling in the nest, that opens its mouth and trustfully takes what
the parental beak drops in, so did he reach out his hand, and,
with averted head, take the partially filled glass his guilty
colleague handed him.
No one looking at McArthur as he bustles about the House,
or sits spectacled and infinitely wise behind the front Opposition
bench, would suspect him of bearing about in his portly pei^on
the sacred fire of aldermanic eloquence. One would even think
that a gentleman whose views and aspirations are — save for one
incongruous flash that carries his vision to far-off Fiji — consti
tutionally bounded by the limits of a parish, would display some
diffidence when rising to speak in the House of Commons. But
whoever has thought so has done the alderman an injustice. He
addresses the House with all the easy confidence with which he
might enchain the Lambeth Vestry, and says to it much the

188 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [i877.
same things that might be heard at a meeting of that distin
guished body. ITe raises his voice to give emphasis to the most
familiar commonplace, points a platitude 'with a gestm-e big
enough to shake an empire, and has rather an anxious time of
it when he reaches the penultimate sentences of his speech, and
is not quite sure how they will fit in 'with the peroration
written on the slip of paper he has fished up from the depths
of his hat.
To-night he was favoured by fortune, and it was charming
to watch him holding the slip of paper at arm's length, and
through dimmed spectacles reading out the sonorous sentences
deliberately prepared in the seclusion of Brixton Rise. Only
spiteful people snap and snarl on these occasions, and wish
that the worthy alderman's fondness for the Fijians would lead
him to take up his residence in the favoured isle populated by
those interesting savages. The alderman is plump and well-
favoured, and it is possible to conceive circumstances under
which he might give unqualified satisfaction to a numerous
and appreciative assemblage of his fellow-creatures.
Mar. 1. — Mr. Chaplin is having a hard time of it in Parliament
Mr^Chapiiir'^ j^®^ now. A wcck ago he was magnificently
tossed by Gladstone; to-day, Biggar, .running
between his legs, tripped him up. Thus, within the limits of
a fortnight he has suffered the two extremes of punishment,
genius and stupidity, culture and vulgarity, having in suc
cession assailed and overcome him. On Friday week the scene
was almost tragic in its intensity; to-day it has been purely
comic, Chaplin's haughty stare, under which Biggar ought to
have shrivelled and left a vacancy in the representation of
Cavan, adding the last touch needed for the perfection of the
comedy. Chaplin had introduced a Threshing Machine Bill, which
had passed the second reading, and it was now proposed that it
should go into committee. Biggar moved its rejection, though
what the Threshing Machine Bill is to him or he to it remains
in the state of doubt that lingers around Hecuba's relation to the
player and his to Hecuba.
" Mister Speaker," said the hon. member, rising from below
the gangway, and to the horror of the Sergeant-at-Arms

1877.] "WELCH LEADEE?" 189
pleasantly walking as he spoke over tp the benches nearer the
Speaker's private ear, " This Bill's too narrer in its scope, much
too narrer."
I suppose what Biggar wants is a comprehensive Threshing
Machine Bill, one suitable to both sexes and all ages, adjusting
itself with equal ease to the requirements of the truant school
boy and of the "corner men" in the Irish quarter of the
Liverpool streets. However, it be, this proposal of Chaplin's
was "too narrer," and so met with his uncompromising
hostility. It was a quarter past five when the Bill was called on, and
as Chaplin contented himself with simply moving that the
Speaker leave the chair, Biggar had a whole half hour wherein
to converse in order to accomplish his purpose of " talking out "
the Bill. Contrary to the popular impression, derived from dim
recollection of his famous four hours' speech, the member for
Cavan is by no means a fluent speaker. He finds some assist
ance from the circumstance that he is not particular as to what
he says. But even with that advantage he has a difficulty in
stringing together sufficient sentences to carry him over half an
hour. His four hours' speech was chiefly made up of readings
from a Blue Book, and this afternoon he attempted to eke out
the time by reading and discussing the clauses of Chaplin's Bill.
But herein he committed a distinct breach of order, and first
the Speaker and next Pell interfered.
There is about the Parliamentary aspect of Biggar a certain
grotesqueness which relieves him from the odium of absolute
unpopularity. It is possible to suppose that when, for example,
he gave notice of his intention to move the rejection of the
Oxford and Cambridge University Bill, he was conscious of the
broad humour of the thing. There is something farcical in the
metallic sound of his voice ; in his attempts to assume a
Parliamentary tone; in his odd mispronunciation of words
a less reckless man in his circumstances would avoid; and in
the argumentative way in which he approaches the discussion
of a subject of whose bearings he evidently has no information.
When he has made up his comprehensive mind to spite some
body by opposing a measure he has set his heart on advancing
by a stage — Biggar always thinly veils his purpose under Parlia
mentary forms and phrases.

190 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [is77.
Thus to-day, when he rose on Chaplin's moving his treasured
Bill into committee, it was not to vex the soul of the patrician
by talking his Bill out. No : his objection simply is that "the
scope of the Bill is too narrer, much too narrer. Mister Speaker."
When he foils the purpose of a Minister who wants just a few
minutes before half-past twelve to pass a measure or a clause
through a formal stage, which whether it be done now or next
day is not of the slightest importance to any one save the
Minister, Biggar moves the adjournment solely on the ground
that it is getting late, that the House has been sitting for some
hours, that members are weary, and that it is not desirable
in the interest of the country that legislation should be hurried
through under these circumstances. All this he does in a
cool, deliberate manner, and with a grotesque gra'vity that makes
the House laugh in spite of itself.
Mar.6.— SirHar- There was a good deal of irreverent jesting at
sworn i^!*^""^ *^e expense of Kenealy when that great and
good man, being returned to Parliament, walked
up the floor of the House of Commons, accompanied by a
gingham umbrella and a hat, hooking the former on to the
neck of the mace, whilst he recklessly deposited the latter on
the brass-bound box of Her Majesty's principal Secretary of
State. But Wisdom is justified of her children, and it would
have been better for Hardinge Giffard to-night if he had been
just half as wise as Kenealy, and leaving his umbrella in the
cloak-room, had brought his hat to the table 'with him.
It was a beautiful sight to see the hon. and learned gentle
man walking up the floor of the House, guarded on one side by
the Ministerial Whip and on the other by the junior member for
Oxford University. With hands crossed behind his back, pace
attuned to that of his escort, a slight flush on his ingenuous
cheek as the jubilant cheers of the Ministerialists hailed his final
triumph, and over all a pleased smile of hope, and trust, and
rest, the Solicitor- General approached the table, at the corner of
which Erskine May stood attendant. Crushed at Cardiff, left in
the lurch at Launceston, hustled at Horsham, named as a pro
bable starter at every election race in the three kingdoms that
had taken place during the last eighteen months, the blushing
borough of Launceston had on a second wooing yielded to his

1877.1 "WEICE LEADER?" 191
advances. And now had come the moment of supreme triumph,
when his happiness and hers was to be ratified in the presence of
all men. It was a moment of sweet content, of proud joy, of
high fulfilment of long^delayed re'ward, the more grateful because
so patiently laboured for, and so long withheld.
As the Solicitor- General advanced towards the Speaker, with
head coyly bent, with the pleased smile on his face, the unaccus
tomed blush on his cheek, and the glad eyes that first drank in
the tribute of the boisterous welcome from the crowded benches
to the left, and then slyly glanced at the not unfriendly faces on
the silent benches to the right, there surely was not a happier
man in England.
But how transitory is human happiness ! When the new
member arrived at the table and beheld Erskine May standing.
there 'with outstretched hand, he recognised in this another
evidence of friendly welcome, and showed a disposition warmly
to shake it. But it was the return to the writ the Clerk wanted,
and on mastering this new fact a remarkable change came
over the Solicitor-General's face. The light faded, the smile
vanished, and a dark cloud of doubt brooded over the eye
brows, Where was the indispensable document ? He cer
tainly had had it when he entered the House, and it must
be in his pocket.
Forthwith he began to search, and to do him justice he pro
ceeded to accomplish his task with a deliberation and a con
scientious completeness 'that for ever establishes his credit for
nerve and self-possession. In full gaze of four hundred gentle
men, quizzing, laughing, and cheering, Hardinge Giffard pro
ceeded to look -for the certificate with as much coolness and
method as if he were searching for an entry in the Record Office,
First he emptied the contents of the breast-pocket in his coat,
positively Uttering the table as if a mail-bag had burst over it.
From the heap he took up letters one by one, and, carefully
scanning them on both sides, laid them aside in orderly succes
sion. This accomplished, he proceeded to search the coat-tail
pocket on the Ministerial side in like manner, and with like
result. Next the coat-tail pocket on the Opposition side was
visited, with prodigious results as to the production of miscel
laneous papers, but with like failure as to the discovery of the
certificate.

193 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [1877.
Gracious powers ! was there ever a mortal man who went
about his daily work so stuffed in fiank and rear with letters
as this Solicitor-General ? A postman on Valentine's Day
is a light-weight compared with him. There seemed, first, no
end to his pockets, and secondly, no conclusion to his corre
spondence. Given this abnormal condition with respect to miscellaneous
papers, add the cool deliberation of a search which insisted upon
examining each paper in succession back and front, and enclose
the picture within a framework of four hundred gentlemen
shrieking -with laughter, and there is provided some faint notion
of how Hardinge Giffard entered Parliament.
When he reached his last pocket and had tumed over the
ultimate letter, there was a slight pause of wondering expecta
tion, a brief intermission in the noise of cheers and laughter.
What would he do next? Had he more letters somewhere?
Were his boots stuffed with them ? Was his coat lined with
them? Did he wear patent expanding trousers, warranted to
hold a week's correspondence? Whilst these thoughts passed
through the minds of men, and no one would have been surprised
to see Sir Hardinge seat himself on the floor and begin to pull
off his boots. Dyke, who had been standing by, his recollection
of official responsibility vainly struggling with his sense of
humour, suddenly darted off down the House. Presently he
returned, waving a piece of blue paper.
For a moment an ungenerous suspicion pervaded the
Opposition. There is a well-kno-wn Parliamentary practice
of laying a return on the table " in dummy." Was this a
" dummy " certificate hastily devised in order to avert the
ludicrous consequence of the Solicitor-General's having to add
another day to his long-deferred admission to the honour of a
seat in Parliament ? A joyous ringing cheer burst forth from
the Opposition as the Speaker beckoned Dyke to approach,
and privily questioned him touching the bona-fldes of the blue
paper. But it was all right. The new member had left the
document in his hat on the benches under the gallery where he
had sat, blissfully dreaming in the lustrous sunlight of perfect
noonday in which the world, bleak enough to some, for him spun
round, as he awaited the Speaker's summons to take his seat on
the Treasury Bench.

1877.1

"WEIGH LEADER?" 193

Mar. 7. - Mr. No one to look at Seely would imagine that he
Seely. possessed the power to move a mountain, and yet
to-night he has made Ward Hunt roar like a sea-lion. A mild,
softly-spoken, precise gentleman of the old school, is Seely,
who walks about -with disproportionately long strides and
vaguely conveys the impression that he wears snow-shoes. It
seems a peculiarly happy indication of the fitness of things that
he should represent Lincoln, of which one (who really knows
nothing about it) has the impression that it is a dapper, clean-
looking, highly-respectable, but decidedly slow cathedral city,
which years and years ago was stranded somewhere on the east
coast, out of the main highway, and has hved very happily
there ever since.
Seely contents himself with one speech a year ; but what a
speech it is 1 You cannot hear it all, for though his spirit
truly is willing, his voice is weak. But — though this impres
sion also is vague and indefinable — you feel that he is framing
a tremendous and unanswerable indictment. There is no mis
taking the way in which he carries his glasses to his eyes after
having made an inaudible remark. You know by the serene
expression of his mouth, the flash of the inflexible eye, and the
unyielding grip on the pince-nez, that somebody has been hit,
and hit hard too.
Then when Seely has finished his speech, and sits listening
with judicial air to the criticisms of hon. and right hon. gentle
men, he has an impressive way of taking notes, which is per
fectly overpowering. It is not done ostentatiously or offensively.
Quietly, yet firmly, the highly-polished gold pencil-case travels
at brief intervals over the white paper, and the awed observer
feels that the counter arguments are already answered. Such is
indeed the actual fact. In the course of the debate to-night,
Seely took more notes than he could have read out in an hour,
and when replying, did not refer to one in a hundred. It was
enough that he had noted them down. The presumptuous dis
putants were answered.
Mar.8.-ADepu- The Premier received a deputation to-day of
Berconsfleii which Lord Shaftesbury gives an amusing
account, recalling a story told of a deputation
that waited on the late Louis XIV. It was composed of

194 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. nm.
members of the royal household who had a petition to prefer.
Bazire and Soulaigre, two of the king's valets, undertook to
act as deputies, and obtained -without difficulty an audience of
the sovereign. The next morning, the chronicler writes, Louis
ordered the deputation to be introduced. Bazire, who was to
speak, began to have an uncomfortable sinking at the pit of the
stomach, his knees were loosened with terror, and he just
managed to stammer out the word " Sire." Having repeated
this word two or three times, he was seized with a felicitous
inspiration. "Sire," he once more began (and concluded), "here is
Soulaigre." Soulaigre, looking unutterably wretched, commenced in his
turn, "Sire — sire — sire," — then (oh! happy thought)^ ended
like his colleague, " Sire, here is Bazire."
Something very like this happened to-day at the presentation
to Beaconsfield of " a beautifully emblazoned address framed and
glazed," from the factory operatives of the United Kingdom.
The deputation consisted of five gentlemen : Lord Shaftesbury ;
Mr. Philip Grant, Manchester ; Mr. Mathew Balme, Bradford ;
Mr. John Gorman, Belfast ; and Mr. John Middleton, Dundee ;
the four latter gentlemen understood to represent Lancashire,
Yorkshire, Ireland, and Scotland. It had been arranged that
each should say a few words, and Lord Shaftesbury concluded
his introductory remarks by referring to this treat in store for the
Premier. When Lord Shaftesbury had made an end of speaking,
Lord Beaconsfield, always polite, remained silent, whilst the
four representatives looked uneasily at each other, Mr. Grant
saying as plainly as eyes could speak, "My lord, this is Balme;"
Mr. Balme remarking through the same medium, " My lord,
this is Gorman," and so on the full round. But they did not
get beyond this inarticulate mutual identification. The imposing
presence of Lord Beaconsfield was too much for them, and the
Premier was fain to take their little speeches as read.
Mar.2i.— MoCar- Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards,
crushe°dTgiSf and there are few who, tried by this test, wifl be
found to have proved their manhood more in
disputably than McCarthy Downing. He is personally of a
genial and sanguine disposition, inclined to take kindly and

1877.]

"WHICH LEADER?" 193

hopeful views of life. He characteristically calls his mansion in
lordly county Cork "Prospect House," and, sitting under his
own vine and fig-tree, he looks out on a world that has never
estimated him at his true value, determinedly hoping that by-
and-by things -will mend. The future is full of hope, and
Downing hves in the "Prospect." Skibbereen, the nearest
post town to his dwelling-house, has shown its appreciation of
his merits in a marked manner. For six years in succession he
has been enthusiastically and triumphantly elected chairman of
the Skibbereen Town Commissioners, an honour which a man
might be proi^d to have conferred upon him once, but which five
times repeated seems to fill to the brim the cup of human
aspiration and to furnish the crown of mortal glory.
But there is a skeleton in every cupboard, a canker in many
rose-buds. For years Downing has cherished the desire to
change the name of the township with which he has been so
long, so honourably, and so prominently connected. I forget at
the moment what it is he would have it called; I know it is a
fine flo-wing name which would look much better as a postal
direction in connection with "Prospect House." But he has
been thwarted at the Board, denounced on the highway, fiercely
attacked by the Skibbereen Bagle. After a prolonged struggle
" Prospect House " is to this day " near Skibbereen."
It is in the House of Commons that Downing is accustomed
to meet with the most notable checks, and suddenly, when he is
sunning himself with the conviction that he has made a capital
speech, to find himself the object of attack from an unexpected
quarter. Thus it happened two sessions ago, when yielding to
the impulse of a kindly nature and the habit, .cultured in
Skibbereen, of coming to the front when opportunity offered, he
took upon himself to express in the name of the Irish people a
sense of the fairness and candour with which Hicks-Beach had
conducted a debate on the Peace Preservation Act. Glowing
with generous feeling and expanding with the pleasing sense of
patronising the secretary to the Lord Lieutenant, Downing on
that memorable occasion made a really admirable speech, which
affected Tom Conolly — now, alas ! no longer with us — to tears.
Downing's own voice faltered with emotion, and there was a
general, though inarticulate, feeling in the House .that if he
could only have fallen back in Meldon's arms as he finished, and
n2

196 • A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [1877.
if The O'Donoghue had -wiped his forehead with the corner of a
handkerchief dipped in a glass of water with which the Chief
Secretary had run across the. floor, a new era would have da-wned
upon the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and a
real union of peoples would have been brought within reach of
the outstretched hand.
But this picture of what might have been Was marred by a
double offence which Downing had unconsciously been guilty of.
As nearly every Irish member thinks that only he, or in his
absence, Butt, is qualified to speak in the name of the Irish
people. Downing, by his open assumption of such right, stirred
indignation in a score of hearts. Moreover, he had, from
his place in tha House of Commons, advanced the dangerous
doctrine that a Saxon Minister could, under any possible circum
stances, deal honestly, fairly, and even generously with Irish
business. I tremble at this moment when I call to mind the
scene which followed, and remember how poor Downing seemed
visibly to grow sparer and sparer in person, how his hair appeared
to thin, and how his cheeks fell in, burying the ghastly smile
that had bravely bisected his visage, as member after member
rose in flank and rear, disputed in the name of Ireland his
right to speak for her, and denounced him as a traitor.
That was a severe shock to Do-wning, and for many months
he lived in retirement. But his temperament is elastic, his mind
is cheerful, and he is incapable of bearing malice. ' To see him
to-day, happy in having early caught the Speaker's eye, one
would have thought that sorrow had never visited him, and that
the talons of the Skibbereen Eagle had never been fastened in his
throat. How conclusive were his arguments ! how profound his
research 1 how withering his denunciation of the landlord tainted
with the original sin of wanting rent for his property I how loud
his voice ! and how magnificent the gesture with which he flung
on the seat behind him the last page of his voluminous notes, and
taking off his glasses, confldently put it to the House whether,
after hearing all this, they could say that Butt's Bill, "for
which he (Downing) was to a certain extent responsible," should
not pass ?
For nearly two hours he was safe and happy. Nobody
had dissented from his speech — indeed nobody had noticed
it. The House was just on the verge of a division. In four

1877.] "WEICE LEADER?" 197
minutes all danger would be over, and there would remain the
untempered joy of having made a long speech. It was just at
this moment that Bright, of all men, rose from the front
Opposition bench, where he had sat all the afternoon with
many signs of interest in the debate. It had been expected that
he would speak, but as he let opportunity after opportunity slip,
the expectation was abandoned. However, here he was, at the
last possible moment. What was he going to say ? It must be
something weighty and urgent or he would not imperil the
division by speaking -at nineteen minutes to six. The House,
crowded for the division, was instantly hushed. All eyes were
bent upon the figure of the great orator and old friend of
Ireland, as he stood strangely trembling and awaiting the
coming of the once-powerful voice, that was laboriously muster
ing its shattered strength before it might be heard. Men at the
back of the throng at the bar stood on tiptoe to catch sight of
Bright. Men on the back benches on the Liberal side strained
their necks in the endeavour to watch his face as he spoke,
prominent in the crowd of faces being the pleased countenance
of McCarthy Downing.
Was Bright going to declare for the Bill ? or was he going
to deal it the heavy blow of his disapproval ? It seemed a long
waiting before he found his voice, and then — ah, ce pauvre
Downing 1 It was him that the great orator, the unpurehas
able friend of Ireland, had risen to denounce for his personal
attack upon a well-known Irish landlord, and he did it with a
vigour and a warmth that crumpled up Downing. It was
almost cruel in its suddenness, unexpectedness, and dramatic
completeness, and suppUed another example of the fate which
curiously, pursues an inoffensive and well-meaning man.

CHAPTER XVI.
ME. BUTT DEPOSED.
A lost chance — Mr. Trevelyan and the Athenajum — Mr. Julian Goldsmid's hat
—Mr. Butt in lo-w -water — A serious charge — Break-up of the Home Eule
Party — A mixed metaphor — The Opposition and the Ministry.
Mar. 22.— A lost Whilst intending candidates for a seat in the
c ance. House of Commons are awaiting the general
election, they might do worse than study the Parliamentary
career of Sir George Campbell. He entered the House in
April, 1875, under circumstances of unusual promise. He
was a Campbell, a Knight of the Star of India, a man pro
foundly versed in law, who knew India thoroughly, and had
brought home the reputation of having administered the Go
vernment of Bengal in a conspicuously able manner. Moreover,
he arrived at Westminster at a time when the affairs of India
were attracting an exceptional measure of attention. In his
first session the famine was the subject of anxious interest in
Parliament, and who knew more about the attendant circum
stances than the ex-Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal? In his
second session it pleased Providence and Disraeli to make the
Queen Empress of India, and to Sir George Campbell the
House naturally turned for information as to the practical
effects of such a proposal. Again, the intentions of Russia in
respect of India were much discussed last session, and hereon,
also. Sir George -was qualified to speak as one having authority
and not as Butler-Johnstone. He might, despite the irritating
influence of his voice, have attained a position as Chief Adviser
of the House on Indian affairs, and his influence for the good
of a country Englishmen do not understand, and therefore
neglect, might have gone beyond all precedent.
That is what might have been. What actually is will
appear from the fact that Campbell, rising just now to
put a question, was positively and literally hooted as I never
heard a man hooted in the House of Commons. It was a re
markable scene, and it need not be regretted if the lesson it

1877.]

MR. BUTT DEPOSED. 199

conveys be taken to heart. For two years the member for Kirk
caldy has been leading up to the climax of to-night, and the
marvel is that it was not earlier brought about. It is no new
thing that a man, who having done more or less good work in
India gains a seat in the House of Commons, should come to be
regarded as a bore. It is at least as old as the time of_ Warren
Hastings. There was in the Parliament in which the flgure of
Mr. Pitt largely loomed a certain Major Scott, late of the Bengal
Army. He obtained a seat in the House chiefly to advocate
the cause of his patron and employer, the Governor-General,
and how he got on is best related in Lord Macaulay's words.
" He was always on his legs," Macaulay writes ; " he was
very tedious; and he had only one topic. Everybody who knows
the House of Commons will easily guess what followed. The
Major was soon considered as the greatest bore of his time."
" Everybody who knows the House of Commons " will also
recognise in this picture the features of more than one member
accustomed and qualified to speak on Indian topics. But as
Primrose Hill is dwarfed by comparison with the proportions of
Ben Ne-vis, so Sir George Campbell overshadows the claims
" whieh other Anglo-Indians might put forward to the dignity of
the bore. Like Major Scott in respect of frequency of appearance
and of tediousness of speech. Sir George excels him inasmuch
as he has more than "one topic." He is sure to speak when the
question before the House relates in however indirect a manner
to India ; the chances are nine to one that when any other topic
is under discussion he -will speak. It being impossible to count
with certainty upon catching the Speaker's eye whenever one
pleases. Sir George, like an old campaigner, has turned his
attention to the almost untrammelled privilege of putting ques
tions, and this he has worked -with a vigour and a pertinacity
which has at length drawn down upon him the painful demon
stration of to-night.
Nothing can interfere with a man's putting a question, and
a httle adroitness enables him to overcome the difficulty of the
prohibition of introducing argument. Sir George has liberally
taken advantage of this chink in the armour of Parliamentary in
difference. If the daily Orders since Parliament met this session
be referred to, it will be found that Sir George Campbell has put
more questions than any other individual member. Scarcely a

200 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [1877.
night passes without his name appearing on the paper, and there
was an occasion a fortnight ago, when he rose three several times
in immediate succession, and put three lengthy and la-wyer-like
questions to hapless Ministers 1 *
There are profound depths of patience in the House of Com
mons, but they are not unfathomable. Sir George Campbell,
recklessly diving to-night, came suddenly and unexpectedly upon
the bottom, which he found to be composed of adamantine rocks,
and jagged withal. His name appeared upon the notice paper at
the head of three questions which, 'with an unusual show of
deference to the prejudices of the House, he had lumped to
gether, making them look as like one as possible. He presented
himself at a moment when the House had just had its brow
ruffled by the spectacle of Macdonald standing out on the fioor
with his subtly irritating
"Mr. Speaker — Sir — I begleaf to ask the ritehon'able
genelman the Secreray of State for the 'Ome Department  "
Sir George rose two seats behind the bench on which the
member for Stafford basks, and putting his glasses up, there
rang through the House the harsh metallic and slightly nasal
prelimiaary note which members instinctively associate with the
forthcoming utterance of something disagreeable. But Sir
George did not get any further. Suddenly, with startling force
and surprising unanimity, there burst forth from the Ministerial
benches a yell which it is said fiuttered the fish in the Westminster
Aquarium. Sir George, 'with the paleness of his parchment skin
grown a shade whiter, stood facing the roaring multitude, and
vainly trying to speak. His lips moved, and something like the
faint echo of the unspeakable voice was heard above the din.
Only that, and nothing more, though it was evident from the
heaving of his chest and the widely-parted lips that Sir George
of Edenwood was shouting at the top of his voice.
For fully two minutes — one hundred and twenty seconds —
this astounding legislative procedure prevailed. Then the Speaker,
who had been making labial signs of cries of " Order !" rose to
his feet, and so far quelled the tumult that the harshly metallic
* In 1877 it seems to have been a matter memorable for a fortnight
that a member should have put three questions at a single sitting. In the
session of 1884 it -was a common occurrence for three members to have among
them from t-wenty to thirty questions addressed to Ministers at one sitting.

1877.1 MR. BUTT DEPOSED. 201
voice of the Star of India might be heard to say that it would
not recite the obnoxious question relating to Valentine Baker.
Hereupon comparative silence fell on the angry and tumultuous
House, and Sir George put his first two questions, omitting the
last, which, in an utterly gratuitous manner, struck a blow at a
helpless man who has erred and has been adequately punished.
Apr. 4.— Mr. Tre- It appears to be the fashion just now in certain
AfteneT^.''''' ^^^^^ *» ™^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^* individuals. Trevelyan
coming up for election at the Athenseum to-day,
a determined effort was made to prevent his election. As one
black-ball in ten would suffice for this purpose, a strong whip
was made in the candidate's support, members from both sides
of the House taking part in the voting. The result was that
Trevelyan was elected by a considerable majority, 339 votes being
recorded in his favour, and twenty ineffective black-balls being
counted out of the other box.
Apr. s.— Mr. Ju- I think that as the years roll by Julian Goldsmid
sMd'a hat"^*^' g^o^s worse and worse as a speaker. He always
had a sing-song intonation, and ever rocked to
and fro his body, posed on 'widely-parted feet, dreamily suggesting
to Ward Hunt, as he slumbered on the Treasury Bench, reminis
cences of a curate he had seen somewhere reciting the Baptismal
Service over a babe which he held in unaccustomed arms, and
vaguely rocked. But the mannerisms of early Parliamentary
utterance have by practice grown so marked as to become posi
tively ludicrous. To-night Goldsmid was in a more than usually
pleased state of mind. It was he who had suggested the
making of a statement on introducing the Civil Service esti
mates, a process now going forward in an almost empty House.
The performance was, in short, a sort of Parliamentary bespeak,
and though pit, gallery, and boxes were empty, here was the
distinguished patron in his place in a front box, gently ap
plauding and graciously nodding his head as the Star recited
his part.
When W. H. Smith sat down, Goldsmid rose, and completed
the happiness of everybody by expressing his approval — inci
dentally of the speech by the Secretary of the Treasury, princi
pally of the novel procedure just inaugurated, and which, as he

202 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [1877.
distantly mentioned, he had himself suggested. This was all
very well, but there was more to follow. In rising to patronise
W. H. Smith, the Government, and the House generally, Gold
smid had judiciously placed his hat on the seat behind him.
Carried away by the musical tones of his own voice, and simmer
ing in the pleased consciousness of the position, he unfortunately
forgot aU about his hat, and having brought his remarks to a
conclusion, and having bestowed a parting blessing upon W. H.
Smith, he abruptly sat down in the very middle of the article.
I have seen some narrow escapes 'with hats in the House
of Commons. Whalley's hat, for example, is a source of much
anxiety to him, for as he always places it on the seat exactly be
hind him, and as he is constantly being brought up short by the
Speaker, it follows that there is a good deal of manoeuvring with
his head-gear. But this constant practice also has its compen
sating effect, and it has come to pass that he no sooner sees the
Speaker's hands going out towards the uttermost edge of the
arms of his chair with intent to assist his dignified uprising, than
Whalley begins to feel for his hat.
Newdegate also has difficulties with his hat, whilst Sir George
Bowyer avoids danger by placing the covering of his venerable
and venerated head, rim upwards, far out on the floor of the
House, where it stands a melancholy monument of patient en
durance of long usage, rough weather, and an apparent habitude
on the part of the owner to brush the nap the wrong way.
But never was there such a complete wreck of a hat as Julian
Goldsmid effected just now. The curious " crunching " sound
emitted by the astonished and swfftly collapsing cylinder was
heard all over the House, and it was in vain that Goldsmid,
leaping up as if he had sat on a wasp's nest, began diligently and
unconcernedly to straighten out the wreck and brush it with his
arm, as if nothing particular had happened.
Apr. 6.— Mr. Butt It is half an hour after midnight, and Butt is
in lo-w -water. sitting sad and spiritless on the corner seat
above the gangway, as far away as possible from the newly
formed Irish party, of which Biggar is the head, Parnell the tail,
and towards which Nolan occupies the honourable position of
body-guard. Butt, roused beyond the limits of his customary
good-humoured forbearance by more than usually unreasonable

1877.] MR. BUTT DEPOSED. 203
conduct on the part of Parnell, has just been on his feet, begging
that, gentleman to desist from obstruction, which it happened
in this particular case barred the way of confessedly desirable
legislation for Ireland. Parnell openly and contemptuously
defied him. Biggar regarded nim with an insolent smile ; whilst
Nolan made half-audible observations which might, or might
not, have been complimentary.
The great body of the Irish members who, overpowered by
the volubility of Parnell and the grim humour of Biggar, are
more and more abstaining from attendance on Parliamentary
duties, have gone home. Only McCarthy Downing is here, and
he, with accustomed chivalry, threw himself into the breach to
support his chief, recklessly braving the contumely, misrepre
sentation, coarse vituperation, and insinuation of base motives
¦with which his conduct -will surely be treated by the section of
the Irish press which holds it patriotic to support Biggar and
Parnell. With flushed face, shrunken flgure, and restless hands, the
nervous movement of which indicates the depth of his vexation
of spirit, Mr. Butt sits with his back half turned to his com
patriots. It is a pretty picture, one which Ireland should have
suitably framed, and set up in all its public places and all its
private parlours. If an inscription were wanted it might run
thus : —
After devoting the best days of his life to the service of his country ; after
having established for Irish members a Pakliamentabt Status hitherto un
kno-wn ; after having gained the admiration of the world by his genius, and the
esteem of his friends for his many kind qualities, Isaac Butt is insulted in the
House of Commons by Mr. Biggar, Mr. PameU, and Captain Nolan.
Apr. 9. -^ A se- At twenty minutes past twelve W. H. Smith
nous 0 arge. moved to report progress in Committee of Supply,
Dilke having just moved to reduce the vote on Royal Parks
by j£155, charged for feeding the deer in Richmond Park.
Parnell opposed the motion, with the object, as Butt ex
plained, of "obstructing" the progress of the Public Health
(Ireland) Bill.
In the animated and desultory conversation which followed,
Nolan, being on his legs, took notice of the fact that Benett-
Stanford coughed. Benett-Stanford thereupon rose to order.

204 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1877.
and asked the Chairman whether the hon. member was in
order in drawing attention to the circumstance that he had
coughed. Parnell interposing, Nolan did not conclude the ob
servations he had risen to make, and eventually, after some
crimination arid recrimination between the Irish members, pro
gress was reported, the intent of the Obstructionists being
effected, inasmuch as it was now too late to take the Public
Health Bill.
Apr. 10.— Break- Biggar and Parnell may probably be on the right
Ruieprrfy""^ tack for the dismemberment of the British Em
pire; at present all that they have achieved is
the disruption of the Home Rule -party. In the House of
Commons, with the exception of Callan, Nolan, and possibly
Fay — though that gentleman has shown himself much quieter
than at one time he promised to be — the members for Meath
and Cavan stand alone among the Home Rulers in the pecu
liar tactics they have lately pursued. Nolan has retired
from the office of whip; but it is not generally known that
he did so as the direct consequence of a written remonstrance
addressed to him by Butt. Butt pointed out that the course
Nolan was taking in backing up Biggar and Parnell was dero
gatory to the true interests of the Irish party in Parliament.
After this there was nothing for Nolan but to resign, and
Francis Conyngham reigns in his stead. I hear that Butt
has also placed in written form his protest against the conduct
of Biggar and Parnell. But that is a little incident which in
no way ruffles the even tenor of the way of those two dis
tinguished statesmen.
The probabilities at the present moment appear to point to
the creation of a Home Rule party within the Home Rule party,
and there is some hope that Butt, A. M. Sullivan, Mitchell
Henry, Shaw, and other gentlemen who lend character and
ability to the party may, by the mere force of the example set
them by the members for Meath and Cavan, become really
useful members of an Imperial Legislature.
Apr.i2.— Amixed The confusion of metaphor in the House of Com-
i metaphor. mons occasionally reaches a pitch of much excel
lence. Up to the present time, however, I think the palm

1877.] ME. BUTT DEPOSED. 205
belongs to Rodwell, who, on Friday, piteously pleaded against
a proposal of the Chairman of Ways and Means, which he said
would lead to gas bills going into Committee with "a rope
round their necks."
Apr. 13. — The Hartington's speech to-night, on moving for
fte^MMstry"*^ V^V^^^ 0^ *^« ^^^i^^ °^ Turkey, would have
been a great Parliamentary success had it
been delivered by some one else, and had it been built
up on some other resolution. It is admirably conceived, the
argument is easily and naturally arranged, and it is full of
telling sentences. But at the very outset Hartington dropped
into that regular cadence, that sing-song intonation, which is
the dirge of uttered speech. And yet he has marvellously
improved as a Parliamentary speaker since he assumed the
responsibilities and enjoyed the advantages of the leadership of
the Opposition. There was a time when, owing to an exaggera
tion of the intonation referred to, the latter part of his sentences
was hopelessly lost sornewhere in the neighbourhood of the
middle button of his waistcoat. To-night it was notable that,
starting on the old familiar sing-song key -with a few sen
tences carefully committed to memory, he presently warmed
with his subject, and began to talk in a natural unaccentuated
tone that greatly aided his argument. On the whole, I should
say that this speech of to-night was the best-prepared essay he
has recited to an attentive House. It bristled with points, and
there were none of those oases of dreary verbiage amidst which
a respectable but somewhat bored assembly has in times past
been wont to slumber.
The worst and the weakest part of the speech was the resolu
tion. Supposing it had been part of the programme that the
leader of the Opposition should have concluded his address with
a distinct and definite resolution, the eternal fitness of things
would have been happily vindicated. But Hartington stood
towards the Ministry somewhat in the position that a respect
able householder might stand towards a burglar, at whose head
he was holding a formidable-looking blunderbuss which both
knew was unloaded. He presented himself in approved position,
with the stock of his blunderbuss sharply brought to his
shoulder, his finger lightly but firmly touching the trigger, and

206 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1877.
the muzzle of the weapon unerringly covering the body of the
party with whom he had a difference. But the barrel was empty
of powder and shot. There was not even a percussion cap on the
nipple ; and it was only the successfully serious look of Harting
ton that prevented the actors in the farce from bursting into
laughter in each other's face.
It is not the least fortunate circumstance in the condition
of the Ministry that they have for these occasions a speaker
like Gathorne Hardy to follow the Leader of the Opposition.
There is no one to equal the Secretary of War for stirring the
life-blood of good Conservatives, and making all their pulses
beat with the consciousness that they are once more assisting at
the salvation of the Constitution. I believe that if, on an occa
sion like that of to-night, Gathorne Hardy were placed in a
sound-proof glass case, in full -view of the Conservative party,
he would as he spoke, albeit no words reached them, raise their
spirits in an almost equal degree, and would certainly draw
forth outbursts of applause scarcely less enthusiastic.
The difference between a speech by Hartington and one by
Hardy may be broadly marked by the distinction that one is
very con-vincing when read, whilst the other is exhilaratingly
con-vincing when spoken. Hardy is, far away, the most suc
cessful debater on the Ministerial bench. He has not the
logical power of his only compeer, the Chancellor of the
Exchequer ; but he is so buoyant, so enthusiastic, and, in short,
so breathless, that he quite carries away his audience, more par
ticularly those sections of it which were prepared to be con
vinced. It is something more than probable that if his points
were taken up one by one and submitted, say by Lowe, to Her
Majesty's Judges sitting iti banco, it would be found that there
was not much in them. But sufficient for tbe day is the argu
ment thereof. What Hardy had to do to-night was to pit his
passionate outbursts of vocalisation against the dry, cold, un
impassioned arguments of Hartington, and he succeeded a
merveille. Edmonstone was in raptures, and, having fanned his own
copy of the Orders into fragments, he abstracted that of the
member near him, and created quite a trade wind between Cape
Smith and the Bay of Bourke — that is to say, between that
portion of the Treasury Bench marked by the back of W. H.

1877.] ME. BUTT DEPOSED. 207
Smith's head and the place bounded on the north by the Under-
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and on the south by the
Chancellor of the Exchequer. Lord John Manners, ambling
into the House and standing for a moment at the Bar, -sur
veyed the scene and ambled away again to write his letters,
serene in the consciousness that all was going well.
In truth, if the Postmaster- General had many letters to
write, he was much better occupied in the Library than in the
House itself. It was exactly the old thing all over again, and
if Ward Hunt had happened to be present he might, on being
awakened by the stentorian cheers that greeted some of Hardy's
glo-wing commonplaces, have imagined that he was some weeks
younger, and that the debate was either the one brought on by
Gladstone or the other insisted upon by Fawcett. There was on
the part of the Opposition precisely the same severity of words
undermined by the same burlesque of action; the same bombastic
periods from the mouth of Hardy, pointed by the same taunts of
impotence, and built up by the same thunderous cheers from an
overwhelming majority. Moreover, had Ward Hunt fitfully
slept on, there would have been nothing in the course of the
evening to disturb his illusion. The attack, having been hesi
tatingly made from the front bench on the Opposition side, was
boisterously answered from the front bench on the Ministerial
side. Then the crowded House dwindled down to the point of
emptiness ; on the one side Forsyth, like a modern member of
Elijah's congregation on Mount Carmel, halting between two
opinions, though constitutionally prone to bend the knee to
Baal ; and on the other, Evelyn Ashley, hymning the praises of
a statesman who once was privileged to have him for private
secretary. After this epoch, members, ha-ving dined, came back Uke
the flowing tide, tumultuously covering the sandy reaches repre
sented by the desolate benches. Then the conflict raged once
more, the Opposition ingeniously endeavouring to hide away
the unloaded blunderbuss, and the Ministerialists heroically
demanding that it should be fired, there being not one of them,
whether below the gangway or above it, who was not ready, in
the name of Queen and country, to bare his breast and receive
the contents of the barrel.

CHAPTER XVII.
THE GEEAT TIOHBOENE DEMONSTEATION.
A deputation to the Commons—The Queen in a thunderstorm — The Speaker and
the pickpocket — ^An old-fashioned Home Eule debate — A pointed inquiry—
The Burials Bill in the Lords — A lament for the lost leader.
Apr. 17.— A de- Deary me I To think that we are safe after all ;
putation to the ^-^^^ Pariiament Street has not been made to run
Commons. with gore; that the cabmen's shelter in Palace
Yard has not been used for barricade purposes; and that
Westminster Hall is not paved with well-intentioned corses.
Never since the time when Lord George Gordon sat under the
gallery of the House with the blue cockade in his hat, whilst a
mad mob, distinguished by wearing the same favour, ran riot in
the streets, has the House of Commons presented such an im
posing aspect of armed neutrality. There have been policemen,
policemen everywhere, and — as one wearily observed to a
'comrade after standing in the rank for two hours — not a drop
to drink. There have been policemen at the Peers' entrance ;
policemen massed in the courtyard leading to the Ladies'
Gallery ; policemen in Westminster Hall ; policemen in all the
coal-cellars; and policemen inconveniently crowded in the
chamber at the. top of the tower devoted to the apparatus of the
electric light,^.?'
Members disregardful of the eloquence of Knatchbull-
Hugessen, who; inside the House, has been steaming away
at the rate of four , miles an hour apropos of the Railway
Passenger Duty, have been wandering nervously and restlessly
about the lobbies and corridors. Some of the more adventurous,
holding their lives in their hands, have even penetrated so far as
the outposts by Bridge Street. The military and naval M.P.'s
have mustered in reassuring force, prepared to show that in time
of action they can do something more than deliver dreary
speeches. The most fearful rumours fill the air. It is said
that a mysterious-looking craft, standing off and on by West
minster Bridge stairs, is waiting, in the event of matters taking

1877.] THE GEEAT TIOHBOENE DEMONS TE ATION. 209
a serious turn, to convey the First Lord of the Admiralty down
to Greenwich. Edmonstone, with his hat truculently cocked on
one side, has for more than an hour been pacing up and down
the terrace, with regulation quarter-deck tread. He has a copy
of the Orders rolled up under his arm in the form of a telescope ;
but whether it is -with intent presently to use the temporary
cylinder as a makeshift telescope, or whether it be a reserve to
supply the place of the copy which he carries in his right hand,
and wherewith he fiercely fans himself, is not kno-wn. Elcho,
with the consent of Mr. Superintendent Mott, has taken com
mand of a small body of police massed in the Speaker's Court,
and is exercising them in the art of advancing by rushes at full
running speed from side to side of the courtyard, the advances
being made by echelon of subdi-visions.
George Balfour has a plan which, unlike General Troehu
under similar circumstances, he is anxious to communicate in
fuU detail to any one who will listen to him. Amongst those
who -will not is Henry Havelock, who to-night secretly wears
his Victoria Cross, and is prepared, if fortune favours him with
opportunity, to earn, if he may not obtain, a duplicate. At the
present moment. Sir George has got hold of Lord Ernest Bruce,
and the two sit side by side just above the gangway. Sir George
whispering in a rapid tone in the ear of the noble lord, who sits
with closed eyes and a fixed expression of countenance. Bruce
evidently understands the plan, and is much struck by its
feasibility. The only personage who maintains his presence of
mind is the Serjeant-at-Arms, who calmly walks about the lobby,
smiling genially. As Storer, who is rather nervous, says, the
mere presence of Captain Gosset is, on occasions Uke these,
worth a file of the Life Guards.
KnatchbuU- Hugessen has exhausted himself, not to mention
his audience. Serjeant Spinks is just up, which adds to the
liveliness of the evening. The learned Serjeant is presently
followed by Earl Percy, who will some day be the Duke of
Northumberland, and, in the meantime, is a tall young gentle
man of undecided aspect, and an uncomfortable consciousness
that his legs are of more than ordinary length. I wonder what
the stout Lord Percy, who fought at Chevy-Chase, would think,
supposing he might look down from the Strangers' Gallery
and behold this inheritor of his fame trifling with his trouser-
o

210 A DIAEY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [1877.
pocket and ungracefully hopping about from foot to foot in the
attempt to appear entirely at his ease when addressing the House
of Commons on the Railway Passenger Duty ?
That other man of war, Cornet Brown, has a good deal of
trouble with his legs when addressing the House, and, like
Percy, his bashful hands seek the shelter of his pocket during
his oratorical flights. But it is in the neighbourhood of the
knees that the gallant Cornet is more particularly affected.
Percy avoids the knocking of his knees together by keeping
his legs -widely apart and maintaining, whilst he speaks, a
promenade between the bench and the red line on the matting,
a procedure which sometimes brings him perilously near to
transgression of the rule which forbids any member, except
Plimsoll, to address the Speaker from the middle of the floor.
It is estimated that in a speech of half an hour's duration,
Percy walks a distance equal to that which lies between Palace
Yard and Pall Mall. This beats Lord Eslington, who, in the
same time and under similar circumstances, is estimated to walk
not further than from the bottom of Parliament Street to the
Post Office at Charing Cross.
8.0 P.M. — Stafford Northcote is on his feet, addressing the
House on the Railway Passenger Duty with an apparent absorption
in his subject, which is in itself a certiflcate of valour. But it
is outside the House proper that the interest centres, and that
members congregate. Little groups stand about the lobbies,
gaily chatting, and to all appearance in full enjoyment of some
stupendous joke. But there is a hollow ring about the laughter
that betrays the hidden fear, and the constant reference to the
clock and to watches shows how strained is their nervous tem
perament. Whalley flits about with furrowed brow and with
head bowed down with the weight of the mighty thoughts that
freight it. How wistfully members regard the member for
Peterborough, whom yesterday they were wont to laugh at,
and in whom they to-day recognise a possible dictator ! How
respectfully they make way for him to pass as he walks hurriedly
about I The Roman Catholic members are almost servile in
their attentions to him; for who knows but that ere to-morrow's
sun has set, Whalley, having seen justice done to Sir Roger'
Tichborne, may turn his attention towards that "foreign in
fluence " to whose machinations he has more than once alluded

1877.] TEE GREAT TIGEBORNE DEMONSTRATION. 211
in the House of Commons ? Let us, while the time is favour
able, make friends with the -victor of to-morrow.
8.5 P.M. — There is a commotion at the entrance to the lobby,
leading inwards from the Octagon Hall. Whalley is sent for,
and with long strides sets out for the hall, everybody respectfully
making way for him as before. A brief parley ensues between
the agitated policemen on guard and the sternly self-possessed
senator. In the end nine men, each distinguished by a bit of
red ribbon worn in the button-hole, are passed through beyond
the pressure of the crowd outside, and hold an excited inter
view -with Whalley. There is evidently something amiss, and
members in the inner lobby, always loudly laughing and un
successfully maintaining the thin disguise of merriment which
shields a quaking breast, ask each other what can it be ? Then
a dreadful whisper goes about that De Morgan-*^ is missing. It
seems that he accompanied the nine men with bits of red
ribbon in their button-hole as a deputation from the mob in
Trafalgar Square to the recreant House of Commons. On the
way The De Morgan was missed — suddenly disappeared, and has
gone no one knows whither.
Nobody speaks, but it is clear that the same horrid fear
possesses every mind. The De Morgan has been entrapped by
a perfidious police, has been overcome by superior numbers, and
now, doubtless, lies chained hand and foot in the lowest dungeon
beneath the castle moat. The deputation gesticulate around
Whalley, the crowd of members encircling them always wear
ing the same ineffectual affectation of regarding the whole
affair as what Pip and Joe Gargery were wont to call "larks."
Then Whalley addresses the deputation, who want him to pre
sent a petition, with which one of them has for some minutes
been excitedly butting him in the ribs, by way of keeping his
wandering attention fixed. Whalley, who is supernaturally
calm, addresses the deputation at some length, and, without
once referring to the foreign influence, he explains that the
hour for presenting petitions has gone by, but undertakes that
* An inconsiderable agitator -who at this time had associated himself -with
the cause of the Claimant. A great meeting -was, on the evening of the
17th April, held in Trafalgar Square, and there vfcre some threats of march
ing down on the House of Commons. Extraordinary precautions -were taken
by the authorities to prevent disorder in the neighbourhood of the House.
o2

212 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. am.
he will, on the following day, present the petition, and move
that The De Morgan be heard at the bar. Then the deputation
excitedly withdraw.
Duf where is The De Morgan ?
9.30 P.M. — Another moment, and in the Octagon Hall ser
vitors fly quickly to and fro, charged with messages pregnant
with great consequences to the stability of an empire upon which
the sun never sets. The long-lost De Morgan has arrived and
claims admittance to the Commons House of ParUament.
Colonel Pearson, the lieutenant of the Chief of the Metro
politan Police, throws himself across the passage and swears
that if he (De Morgan) goes that way it shall be over his
(Colonel Pearson's) body. Whalley is again sent for, and comes
forth, striding as before, firmly, and, if I may say so, longly.
A hurried consultation takes place between The De Morgan and
the hon. member, and the crowd have time to gaze wonderingly
at the face and figure of the man who has brought together one
hundred thousand men (more or less) to demand the release of
the unhappy nobleman now languishing in the state-supported
prison of a westem county. A youthful, slim, fragile person" is
The De Morgan, with a 'aughty look on his insignificant
features, well calculated to strike terror into the bosom of a
policeman six foot high. One fancies he has seen these two
raen standing out in the pages of a familiar history of earlier
date. How far the resemblance between Whalley and Lord
George Gordon, with his naturally generous sympathies and his
constitutionally ill-regulated mind, extends, there may be some
difference of opinion. But no one can fail to be struck with the
singularly close resemblance between Lord George's ally, Simon
Tappertit, and The De Morgan. As the latter, standing at the
portal of the House of Commons, with the re-united deputation
at his right hand, loftily glances round at the curious crowd,
one almost expects to hear him burst forth in the eloquent words
of Sim, spoken in the moment of his triumph.
" You meet in me," Sim said, " not a 'prentice, not a work
man, not a slave, but the leader of a great people, the captain of
a noble band, in which these gentlemen are, I may say, corporals
and sergeants. You behold in me not a private individual, but
a public character ; not a mender of locks, but a healer of the
wounds of this unhappy country."

1877.1 TEE GREAT TICEBORNE DEMONSTRATION, 213
But The De Morgan did not deign to address the crowd.
Whalley, in his usual generous and profuse manner, had men
tioned the word "refreshments," and the soul of The De
Morgan had stirred within him. He had done enough for
glory, and now he wanted his tea. So he turned with Whalley,
and walking away, was piloted to the Strangers' Refreshment
Room, where, at the tariff price of eighteenpence per head, he
munched the mellifluous muffin, and, having emptied the teapot,
timidly asked the waiter to fill it up again with the bounteous
and boiling water.
Thus happily closed the great and eventful day, which began
with menaces and ended with muffins.

Apr. 20. — The There is a curious story afloat about Lord Bea-
Queen in a
thunderstorm.

Queen in a gonsfield's -visit to the Queen on Saturday week.

It is said that the proposal he submitted for the
approval of Her Majesty involved prompt action, which ap
peared to be the irrimediate prelude of British participation in a
great war. Whilst the Sovereign and the Premier were dis
cussing the matter there suddenly burst forth a tremendous
thunder-storm. Beaconsfield, who has long been accustomed to
pyrotechnical displays, was wholly undisturbed by the pealing
thunder and the flashing lightning. But Her Majesty, though
by no means prone to superstition, was not able to regard the
coincidence with the same equanimity, and refused to give the
necessary authorisation. The audience then terminated; but
Beaconsfield calmly waited till the thunderstorm was over, when
the inter-view was renewed, and Her Majesty approved the
spirited foreign policy submitted to her.
Apr. 23. — The It is Said that when, on Saturday night, the
thepSpociSt. Speaker on leaving the theatre discovered that
he had been robbed of his watch, the right hon.
gentleman, in that sonorous tone by which he is accustomed
to check indiscretions or rebuke irregularities in the House of
Commons, ejaculated — " Order ! order 1 "
Apr. 24.— An old- Shaw found an early opening for mo-ving his
R^eTbate?"'^ resolution for a Select Committee to inquire into
and report upon the nature, the extent, and
grounds of the demand made by a large proportion of the Irish

214 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [1877.
people for the restoration to Ireland of an Irish Parliament, with
power to control the internal affiairs of that country. He sup
ported this proposition, in an able and temperate speech, chiefly
on the grounds that experience showed that the Parliament at
Westminster had not time or opportunity fairly to deal with
Irish topics, and, moreover, that EngUshrnen had neither the
aptitude nor the education to direct the internal affairs of Ire
land. The motion was seconded from the Conservative benches
by King- Harman.
Forster discussed the question at some length, traversing the
various allegations that the British Parliament was incapacitated
from dealing -with Irish affairs alike by lack of sympathy, want
of time, and need of education. He pointed out that if the de
mand were acceded to, and an Irish Parliament were established,
collisions with the Imperial Parliament were sure to follow;
collisions which would result in civil war. He nevertheless re
garded Home Rule as marking a great progress in Irish political
life, for it indicated on the part of the promoters a consciousness
of the difficulties that stood in the way of the isolation of Ireland
as part of the British Empire. In the course of his speech
he was about to refer to statements made by Parnell, when
that gentleman, rising from under the gallery, took the oppor
tunity of denouncing the accuracy of the report which he pre
sumed Forster was about to refer to, and which, he said, was
as inaccurate as are the reports usually given by the London
papers of his speeches.
A very full House was kept together during Forster's speech,
the audience including a crowd of peers, just released from
attendance in the other House. Forster brought the debate
up to tbe dinner hour, and accordingly Colman O'Loghlen, who
followed, had a very scanty audience, the Home Rulers, with the
exception of Sullivan, The O'Conor Don, O'Clery, O'Reilly, and
four others, leaving the House -with the crowd. The debate was
continued by W. Johnston, Blennerhasset, Bruen, and O'Shaugh-
nessy. Fawcett said he was at a loss to know what Home Rule
meant and advanced. Amid loud cheers he declared that neither
the Liberal nor the Conservative party would surrender then-
personal convictions to the Home Rule cabal. Wilfrid Lawson
said he would vote for the Select Committee, as he was anxious
to support anything that offered the faintest chance of stop-

1877.) TEE GREAT TICEBORNE DEMONSTRATION. 215
ping the long and weary controversy between Ireland and
England. C. Lewis thought that the time had come when members
should speak out plainly on this subject. For his part he de
nounced the terrorism that existed among the constituencies on the
subject of Home Rule. Addressing himself to both sides of the
House, Lewis called up what he described as " the twin spectre of
Manchester and Salford," warning Liberals to beware of the fate
of Mr. Kay in the latter borough, and imploring Conservatives
to draw a lesson from the defeat of Mr. Powell in the former.
Lewis mentioned that he had given notice to Hibbert of his in
tention to refer to the circumstances under which he pursued
his candidature at Oldham. He regretted that that gentleman
was not in his place, as he should Uke to have asked him whether •
he joined in the noble sentiments uttered by Forster, which
echoed those spoken a short time ago by the leader of the
Opposition. Butt paid a warm tribute to the zeal, ability, and industry
of Hicks-Beach as Chief Secretary ; -and what had been the
result ? Coercion. From the exceptional ability and firm
ness of the Chief Secretary coupled with the existing condition
of Ireland, as he (Butt) described it, he drew the conclusion
that the pacification of Ireland under existing circumstances was
hopeless. As to the remarks about " terrorism," Butt pointed
out that attempts to influence constituencies were not confined
to adherents of Home Rule. Similar efforts were made by the
advocates of the Per^iissive Bill, and of the Bill for the Marriage
with a Deceased Wife's Sister.
Hicks-Beach expressed, " for the third time," the firm and
decided opposition of the Government to the proposal for Home
Rule. They did not think it was a subject for consideration ;
they were not prepared to abide by the decision of a Committee,
supposing it decided in favour of Home Rule ; and they em
phatically refused to submit to the investigation of a Com
mittee a vital principle of the Constitution. Referring to Hib
bert, who, he said, had pronounced at Oldham " the shameful
shibboleth of Home Rule," he pointedly called upon Hartington,
as the leader of the Opposition, to disown this procedure on the
part of Liberal candidates, a procedure which he intimated had,
in the case -of Kay at Salford, been countenanced by two dis-

216 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nan.
tinguished members of the Liberal party (Gladstone and Bright),
whose duty it appeared to be to write letters of recommendation
for Liberals out of place.
On the Chief Secretary resuming his seat, Gladstone rose and
asked him to state what letter he referred to as having been
written by him in support of Mr. Kay's candidature ?
" I have it in my pocket, and -will find it in a minute," he
said, and commenced a hurried search amongst the bountiful
contents of his pockets.
A long pause followed, which Fay attempted to fill up by
addressing the House. But Hartington, finding the Chief
Secretary was not prepared -with the document, rose (it being a
quarter to one in the morning) and commenced his speech, op
posing the resolution in less heated but not less uncompromising
terms than those used from the Treasury Bench.
On a division the numbers were 67 for Shaw's motion and
417 against.
Apr. 25.— A point- During a discussion on the Mutiny Bill and the
ed inquiry. ^^^ ^f ^j^^ u ^^^^,> J^ ^J^g ^^^^^ ^^j,^ JJ^^^^ ^^^
by exception happened not to be asleep on the Treasury bench,
opposed a motion for the abolition of the instrument, on the
ground that it was used only in cases of serious crimes. Parnell,
who followed — as indeed he usually follows any speaker —
pointed out, that among the offences for which the cat might be
used, was that of a man sleeping at his post whilst on duty.
" Now, sir," said Parnell, " I should like to know whether
the right hon. gentleman the First Lord of the Admiralty
regards that as a serious offence ? "
Strangely enough, the House, usually quick to see a joke,
did not notice this.
Apr. 26. — The The House of Lords presented an appearance
fh'TLord^™ '" different from that which usually obtams at six
o'clock in the evening, when two or three elderly
gentlemen may be observed scattered over the red benches,
whilst one standing at the table addresses somebody opposite in
conversational tone. The Chamber was, in fact, nearly three-
quartei^ filled, whilst on the benches to the right of the Throne,
the bishops — clad in robes of white — were clustered like a

1877.] THE GBEAT TIOHBOENE DEMONSTBATION. 217
bed of pure white lilies in a wilderness of worldliness. That
model and treasured son of the Church, Lord Beaconsfield, was
duly in his place, with arms folded and head bent down, as if
he were listening to the curate of Hughenden.
It was evidently a field-day of some kind, and, in addition
to this assemblage of noble lords, the occasion had drawn to
gether some strangers, of whom two sat in the, gallery to the
left of the Lord Chancellor, and gazed with intensest interest
upon the spectacle beneath. And well they might; for the
strangers were the Chinese Envoys, and the assemblage below
was the British House of Lords, engaged, upon the 26th April,
1877, in hearing arguments for and against the proposition that
people who when alive did not agree with some other people as
to the utility of bishops and the absolute necessity of deans,
should, when they were dead, be buried, as one noble lord said,
"like a suicide or one of the inferior animals."
Forty centuries looking down upon noble lords, gravely and
even -with some occasional flash of animation discoursing upon
these matters, smiled knowingly at each other, even -winked
their almond eyes, and appeared to find the greatest delight in
playfully poking in the ribs the intelligent interpreter who
laboriously explained to them the phases of the debate. There
was at the outset some difficulty with them, owing to a misap
prehension of what they had come to see. There being in the
Chinese language no term corresponding with " Burial Bill,"
the interpreter, in his efforts to explain what it was, had chiefly
succeeded in conveying to their mind the impression that they
were going to assist at a funeral. Accordingly, when they
entered the House, and beheld the woolsack, they thought it
was the coffin containing the body,, and were much shocked to
see a man in a wig sitting on it.
They determinately fixed on Cardwell as the chief mourner,
and Selborne's melancholy manner convinced them that he must,
at least, be a near relation of the departed. The bishops they
regarded as a choir of elderly boys, and when the Archbishop of
Canterbury rose to join in the debate they expressed themselves
much disappointed at the monotonous tone of his chant. But at
length they were made to understand the facts of the case, and
thereupon commenced those indications of amusement and those
somewhat insolent demonstrations of superiority over the outer

218 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1877.
barbarian alluded to. I should like to see the letters they -wiU
write home to-morrow describing the debate they have wit
nessed to-night.
Apr. 28. — A la- It is no usc any longer holding back the con-
iSsTieadlr.*''^ fcssion that the House of Commons is growing
insufferably dull. We meet at the usual hour,
and go home after the customary squabble. But between the
coming and the going there lies an arid waste of purposeless
talk, which only on the rarest occasions rises to the level of
sustained and animated speech. It has come to pass that the
principal personages in the House are Messrs. Biggar and Par
nell, and that unless Whalley comes to our assistance there are
no means of raising the ghost of the merry laughter that
erewhile used to ring through the chamber. It is the same
House of Commons, and, in a great measure, it is filled by the
same men. But the difference between the House this Session
and all former Sessions that I have known is that which lies
between a prospect of vale and hill and field and river when the
sun is shining brightly upon it, and the same stretch of land
scape under dull dun skies.
How does this come about ? Has the sun really ceased to
shine, or is there some subtle change in the landscape ? I think
both influences are at work, but, primarily, the going down of
the sun is answerable for what we lament. It is impossible to
-withstand the conviction that the removal of Disraeli to the
House of Lords has let down the House of Commons by several
distinct stages. It was not always that Disraeli was briUiant
himself. In truth, latterly he had grown a trifle dull ; but he
possessed the charm marked under another phase in another
great man. He was not only brilliant himself, but was the
cause of brilliancy in others. He wound up the House of
Commons to a certain pitch, at which it was constantly kept
going. His mere presence supplied a focus towards which the
minds of speakers were bent. A man, as Wilfrid Lawson well
knew, could raise a laugh at the poorest joke if he pointed it with
the name of the Premier.
Then you never knew when you had DisraeU — or, to speak
more exactly, when you had him not. If he did not speak,
there was the certainty throughout a debate that he might

&

1877.1 TEE GBEAT TICEBOBNE DEMONSTBATION. 219
speak, and the House was held together in anticipation of the
event. If a debate were dying of inanition, Disraeli had the
happy gift of rousing it to the highest pitch of excitement by
the interposition of a few words.
I remember one summer evening in the early days of the
Parliament, when about twenty members were dozing under a
soul-depressing discussion on the incidence of local taxation.
Bright, then freshly emerged from his retirement, unexpectedly
said a few words of no particular moment. Disraeli was sitting
on the Treasury bench in his stolidly-patient but always watchful
manner, and, when Bright sat down, he, pulling himself to
gether by a shake of the shoulders, rose, and forthwith fell,
tooth-and-nail, upon the momentarily inoffensive tribune. There
was no reason for it except that the long unfamiliar sound of
Bright's voice, and his presence on the opposite bench, had
roused in his mind the slumbering memories of flerce conflicts
long passed, and it occurred to him that he would try whether
his strength had failed or his skill in attack grown rusty. The
empty House rapidly filled as the news of the duel went round,
and, local taxation and everything else forgotten in the pleasure
of the moment, the gratified Commons gave themselves up to
the delight of witnessing an encounter that realised in some
measure for the present generation the battles of which they had
read in history.
This motive of uncertainty is now removed, and for the
brilliant dash of the uncertain and cynical Premier, we have the
matter-of-fact, business-like, even common-place Chancellor of
the Exchequer. The House of Commons is invariably, for the
time being, what its leader is. Members sing on the keynote
he strikes, and dance to the measure he plays. Here, again, a
peculiarity, marked in DisraeU, is, in its directly opposite mani
festation, observable in Stafford Northcote. He is not only dull
himself, but he is the cause of dulness in others. Under
Disraeli's regime, men in opposition struck at the stars, and at
least came near to striking the roof of the houses. Under the
ChanceUor of the Exchequer it seems sufficient to strike at the
top of the houses, -with the result that we find ourselves fumb-
hng about the first-floor -window.
With the exceptions of Hartington, and at the other end of
the stick, A. M. SulUvan, who have both distinctly improved,

220 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. (i877.
no prominent speaker acquits himself so well as he was wont to
do when DisraeU was yet leader of the House. Perhaps a third
exception should be made in favour of Goschen, who grows more
sprightly as a speaker, notwithstanding his habitude of anchor
ing himself, as it were, during his speeches, by studiously
keeping the backs of his legs glued to the bench from which
he has risen. But, beyond this, exception may not be made.
Gladstone occasionally makes great speeches, and now and then
puts his mighty steam-engine force into motion, in order to kill
such butterflies of debate as Chaplin or George Hamilton. But
he lacks the sustained and balancing impetus the presence
of Disraeli suppUed him with. Bright withdraws himself more
and more from participation in debate, and the field is thus
kept clear for the self-conceited verbosity of Knatchbull-
Hugessen, the sentimental sermonising of Stansfeld, and for the
growth in Shaw-Lefevre's mind of the conviction that he was
born for greater things than the destiny which, in its partial
fulfilment, has left an indelible stamp upon the Admiralty.
Perhaps no individual member has suffered so much as Har
court. Basking in the refiected light of Disraeli, Sir WiUiam
was frequently sparkling, sometimes even brilhant. He is now
neither, and when he would be severe grows noisy, and when
he would be witty is only rude.
These are individual instances which might be indefinitely
extended. They are simply illustrations of the state of affairs
which every man in the House feels more fully than he can
explain, and by whieh an assembly that contains within itself
more of eloquence, knowledge, wit, humour, and good-breeding
than any other in the world, has become just now a dull and
stagnant pond, which receives its only and occasional motion
from the breath of a Biggar and a Parnell, the vagaries of a
Whalley, and the demonstrations of a De Morgan.

CHAPTER XVIIL
ME. Gladstone's pive eesolutions.
Mr. Gladstone's Eesolutions on the Eastem Question — A Fight over Mr. Biggar's
Body — Di-vision in the Liberal Ranks — Mr. Gladstone's Eesolutions — -Second
Night of the Debate— Sir John Holker— Third Night— Fourth Night— The
Division — The Pomatum-Pot — ^Another Jfo* by Mr. Lowe.
Apr. 30. — Mr. Gladstone gave notice of his intention to move a
TOiutionr^ on ®®™® °^ ^'^® resolutions bearing on the Eastern
the Eastem Question. Their general purport points to an
expression of opinion on the part of the House
of Commons of dissatisfaction with the conduct of the Otto
man Porte, and includes a declaration that until guarantees on
behaff of the subject populations of the Porte are forthcoming,
Turkey will be deemed to have lost all claim to receive either
the material or moral support of the British Crown. The read
ing of the resolutions was received with partial cheering from
the Opposition benches.
Gladstone proposed to put these resolutions down in the form
of an amendment on going into Committee of Supply on Friday
next, whilst he hinted that he would gladly accept any proposal
the leader of the House might make to give a Government
night. Stafford Northcote promptly acceded to this suggestion,
and fixed Monday for the debate. After a brief pause Lubbock
gave notice that on the resolutions being brought forward he
will move the previous question.
This movement on the part of Gladstone has greatly angered
the Liberals, more particularly the section below the gangway.
Wilfrid Lawson has made a rhymed paraphrase of the resolu
tions, which is passed about the benches.
No. 1.
Eesolved that this House is uncommonly vexed,
Annoyed and disgusted, displeased and perplexed.
At finding no hangings have yet taken place.
When Lord Derby declared that such should be the case.

222 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [i877.
No. 2.
That till somebody's hanged— it don't matter much -who—
"With the Turks -we'U have nothing -whatever to do.
No. 3.
. Autonomy is, after all, the real thing,
"Without any foreign dictator or king.
No. 4.
The Protocols signed about Greece, long ago,
Ai-e the very best things of the kind that I kno-w ;
Let the Po-wers united no-w take the same course.
If the Turks should refuse, -why, then take it by force ;
And let us in our migh't — the "Wise Men of the 'West —
Exact from the Moslem just -what we think best.
Thus, somehow -we'll manage, e'er flags shall be furled.
To have done a great stroke for ' ' the peace of the world ! "
No. 5.
-When all this has been passed, 'twiU be -well, I should guess,
On a post-card to -write out a " humble address : "
¦Which will seem, when it reaches the hands of the Queen,
The most wonderful thing -which she ever has seen !
May 1.— A fight The question of the appointment of the Cattle
over Mr. Big- pj^guc Committee has come up to-night, the
gar s body. '^ . .
bone (and meat) of contention being whether
Biggar shall or shall not be appointed a member of the Com
mittee. The Home Rulers, meeting in secret conclave, have —
not without suspicion that they desire -wilfully to offend the
House — nominated Biggar as their representative on this Com
mittee. Their cry is " Biggar, or no Committee," the House
answering -with the defiance, " No Committee rather than Big
gar." Thus the hosts are ranged, and the fight commences.
It began about nine o'clock, after an evening throughout
which peace and amity had reigned in unmeasured bounds.
Everybody had got everything they wanted except Alderman
McArthur, whose mighty mind, ranging as far as Ceylon, had
claimed justice for Buddhists, Hindoos, and Mahommedans as
against their Anglican and Presbyterian brethren in the island.
Lowther, who was led to regard the grievances in a mercenary
light, rapidly did a sum, in which he showed that the Buddhists,
Hindoos, and Mahommedans did not contribute towards the

1877.] ME. GLADSTONE'S FIVE EESOLUTIONS. 223
religious comfort of their Presbyterian and Anglican brethren
more than a penny per head per year, which Lowther thought
was scarcely worth while talking about.
After this everything was conceded, and the business was so
rapidly got through that poor Whalley, who had been studying
precedents in the Library -with intent to call attention to the
petition of The De Morgan, was thrown out of his reckoning,
and missed a great chance of occupying a whole evening. It
was sad to see the grey-haired knight-errant walk into the
House about two minutes after his name had been called, and
when Cross had stepped into the vacant place with his motion
to make new bishops. Whalley had a formidable volume under
one arm, and a roll of papers in the other hand. As he crossed
the bar, he comprehended at a glance all that had happened. A
foreign influence had been at work, and had excited the House
to get through its business -with unnatural celerity, in order that
his chance might be overthro-wn. An angry man would have
scolded. An excitable man would have rushed wildly about the
House. Whalley did neither. He walked in calmly, -with a
dignified, if sorro-wful, mien, every step a reproach, every rustle
of his manffold memoranda a rebuke. So he sat down on the
front Opposition bench -with a noble, quiet sadness that touched
every heart, and hushed the irreverent, mocking cheer that half
rose as he entered.
The battle for the body commenced, as sanguinary conflicts
often do, quietly enough. The motion was to nominate twenty-
three members on the Committee. The number being objected
to as inadequate, WilUam Dyke announced the readiness of the
Govemment to make the Committee twenty-seven, doing so in a
brief but sprightly speech, which shows how good a debater the
House loses since Dyke is content to perform the laborious duties
of chief Ministerial whip. For some time the question of
Biggar being added to the Committee was kept in the back
ground, members manceuvring -with great skill to avoid a
direct reference to him. But somebody on the Conservative
benches blurted out the announcement that he, for one, would
not, under any circumstances, consent to Biggar being on the
Committee. Thus the storm burst forth and the ranks closed up.
Then it was that the Major presented himself and was wel
comed with shouts from both sides. Since the Major's return

224 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS, [1877.
after an illness, during which two nations watched by his bed
side, he has held himself comparatively retired from the conduct
of public business. To-night, in accordance with this policy, he
was seated under the gallery, and was heard long before he was
seen. But there was no mistaking the voice, and all eyes were
turned to the dim recess below the gallery, when the thunderous
"Mr. Speaker" broke forth and dominated the trembling air.
Standing there, as it were framed between the pillars which
mark the gallery off in sections of one-flfth, the Major appeared,
the personification of war.
He had just dropped in after dinner, and had learned that the
worst fears of Ireland were realised, and that a ruthless Saxon
Parliament was positively objecting to Biggar ! His hair was
ruffled, his eyes gleamed with the light of battle, his mouth
twitched with a magniflcent passion, and his shirt-front was
menacingly rumpled. If you have ever seen a game-cock ap
proaching the enemy, with crest erect, and the feathers round
his neck ruffied, you might get some faint idea of what the
Major looked like under the gallery. His speech was short but
to the point.
" Mr. Speaker," he roared, " we will oppose every name on
the Committee ; " which said, he sat down, and the House felt
that the sword was dra-wn, and the scabbard thrown away.
All this while Biggar, with his elbow on the back of the
bench, his face turned towards the Treasury bench, sat -with a
pleased smile watching the varying fortunes of the fray. Some
thing like a blush overspread his ingenuous countenance, and he
dropped his head, when Butt made an impassioned appeal to the
embattled hosts to pause before they committed the great wrong
threatened. Butt, to tell the truth, rather hinted that Biggar
was not all he should be. But if he had done wrong, let Troy
do right. Was it dignified, was it just, was it worthy of the
House of Commons, that they should ostracise Biggar because
he had in some respects fallen short of the dociUty of an average
member ?
The blush burned deeper and deeper on the countenance of
Biggar ; the hard lines about his mouth softened ; the gleaming
eye grew moist, and something like a sob struggled within his
breast. I have no doubt that if, at that moment, Hicks-Beach
had crossed the floor of the House, had taken Biggar in his arms

1877.1 MR. GLADSTONE'S FIVE EESOLUTIONS. 225
and kissed him pn the forehead, a permanent reconciliation
would have been effected. But the Chief Secretary for Ireland
sat gloomily and scornfully silent. The House answered Butt
with an ironical cheer ; the soft light died away from the face of
Biggar; and once more there was presented to the assembled
House the spectacle of the member for Cavan, with elbow on the
back of the bench, face turned towards the Treasury bench,
and tearless eyes, watching, with intensest satisfaction, the
growing tumult.
The Major, who had been stretching his legs in the lobby, now
returned, and feeling that his proper place was in the fore-front
of the battle, carefully descended the steps of the gangway, and
took up his seat on the front bench below the gangway, occupy
ing the space usually fllled by tbe combined occupation of Dilke,
Dil-wyn, and Bass. Here he sat, with his shirt-front increas
ingly rumpled, looking more than ever like a game-cock elated
with the consciousness of its spurs. Presently he rose, standing
well out on the floor of the House, and made another speech, a
little longer than the first. Somebody on the opposite side had
been arguing the matter, and he thought the time was come
when the mockery of argument should be demolished, and the
issue placed on its true basis. To that end the Major addressed
the Speaker.
" Sir," he thunderingly said, "let the hon. member make his
mind quite easy. We object to the hon. member for Cheshire.
That is all."
And he sat down again, feeling that he had, in Parliamentary
phrase, "recalled the House to a recollection of the question
immediately before it."
Parnell was now up, pale with passion at some supposititious
reference to the circumstance that when Biggar was not settling
the affairs of the nation at Westminster, he was engaged in the
provision line in Belfast. Nobody had made any reference of
the kind indicated, for, with exceedingly few exceptions, the
House of Commons is composed of gentlemen. But it pleased
Parnell to suppose the existence of the petty rudeness, and here
he was, with hands clenched, teeth set, and face lividly pale,
hissing out rebuke for an imaginary misdemeanour.
All this while Biggar sat silent, undisguisedly betraying the
keenest interest in what was going on. In the House of

226 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1877.
Commons it is a rule, scarcely requiring formula, that when a
o-entleman is personally under discussion he should relieve the
House of the embarrassment of his presence. This was a view
of his duty Biggar did not take. It seemed to him that, as
he was being somewhat frankly discussed, no one had a better
right to listen to what was going on than himself. So he sat
there through it all, and when a division was called on the ¦
question whether Mr. Biggar should or should not be added
to the Committee, he calmly rose, and, walking out, voted
for himself.
May 2.— Division The division as to Gladstone's resolutions runs
in the Liberal through all the ranks of the Liberal party.
ranks. ... . .
Many think it is a split between the Radicals
and the Whigs, but this is far from being the case. Twenty
members of Parliament, being also members of the Radical Club,
are likely to vote in the division, and of these at least six will
vote with Hartington and against Gladstone. On the other
hand, the following Whigs -will support Gladstone and oppose
Hartington: — Thomas Acland, Leveson-Gower, Howard,
Hibbert, Shaw-Lefevre, Millbank, Lord Arthur Russell, Sir
Dudley Marjoribanks, Pendarves Vivian, Hussey Vivian, and
Adolphus Young. According to the latest estimate, Gladstone
will have a following of from 90 to 100. A list I have seen
in competent hands shows 89 names of men certain to vote
with him. An additional seven are marked as friendly, but
wavering. The question what will become of the Liberal party after the
debate and division has been occupying much attention. Per
haps it would be better to wait till the debate is over, and see
whether there is any party left to care for. I understand that
Gladstone is prepared to speak for four hours, and if others
speak in proportion, it is not likely that there will be many sur
vivors on the benches of the House.
Amid the hubbub it is generally agreed that it would be
more decorous ff Harcourt did not quite so loudly utter his
reprobation of Gladstone's conduct. If Sir William for
gets that it was Gladstone who took him from below the
gangway and made him a knight, other people have better
memories.

1877.] ME. GLADSTONE'S FIVE EESOLUTIONS. 227
May 7.— Mr. Glad- It is Said that the anticipatory interest shown in
tions!" ''^"'^'" *^e <iebate on Gladstone's resolutions to-night
was greater than has been -witnessed in the same
place for the last ten years. However that be, it is certain that
the House of Commons could not have been fuller. Members
were eariy in attendance, and long before four o'clock every seat
on the floor of the House was occupied. Thence members over
flowed into the galleries, taking by preference that to the right
of the Speaker, which would bring them face to face with the
orator of the evening. These seats filled, those in the opposite
gallery were taken up, and there being yet candidates for places,
members were found clustering in groups at the open doorways,
or sitting on the steps of the various gangways.
That the Strangers' and Speaker's Galleries were filled goes
without saying. But it may be added as an indication of the
interest shown on the occasion, that upwards of 400 balloted for
the 80 seats which the Strangers' Gallery provides. The
Peers mustered in large force, crowding the space allotted to
them. Wolverton obtained the place of honour over the clock,
Granville being content with one lower down. Amongst the
distinguished strangers present was Prince Louis Napoleon, who
watched with great interest the animated scene which preluded
the speech of the evening.
Gladstone came in at twenty-five minutes to five, looking hot
and flurried, possibly with the effort of making his way through
the great crowd that had gathered outside, the sound of whose
ringing cheer as he appeared was heard withia the precincts of
the House. He entered whilst Lord Sandon was answering a
question, and being unobserved, there was no demonstration.
The questions, comparatively few in number, were put and an
swered amid a buzz of conversation, which rendered them almost
inaudible. When the list was exhausted Newdegate rose to ask
whether the Government were prepared to move for or to sup
port a Committee to consider the conduct of business of the
House, and was shortly answered in the negative by the Chan
cellor of the Exchequer. Then Trevelyan rose from a seat far
below the gangway, and intimating his intention of addressing
a question to Gladstone, the buzz of conversation ceased, and the
House became suddenly attentive.
What Trevelyan had to ask was whether Gladstone had any
p2

228 A DIABY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. mn.
objection to substitute for his second resolution words to the
following effect : — " That this House is of opinion that the
Porte, by its conduct towards its subject populations, and by its
refusal to give guarantees for their better government, has for
feited all claim to receive either the material or the moral support
of the British Crown." The intimation of intention to put the
question was greeted with loud laughter by the Ministerialists,
who had been prepared by rumour for a change in the pro
gramme of the evening. The merriment broke out afresh when
Trevelyan went on to ask whether Gladstone would refrain from
moving his third and fourth resolutions.
Gladstone, on rising to reply, was greeted with loud cheers
by the Opposition. He agreed to the first part of the suggestion
made to him by Trevelyan, and was generally understood to
intimate his acquiescence .in the latter part. Hartington in a
few words expressed his approval of the course now taken, and
advised Lubbock not to persevere with the motion of the pre
vious question which stood in his name.
When Hartington resumed his seat, amid cheers from the
Opposition and laughter from the Ministerial benches, Percy
Wyndham, Greene, and Lubbock rose together. After a brief
contest the two former gave way, and Lubbock had an oppor
tunity of stating that the acceptance by Gladstone of Trevelyan's
suggestion removed his former objection, and that he therefore
should not move the amendment of which he had given notice ;
whereat the Ministerialists again loudly laughed. The Chan
cellor of the Exchequer reviewed in detail the course of events
leading up to this conclusion, which he said placed the House in
a peculiar, not to say undignified position. He concluded by
moving that the orders of the day be postponed until after the
debate on Gladstone's resolutions.
As he resumed his seat Greene and Percy Wyndham rose
again, now finding a competitor in Bentinck. Gladstone had
also risen, and stood at the table waiting an opportunity of
speaking. This no one of the three gentlemen on the Conserva
tive side was inclined to give him, and there was presented to
the House the rare spectacle of four gentlemen on their feet at
the same moment. Greene gave way first, and then there fol
lowed between Bentinck and Percy Wyndham a mutual inter
change of courtesy in the way of rising and sitting which was

1877.] MR. GLADSTONE'S FIVE RESOLUTIONS. 229
watched with uproarious laughter. Wyndham stood just behind
Bentinck on the floor of the House, and sometimes Wyndham
made signs of resuming his seat when Bentinck began to speak,
and next, Bentinck, momentarily giving way, half sat down,
whereupon Wyndham promptly jumped up and claimed the
attention of the House, seeing which Bentinck rose again and
insisted upon his turn.
AU this time the House was shouting with laughter, and
Gladstone, looking extremely pale, was standing at the table.
Wyndham having finally managed to convey to the Speaker an
intimation that he rose to a point of order, Gladstone at once
gave way. But as soon as he spoke, and it became clear that he
was not addressing himself to a point of order, he was put
down by the Speaker, whereupon Bentinck, finding his oppor
tunity, imperturbably rose again, ami4 a fresh burst of laughter.
Percy Wyndham also made another attempt to engage the at
tention of the House, which Chaplin assisted by laying his hand
on Bentinck's collar and forcibly retaining him in his seat.
Percy Wyndham finally subsiding, Gladstone rose again, where
upon Bentinck insisted upon his right of precedence, and in
despite of Chaplin, amid uncontrollable laughter, slowly rose
with a piece of paper in one hand and a stick in the other, and
attempted to make a speech.
After some moments' further struggling Gladstone was
allowed to commence. Speaking in a manner which indicated
suppressed feeling, he repudiated the suggestion made by the
Chancellor of the Exchequer that he might, towards the end of
his speech, do something which he had said at the opening he
would not do. That was an assertion, Gladstone declared, amid
cheers from the Opposition and cries of " No " from the Minis
terialists, which went beyond the courtesy of debate. Gladstone
continued to speak under great disadvantage amid interruptions
from the opposite benches of a character somewhat unusual when
a distinguished member of the House is addressing the chair. He
was frequently stopped by laughter, cries of " Oh," and shouts
of " Motion, motion." Attempting to refer to the speech of
the Chancellor of the Exchequer in support of his argument,
he was called to order by Roebuck, and abruptly concluded.
Bentinck, who all this time had been on the look-out for an
opening, now rose, amid renewed laughter, and opposed the

230 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1877.
motion of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, a course in which
he was supported by Greene and Chaplin, the latter of whom
warmly characterised Gladstone's procedure as " childish vacifla-
tion of purpose." Gathorne Hardy, who spoke -with a warmth
that finally drew down upon him the rebuke of the Speaker,
hoped that this objection would not be persisted in.
" Whatever Mr. Gladstone wanted to say, let him say it and
make an end of it."
Percy Wyndham now rose again, and made some observa
tions amid cries of " Agreed." Courtney, rising from the
Opposition benches, was greeted with deprecatory cries from the
Ministerialists ; but when it ajipeared that he was about to take
objection to Gladstone's course, he was listened to with marked
attention, and was even cheered. Chamberlain received an
equally favourable reception from the Ministerialists when he
invited Gladstone to state definitely whether he still intended to
move the third and fourth resolutions. After some further
conversation, Stafford Northcote suggested that Drummond
Wolff should substitute for the amendment of which he had
given notice, one to the effect that the House declines to pass
any resolution impugning the policy of Her Majesty's Govern
ment, unless accompanied by the statement of an alternative
policy. Bentinck rose again, and was met with a perfect storm
of cries of " Spoke ! spoke ! '-" amid which, after a sturdy but
hopeless resistance, he resumed his seat.
Sullivan characterised the proceedings on the Opposition
benches as a fatal attempt to change front in the face of
the enemy, and further as an endeavour to reconstruct the
Liberal party on the floor of the House of Commons.
Dillwyn moved the adjournment of the debate in order that
Gladstone, who had already spoken, might have an oppor
tunity of answering the question as to his intention which had
been frequently pressed upon him. Gladstone explained that on
Friday, when he found that tbe Government were not prepared
to meet his resolutions by a direct vote of confidence, he had
been taken utterly by surprise. He had come down later in the
evening prepared to make a statement on the subject, but was
prevented by the House being counted out.
Eventually, Stafford Northcote's motion was put from the
chair, and being challenged by a solitary voice below the

1877.] MB. GLADSTONE'S FIVE EESOLUTIONS. 231
gangway, the House was cleared for a division. But on the
question being put again, the voice did not respond, and the
motion was declared carried.
It was seven o'clock, two hours having been occupied in this
preliminary discussion, when Gladstone rose to move his first
resolution, being greeted with loud cheers from the Opposition
benches. He spoke for exactly two hours and a half, keeping
the House well together, notwithstanding the unforeseen discus
sion which had brought the delivery of his speech within the
dinner hour. ' His chief contention, supported by many quota
tions from the Blue-books, was that a day of peace would
never dawn for the East until united action had been taken by
the Powers of Europe for rendering justice to the Christian
subjects of Turkey. His main complaint was, that whenever
the Government had seemed to concur in promoting such united
action, they had always done it under circumstances which made
tbe acceptance of their proposals impossible. Amid loud cheers
he declared his belief that the knell of Turkish tyranny had
sounded, and that, come through whom or by what hands it
might, the final destruction of that tyranny would be equally
welcomed by Christendom and by the world.
He resumed his seat amid cheers which lasted for several
minutes, the Speaker meanwhile standing waiting formally to
submit the first of the series of resolutions.
Wolff moved an amendment in the sense of that suggested
by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Chamberlain defended
the resolutions from the charge of being inopportune. Cross
taunted Gladstone -with fighting shy of the real question, which
underlay his appeals in behalf of the Christian subjects of
Turkey. Was he prepared to go to war with Russia against
Turkey? That, Cross declared amid loud cheers from the
Ministerialists, was the real question, and it was one which
Gladstone had carefully refrained from answering. At a
- quarter past twelve Childers moved the adjournment of the
debate.May 8. -Second The House to-night presented its ordinary ap-
debate°* *^ pcarance, the excitement of the previous night
appearing to have evaporated after Gladstone's
speech. The attendance of Ministers and ex-Ministers was con-

232 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1877.
siderable, but there were large gaps on the back benches. The
only parts of the House where the interest appeared to be kept
up was in the Strangers' and Speaker's Galleries, which were
crowded. Gladstone entered shortly after business commenced,
and remained in attendance throughout the greater portion of
the sitting, an example not followed by any other Minister or
ex-Minister, except the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
The questions on the paper being disposed of, including one
by Whalley referring to " the secret operations of a dangerous
organisation," Sullivan asked a series of questions, designed to
obtain from the Chancellor of the Exchequer more detailed
information as to the statements made by the Home Secretary
on the previous night of the determination of Great Britain to
defend Egypt. The Speaker, interposing, pointed out that the
questions were not of a character that the Chancellor of the
Exchequer was bound to answer. It was a subject which should
be brought forward in the form of a notice of motion. Stafford
Northcote, on rising, was received with loud cries of " No, no,"
from the Ministerialists ; but he nevertheless acknowledged the
question to the extent of saying that it was one he could not
answer. Childers rose to resume the debate on Gladstone's resolutions.
He was much cheered from the Opposition side when, in his open
ing remarks, he characterised Gladstone's speech of the previous
evening as one of the noblest efforts ever made in the House of
Commons. He was proceeding to call attention to the varying
reception which portions of Cross's speech had received from the
Ministerialists, when Plunket rose to order, and asked the
Speaker's opinion whether Childers was in order in referring to
past debates of the Session. The Speaker pointed out that
Childers was referring to a current debate, and was therefore
perfectly in order. Childers strongly supported Gladstone's
resolutions, and was followed by Sandon, who, repeating Cross's
main argument of the previous night, insisted that Gladstone's
resolutions meant war against Turkey in alliance with Russia ;
and he asked the House whether it was worth while to engage
upon such a -war in order to appoint for the term of five years
new governors for the Christian pro-vinces of Turkey? The
debate was continued in a thin House by Percy Wyndham,
Hussey Vivian, and Baillie Cochrane.

1877.] MB. GLADSTONE'S FIVE EESOLUTIONS. 233
Baxter, drawing upon his experience during a tour in Turkey,
declared that he had not been able to agree with the second of
Gladstone's original resolutions, whieh appeared to promise that
if guarantees for better government were forthcoming the moral
or material aid of England should not be withheld from the
Porte. For his part he was for taking firm and decided steps to
get rid of all engagements with a corrupt, promise-breaking, and
tottering Power. He was strongly averse to coercion in any
form. Eslington severely lectured the Opposition on their per
sistent attacks upon the foreign policy of the Government.
Roebuck, who still addresses the House from the Liberal side,
suggested that Gladstone was no longer worthy of the respect of
members, and amid loud cheers from the opposite benches
declared that the time would come when the country would
acknowledge how good and wise were the present Govemment.
After some words from the Attorney-General, Lowe traced the
existing state of affairs to "the constant mistakes, the useless
concealment, and the unnecessary swaggering and bravado of the
Ministry." Shortly before midnight John Manners rose amid the noise
of the bustling departure of gentlemen from both sides of the
House, and in behalf of the Government replied on the few
points raised throughout the evening's debate. On the motion
of Mundella, the debate was adjourned. Biggar then proceeded
to address the House at some length in connection with the
transfer of the licence of a publican in the county of Antrim.
Sir John Holker. A painter would have found in to-night's pro
ceedings a subject for a panel that would have
shown, better than a volume could indicate, the great change
that has come over Gladstone's Parliamentary position. If, six
years ago, any one had been asked to realise a scene in which
Sir John Holker should, in the midst of an applauding senate,
have twitted, bantered, and even lectured Gladstone, he would
have stumbled over an initial difficulty. In those days it would
have been impossible for a man who ate and slept well, took
regular exercise, and thus eschewed nightmare, to imagine such
a thing as Holker being Attorney- General.
How the promotion came about is of no consequence at this
time of day. Sir John Holker, as Attorney-General, is a fact of

234 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS, [1877.
which we are occasionally reminded by finding a stout, big-
framed gentleman standing at the table, and addressing the
House in a voice which appears located further down in the
human frame than is customary, and which is pumped up by
machinery that does not always work smoothly.
Last night, Gladstone, whilst discussing the Eastern policy of
Her Majesty's Govemment, accidentally happened to observe the
Attorney- General opposite. He had just entered after dinner,
and was in an amiable frame of mind. He sat there, with a
hand half hid in either trouser-pocket, and toothsomely dallied
with a tooth-pick. Nothing appeared more remote from pro
bability than that he should become the centre of interest.
He knew nothing about the Eastern Question, and, to do
him justice, had not affected information. He had dined lei
surely and well, and the cerulean blue of an unexpectedly
prosperous life was momentarily clouded by the necessity im
posed upon him of being in his place in prospect of a certain
division. Perhaps there was something in his stolidly comfortable
aspect that aggravated Gladstone, himself raging with holy pas
sion. It is well known to readers of history that whenever
Mrs. MacStinger was disturbed by family woes, she invariably
seized upon her youngest child, if it happened to be -within
reach, and, without preface, administered severe corporeal punish
ment, subsequently seating it on the cool pavement. Without
suggesting any parallel between Gladstone and Captain Cuttle's
dreaded landlady, it must be admitted that there were estab
lished points of parallel between Sir John Holker and that
' youthful sacrificial lamb, Alexander MacStinger. Tuming aside
with an angry flash from the line of argument he had been
following, Gladstone suddenly dropped on the unsuspecting
Attorney-General, and with no other preface than the exclama
tion, " There sits the Attorney-General," buffeted him with
quotations from a speech delivered by him to his constituents
some months ago.
Holker sat transfixed under the terrible forefinger pointed
straight at him. His hands slowly descended to the depths of
his pocket, the tooth-pick fell out of his guilty mouth, and he
began to think that the Attorney- Generalship had its incon
veniences as well as its salary.

1877.1 ME, GLADSTONE'S FIVE RESOLUTIONS. 235
He said nothing last night ; but here he is to-night, with his
voice brought up from lower depths than ever, and with alto
gether unexpected inflexions in his marvellous intonation. He
is heavily humorous, and the Ministerialists, always ready to
dance when a Minister pipes, burst forth into an encouraging
roar of laughter ; he is severe, and a ringing cheer from behind
sends home the dulled barb of his rebuke ; he is nobly generous,
and gentlemen from the shires have an uneasy consciousness that
he is " letting Gladstone off too easily." But for Gladstone this
last must surely be the hardest thing to bear. A man may sleep
after having been rebuked by Sir John Holker ; to be hea-vily
chaffed by him is amusing ; but to be praised by him must have
caused Gladstone seriously to consider his past life, and
rigorously question himself as to what he had done that be
should have to bear this.
One need not go far back in his career to find what he had
done, to bring down upon himself this absurd castigation. To
find Gladstone openly scoffed at in the House of Commons, his
voice drowned in murmurs led by gentlemen of the intellectual
cahbre of Sir William Eraser, to hear him scolded by Chaplin,
and to witness him patronised by Holker, is a state of things
painful to men of right feeUng, on whichever side of the
House they sit. But it must be admitted that Gladstone is
himself wholly to blame for its existence. None but he
could have undermined and hopelessly blown up a personal
position, established by a long career unparalleled in English
history for brilliancy and substantial achievement. If he
had only a tenth part of the imperturbability of Harting
ton, or, remembering the chilly haughty manner of his old
master Sir Robert Peel, could in some measure imitate it,
he would be not less strong in the House of Commons
now than he was when he stood at the head of a devoted
majority. If, owing to an emotional, not to say a nitro-
glycerinic temperament, this be impossible, would he only
leave the House when gentlemen opposite are discussing
his speeches, something of the desired effect might be
attained. But as he is pretty constant in his attendance, never sleeps on
the front Opposition bench, and is able to follow a debate even
whilst he is writing letters, the consequences are disastrous.

236 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1877.
There is not a dull-witted or malicious man on either side of the
House who is not able to stir him up, and set him either ex
citedly shaking his head- or bring him to his feet with a contra
diction or an explanation. Every one who hears the remark
knows that it is not of the slightest consequence until it is
endowed with the importance of notice having been taken of it
by Gladstone. Quite apart from the strong feeling of personal hatred of
Gladstone which pervades some sections of the Conservative
benches, and which prompts small minds to torture a great
one, there is another reason why some members should go out
of their way to make pointed personal references to the ex-
Premier. If they went their ordinary way, stumbling through
the utterances of their commonplaces, neither the House nor the
reporters would take notice of them. But if they can succeed
in eliciting an interruption from Gladstone, the attention of
the House and of the reporters is at once fixed upon them, and
their name goes forth linked -with that of the member for Green
wich. If Gladstone would only remember these things !
May 10. — Third On the eve of most great party divisions in
night. .j.|^g House of Commons, a stranger may be
observed rapidly pacing the stone pavement of Westminster
Hall. His age may be fifty-five, but he does not look as
if more than fifty years had passed over his head — years
which had for the most part been summers. He is of full
height, and wears his hat well set on one side of his head. His
coat was evidently made in Paris, and there, too, must that
abundant moustache have been trimmed and waxed. On the
whole, it would not be easy to guess the stranger's nationality
or his profession. He might be a chef de cuisine of the higher
grade. He might be a French colonel in mufti. He might be
the ring-master from the neighbouring circus of Sanger. He
might be anything but what he is — the son of one of the
greatest of English statesmen, and an actual member of
Parliament for a quiet, not to say obscure, English borough
constituency. Sir Robert Peel is the stormy petrel of the Parliamentary
session. He never appears except when a great party division
is imminent, and then he may be counted upon always to vote

1877.] ME. GLADSTONE'S FIVE EESOLUTIONS. 237
the right way, and sometimes to make a speech. The House
welcomed him to-night with an applauding shout when he rose
from the familiar seat on the back bench below the gangway,
and began to pose. Although the debate of the evening has
been of a higher class than that of Tuesday, it has not been
exhilarating. Courtney, who opened the discussion, recited
an able lecture on foreign policy in a manner which marked a
considerable advance upon his earUer Parliamentary utterances.
Chaplin emphatically delivered a stream of platitudes, varied by
some stirring references to the possible necessity of sweeping the
Mediterranean with British guns ; whereat Sir William Edmon
stone raked the Opposition fore and aft with cheers, and if at
the moment he could have caught the Speaker's eye, would
forthwith have related that thrilling story of how he once
quelled a mutiny in the same blue waters. Chaplin had spoken
so loudly, and had been so warmly cheered by members who
are always ready to join in the chorus of " Rule, Britannia,"
that when he sat down and mopped his forehead, there evidently
came back the familiar and troublous thought whether he was
doing his duty to his country in giving up to Newmarket what
, was meant for Great Britain.
After this, the House went off to dinner, leaving Mitchell-
Henry to address posterity through an imaginary official reporter.
The House remained empty for two hours, the latter half of
which period was weighted by a great fear. Shaw-Lefevre was
sitting, the solitary tenant of the front Opposition bench,
evidently waiting an opportunity to speak. He rose several
times, but always the Speaker, who feels that the line must be
drawn somewhere, saw somebody else. Shaw-Lefe-vre on the
Eastern Question would be too much even in a debate to which
four mortal nights had been given up. It was a relief to find
Forster lurching in at ten o'clock, for it was known that it had
been arranged that he should speak, and so Shaw-Lefevre's
chance was gone. Forster disposed his elegant form on the
bench, and -with head laid back and legs stretched far out
towards the Treasury bench, by way of showing Her Majesty's
Ministers that he bore no malice, listened to the vapoury
eloquence of Peel.
The baronet was in great force to-night, blowing out his
cheeks as if he were practising for an engagement in the trom

238 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nsn.
bone department of the orchestra at the Wagner Festival, and
shaking his outstretched hand in a manner that threatened immi
nent destruction to Storer's hat. Tbe occupants of the Strangers'
Gallery were in ecstasies. Never had they seen anything like
this in the House of Commons, whilst members, more particularly
on the Conservative benches, kept time to Peel's thunder with
peals of laughter. How exquisite the irony ! how scathing the
sarcasm I bow rich the humour of the right hon. baronet I The
success of George Colman, who, when he asked his neighbour at
dinner to pass the salt, found that he had set the table in a roar
of laughter, is the best illustration that occurs of the triumph of
Sir Robert Peel's speech to-night.
"The right hon. gentleman, the member for the London
University — I will come to him presently," Sir Robert added,
wagging his head and hand; and the House incontinently roared
with laughter.
" Mr. Lowe said that two lawyers had addressed the House,
and had treated it like a common jury. Well, I hope he never
will have to appear before a common jury." -
Gracious powers ! how we laughed and cheered ! Was there
ever anything so funny as this ?
" After having spoken a little on different subjects. Earl
Granville brought out of his arsenal that fine old English gen
tleman — civil and religious liberty."
" Mr. Lowe an ex-Cabinet Minister — he may, perhaps, by
some accident, occuj^y the same position again, though I hope he
will not."
Laughter again, almost to the verge of convulsions !
More than ever the impression grows that for sparkling wit
and abundant humour the House of Commons contains no one
who can compete with the baronet who represents Tamworth.
In the more serious portion of his speech, it is true. Sir Robert
was not quite so successful, having as much difficulty in drag
ging in his cherished reference to the departure of the children
of Israel from the land of Egypt as Moses had in getting
them out.
When I hear Peel speak I think of what Dr. Johnson said
about CoUey Cibber : " As for Gibber himself, taking from his
conversation all that he ought not to have said, he was a poor
creature."

1877.] ME. GLADSTONE'S FIVE EESOLUTIONS. 239
May 11.— Fourth Gladstone appeared at the table of the House of
^^^' Commons to-day before the hour of public busi
ness had struck, and presented a petition in favour of his
resolutions, signed by sixty-three out of eighty fellows of Trinity
College, Cambridge. Questions disposed of, the Chancellor of
the Exchequer repeated the now familiar motion of the post
ponement of the orders of the day till after the discussion on
Gladstone's resolutions. Edward Jenkins seized the opportunity
to express the hope that the Government would not insist upon
taking the division at the conclusion of that night's debate, but
would consent to a further adjournment till Monday. Jenkins
observed that he had himself risen many times during the
previous evening, hoping to catch the Speaker's eye, and that
within his knowledge there were a great many members who
desired to address the House on the subject. The Chancellor of
the Exchequer, promptly interposing, expressed the hope that the
debate would be concluded that night; but in any case he
deprecated waste of time in discussion of the question raised by
Jenkins. On the part of the Government, he undertook that
its members would not occupy the time of the House further
than was necessary for the delivery of the speeches of Bourke
and himself.
Walter suggested, amid general cheering, that the difficulty
might be met by members making their speeches shorter.
Anderson complained that opinion in the House had not been
fairly represented in the debate, as during the three nights only
two members, who were supporters of Gladstone in his resolu
tions as they originaUy stood, had found an opportunity of
speaking. After some words from Gladstone and Hartington,
the latter expressing his hope that the debate might be concluded
that night, Bourke rose and resumed the discussion.
The House had not hitherto been crowded ; but now it was
further reduced by the prompt departure of a large number
of members, Bourke at the outset -with difficulty making himself
heard amidst the noise and bustle. The Under-Secretary for
Foreign Affairs dealt largely with the literature of the Blue
Books, endeavouring to show by quotations from despatches that
the Government- had done the best thing possible under the cir
cumstances.' Robert Anstruther followed, setting forth the
opinion that the best solution of the difficulty would have been

240 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1877.
for England to have acted in concert with Russia — a course not
too late to take even now. Elcho, who apparently has quite
recovered from the illness which recently kept him from the
House, discursively and at great length ranged through modern
history as bearing on the Eastern Que.stion, showing generally
how good the Turks had been, and how bad the Russians. Some
slight signs of impatience being shown when the noble lord pre
pared to read an extract to the former effect, he, facing members
opposite, sharply rated them for the interruption, observing that
they had denounced the Turks, knowing nothing about them
except what they had read in the Daily News, and insisting that,
if he pleased, he should draw the opposite side of the picture.
Anderson, amid cheers from below the gangway, declared
himself an uncompromising supporter of Gladstone's resolutions
in their integrity. Newdegate said he should vote for the
resolutions in order to show his conviction that if England
guaranteed the integrity of a foreign country she had a right to
require the fulfilment of that country's pledges. Shaw-Lefevre,
Yorke, Lubbock, and Grantham continued the debate in a thin
House, of the members present fully one-half rising to their feet
as each speaker sat down, and endeavouring to catch the Speaker's
eye. At a quarter to eleven the number of intending speakers (a
peculiarity about whom was that they appeared in no measure
reduced as successive speeches were made) passed the round score.
Among them were Walter and A. M. Sullivan, the House,
being divided by sections, calling for one or other of these
gentlemen. The Speaker decided in favour of Walter, who, in
supporting the resolutions, scrupulously followed the suggestion
he had thrown out earlier in the evening, by making a short
speech. He made a good point by likening the mission of Lord
Salisbury and Sir H. Elliot to the embassy of Moses and Aaron
to Pharaoh for the purpose of effecting the deliverance of the
children of Israel; there being, as he showed, this difference
between the two missions — that whilst Moses and Aaron were
endowed with the coercive power of the plagues, Salisbury and
Elliot were powerless to do more than advise.
Hermon having addressed the House, Goschen expressed the
strong satisfaction with which the debate was viewed from that
side of the House. There had been a marked change in its tone
since it opened. What a wide space intervened between the

1877.1 MB. GLADSTONE'S FIVE EESOLUTIONS. 241
bellicose utterances of the Secretary of State for War and the
Secretai-y of State for the Home Department ! The only quar
ter of the world where the debate would not be satisfactory
was, Goschen thought, Constantinople. After some words from
Kenealy, the debate was further adjourned.
May 14. — The The resumption this afternoon of the debate on
division. Gladstone's resolutions did not find the House of
Commons very full. Ministers were in their places, but the
front Opposition bench would have been tenantless save for the
presence of Childers. The back benches on each side were
barely half full. But this appearance of lack of interest was
delusive, the fact being that members had taken especial care to
be in their places at prayer time, and so secured seats, whilst the
earlier proceedings of the evening were not of sufficient interest
to induce them to remain in their places. Before the questions
were put the front Opposition bench began to fill, amongst the
arrivals being Hartington, Forster, and Harcourt. Gladstone
did not come in for more than two hours later, taking his seat
towards the conclusion of Harcourt's speech. The attendance of
strangers was equal to the accommodation of the galleries ; but by
reason of the absence of the Peers that portion of the House
failed to present the crowded appearance marked on the opening
night of the debate.
Whalley varied the flow of notices and questions by rising to
give notice of a question to Kenealy. He proposes to ask
the member for Stoke to repeat the statements uttered by
him in the House on Friday morning, that this country had
deliberately sacrificed two millions of lives during the famine
in Ireland, and that the conduct of British soldiers in India
after the Mutiny was worse than the atrocities of the Turks
in Bulgaria. Whalley, it appeared, had given private notice
to Kenealy of his intention to put this question, and Kenealy
had abstained from putting in an appearance. Whalley, amid
much laughter, gave notice that he would put the question on
a future day, with the object of having Kenealy's words
" taken down."
The House had filled up during question time, but it thinned
again upon Waddy's rising to resume the debate. Waddy
declared in the course of his speech that he was one of those who

242 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
would have voted for the five resolutions, supposing Gladstone
had maintained them in their integrity. At the same time he
recognised the propriety of dropping the last three, a conviction
in which he was confirmed by the indignation excited on the
other side by the announcement that they were not to be pressed
to a division. After some words from Bruce, Harcourt, referring
to the declaration from the Ministerial bench that the policy
of England should be, and was, one of strict neutrality,
observed, that Derby's answer to the Gortschakoff Circular was
an offensive piece of neutrality. Amid cheers -from the
Opposition he declared that he was happy to have lived to see the
day when it had become certain that British interests might not
be defended through the odious instrumentality of Turks. That
was a worn-out policy, which, after the recent manifestations of
public opinion, it would be impossible to revive. He agreed with
Gladstone that the knell of the Turkish Empire had sounded, and
confessed that he had long wished to hear that passing bell.
When Harcourt resumed his seat, it was noticeable that no
Conservative rose, and it soon became clear that a poUcy of
silence had been imposed (or accepted) on the Ministerial benches.
ToUemache Sinclair having addressed the House from behind the
front Opposition bench, George Bowyer ingeniously attempted to
give a semblance of evenness to the debate by crossing over to
the Conservative side, addressing the Speaker from the seat
usually occupied by Beresford-Hope. He had an audience of
seventeen persons, Winn representing her Majesty's Govern
ment; Stafford Northcote being at the moment seated on the
front Opposition bench engaged in amicable conversation with
Bright, its only other occupant. O'Clery next caught the
Speaker's eye, when the audience was further reduced, there
being now only eleven persons in the House. Only three Irish
members rallied round the Chevalier, and of these one-third
(M'Kenna) was waiting in the hope of next finding an opportu
nity to deliver a speech, the notes of which he held in his hand.
Fawcett, rising just before ten o'clock, had a fuller audience, a
circumstance he found not altogether to his advantage. As
compared, for example, with the reception accorded by the
Ministerialists to Kenealy when, rising at the close of Friday
night's debate, he proceeded to attack Gladstone, Fawcett's
reception from the opposite benches was most embarrassing.

^ .-.ii

1877.] ME. GLADSTONE'S FIVE EESOLUTIONS. 243
Loud cries of " 'Vide, 'vide, 'vide," accompanied the statement
of his argument.
Once, when these cries had risen to a height that almost
drowned his voice, Fawcett, turning towards the source of the
interruption, said, " Yes, I know you don't like what I am
about to say," an impeachment which the Ministerialists ac
cepted with hilarious cheering. " And that," he continued,
when the storm had spent itself — " and that is why I am par
ticularly desirous, and quite determined, to say it."
It was half-past ten when Hartington rose, Havelock,
M'Kenna, P. O'Brien, and two or three other members, rising
from the Opposition benches. These gentlemen at once gave
way to the leader of the Opposition, and loud cheers from both
sides of the now crowded House welcomed what was taken as a
signal that the prolonged debate had reached its penultimate
and most interesting stage. Hartington commenced with some
smart hitting out at Ministers and their followers, raising a
storm of cheering and counter-cheering by the declaration,
quietly led up to, that among the few and scanty rights of the
Opposition was that of managing their own affairs in their own
way. As to the resolutions before the House, he argued at
some length to show that they comprehended the true policy, or
what ought to be the true policy, of the Government.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, who spoke amid much
enthusiasm on the Ministerial benches, said he did not deny to
the Opposition that local liberty and self-government which
they claimed for provinces in the East. Only if they were to take
as a practical illustration of the effects of such self-government,
what had happened during the past fortnight within the ranks
of the Liberal party, he could not say that the example was
encouraging. As to the general issue of the policy of the
Government, he declined to have it judged by the standard o^
success. It had failed, but that failure was due not more to the
deplorable folly of Turkey than to the deplorable impatience of
Russia. What the Government now desired was to maintain a
strict neutrality, and they desired to watch over the interests of
England, being vigilant, but not over-hasty.
It was twenty minutes after midnight when Gladstone rose,
amid prolonged cheering from the Opposition. At this time the
House had assumed an aspect marvellously different from that
q2

244 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1877.
indicated above. Since ten o'clock it had been slowly filling, and
now it was crowded in every part — floor, bar, and galleries;
prominent among the members in the gallery facing the Opposi
tion benches being Biggar and Parnell. The seats in the
gallery over the clock appropriated to the Peers were not
less crowded, and for the first time sinee Monday week, when
the debate opened, the House presented the thronged, eager,
excited appearance peculiar to it at great crises. Gladstone
spoke much more quietly than a week ago, a circumstance
possibly in some measure due to the marked difference in the
bearing towards him of the Ministerialists. A week ago he
spoke amid frequent interruptions from gentlemen opposite.
To-night he held the attention of the House throughout his
speech, the outburst of impatience when he roundly declared
that throughout the policy they have attempted, from the first
to the last, the Ministry have failed in everything, being speedily
repressed. He concluded amid enthusiastic cheering. His speech occu
pied a little over an hour and a quarter in its delivery.
After a vain attempt from Major O'Gorrnan to elicit from
the House an expression of opinion as to the nationality of the
Bashi-Bazouks, the House divided. The numbers were : —
For Gladstone's Resolutions ... ...  223
Against  ... ...  354
Majoiity  131
May 15.— 3 a.m. It was ail odd thing to see Gladstone just
The pomatum- ^^^ taking advantage of the pause occasioned
by the ringing cheers his eloquence drew forth
to seize a short, thick-set pomatum-pot, remove the cork, and
proceed to refresh himself. Doubtless, in years to come, when
a future Froude, a successor to Kinglake, or a heritor of
Hallam, shall sit down to write the history of the debate
just closed, we shall hear something of the cabals that pre
ceded it. We shall have set forth in rounded periods the
enormous interests at stake. We may have sketched in bold
figures in the background the armies of Russia and Turkey
clutching each other by the throat on the banks of the Danube
or in the mountainous passes of Asia Minor. We shall hear of

1877.] ME. GLADSTONE'S FIVE EESOLUTIONS. 245
the outburst of popular sympathy which made it possible for an
Opposition feeble in numbers to make a gallant and not unsuc
cessful stand against a Ministry powerful beyond precedent. We
shall hear of the speeches that were made and of the excitement
that prevailed ; of the disdainful silence of the Opposition when
the figures were announced, and of the ringing cheers of the
Conservatives. But history will scorn to mention that modest pomatum-pot,
oval in shape, four inches in height, and supplied with an ill-
fitting cork that baffled the frenzied efforts of the orator to re
place it. And yet peradventure without the assistance of this
glass bottle, with its mysterious contents that looked like melted
pomatum and might have been egg and sherry, we should never
have had this great speech, with its broadly based arguments, its
towering eloquence, and its subdued tone of triumph proclaiming
the accustomed scorn which minorities have for the brute force
of numbers. The pomatum-pot, with its contumacious cork and its mys
terious contents, played a prominent part in the delivery of the
speech ; but it is probable that whilst its assistance -was desirable,
it was by no means indispensable. It must be admitted that
for a statesman retired from business Gladstone was in wonder
ful force to-night, as indeed he has been throughout the week.
Few feats in Parliamentary history will equal that he accom
plished a week ago, when, bantered on all sides, bullied by some,
silently deserted by others, openly reproached by a few, he stood
at bay in an assembly where, within recent memory, a nod
from him was almost sufflcient to pass an Act of Parliament.
He had then come down prepared to make a speech on a
subject he had thoroughly studied, and of the details of which he
was perfectly master. On the threshold of the forum he was
met by a wrangling crowd, who hurried and harried him, attack
ing him in flank and rear, and inflicting upon him a hustling
such as would have shaken a carefully prepared oration out of
the most experienced Parliamentary speaker. But at the end of
two hours, when the House was wearied and worn out with the
excitement of the preliminary squabble, Gladstone rose and
delivered a speech which even his enemies (and in the House of
Commons they are infinitely more in number than his friends)
admit was one of his grandest efforts.

246 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
Since then a week has gone by, and speeches have been
strewn like salt on the verdurous highway, blighting everything
they fell upon and turning living green into dull and Iffeless
brown . It has been such a time as that bemoaned in the " Rime
of the Ancient Mariner" after the albatross had been shot —
" There passed a weary time. Each throat
"Was parched, and glazed each eye.
' A weary time ! a weary time !
How glazed each weary eye."
Men had corae and gone, but Gladstone, who has a conscientious
belief that when he bas to reply to a debate he must hear what
has been said in it, has, for the most part, sat it out. He is the
only living man who heard Childers all through his monologue.
This was early in the debate, and the Chancellor of the Exche
quer, 'with commendable anxiety to do his duty, showed a dis
position to imitate Gladstone's patience. But after the first
hour Northcote was led out into the fresh air, and will not, I
fancy, make a similar attempt.
Gladstone sat it all out, and lived to hear Elcho, in his
forcible-feeble style, settle the whole business. He watched
Robert Anstruther gambolling among the thickets of foreign
politics. He listened throughout to Bourke's speech, and the
only relaxation he has permitted himself was marked to
night, when he abstained from taking his seat till seven o'clock.
Thus he missed Waddy, and lost the opportunity of observing
how, in competent hands, a question of foreign politics may be
treated precisely as if it were a case of common assault; how the
House of Commons may have the forensic forefinger shaken at
it as if it were a special jury ; and how the Speaker may be
addressed with that mingled air of familiarity and deference to
which judges who go circuit gradually grow accustomed.
He came in in time to hear some of the witticisms of Har
court, and very good they were, though more than ever remi
niscent of surprise bon-bons deliberately manufactured at home,
carefully wrapped up in small parcels, and brought down to the
House with the moment of their delivery marked on each. But
when — after ToUemache Sinclair had, with admirable effect,
recited a prize essay (with appendices) on the relations between
Russia and Turkey extending over a period of two hundred
years — Bowyer rose from the opposite side, and showed a disposi-

1877.] MB. GLADSTONE'S FIVE EESOLUTIONS. 247
tion to add a treatise on the constitutional history of the world,
Gladstone, seizing his hat, and clapping his hands to his coat-
tail pockets, to make sure that he had not forgotten the trea
sured pomatum-pot, hastily fled from the House, and remained
absent for nearly two hours.
But it is all over at last. Some speeches are made, and some
are yet carried about in the breast coat-pockets of members,
and may, as Richard Power humorously suggested, be either
delivered to suffering constituents during the recess, or published
in the form of shilling pamphlets. Winn's long sentry-duty at
the lobby-door, with his gently spoken but irresistible " You
will be back after dinner?" is finished. The victors are crowned;
the vanquished are wisely making the best of their defeat ;
Gladstone has finally got the cork into the now empty pomatum-
pot; the ringing cheers of the majority have died away, and the
prevailing anxiety on the part of two-thirds of the British
House of Commons is whether, at this hour of the morning,
there will be a hansom cab left in Palace Yard.
May 16.— Another The happiest thing said during the long debate of
Lowe.'"' ^^' ^^* week was uttered sotto voce by Lowe. When
Wolff, accepting the suggestion of the Chancellor
of the Exchequer, substituted for " the previous question " an
amendment deprecating censure of the Government unless an
alternative policy were set forth, Lowe, turning to Gladstone,
quoted the well-known proverb —
" Lupus pUum mutat, non mentem."

CHAPTER XIX.
SIK STAFFORD NORTHCOTE AS LEADER.
A Vocation missed — " Times of Refreshing in Spain " — The new Black Rod-
Sir Stafiord Northcote as Leader — Dull Times — ^What's to be done with
Parnell and Biggar? — Mr. Beresford-Hope's Joke — Mr. Courtney talks
himself out — " The Admiral " — Debate on the Gallows — Sir John Holker—
Sir Eardley Wilmot — ^Mr- Pease — Sir Henry Jackson — Mr. Bright.
May 17.— A vo- Ward Hunt has really been suffering from the
cation missed. ^^^^^^ ^^g. j^^^ ^^^^ .^^^^ Concerned about getting
his leg in a comfortable position, than about manoeuvring the
British fleet. He came down to-day full of resentment at being
brought out to answer two questions from private members, and
straightway fell foul of Mitchell Henry, who had ventured to ask
a question about the report of the Arctic Committee of Inquiry.
Ill-tempered under all circumstances, the gout had made him
furious, and he lectured Mitchell Henry as if that inoffensive
gentleman had, in a moment of playfulness, run away with his
stick. I was much struck with the procedure of Biggar whilst the
little scene was in progress. Whilst Ward Hunt stood at the
table, and, with an angry flush on his face, declined to answer his
querist, Biggar walked down the gangway to leave the House.
As he walked, he turned and looked over his shoulder at the
gigantic First Lord with a curious expression on his face, in which
was easy to read the half -sad, half-admiring thought, that in
Ward Hunt some Irish constituency has lost a worthy member.
" If he were only one of us," Biggar said, with a sigh, to
Parnell, as, a little later, they talked the incident over, "and if
we could only keep him awake through a long sitting, what a
treasure he would be ! "
May 18.— "Times It is said that On commencing work, the Select
i'n spato^^''*"^ Committee on Sunday Closing in Ireland, anxious
to obtain the widest information on the subject,
ordered five copies of a work they saw advertised under the
title of " Times of Refreshing in Spain." On the parcel being

I87T.] SIE STAFFOED NOETEGOTE AS LEADEE. 249
delivered, it was found that the book was a quarterly periodical,
published under the auspices of the Edinburgh Spanish Evange
lisation Society,
May 21. - The Sir William Knollys, the newly appointed Gentle-
new Black j^g^j^ Usher of the Black Rod, has been duly
introduced in the House of Lords, and read a first
time. To-night he made his first official appearance in the House
of Commons, and very creditably went through the ordeal of
summoning the Commons to hear the Royal Assent given by
commission in the other House. Sir William was not quite sure
about the formula, and has not yet hit off the precise locality of
the bar ; but he is young yet, and these things will come to him
by-and-by. Sir Augustus Clifford, the late holder of this venerable
and useful office, knew to half an inch the exact spot where he
was when he had walked backwards a certain number of steps,
and never turned round till he was well clear of the bar.
May28.— Sir staf- Stafford Northcote is in his place, with his
Isl^e°r.''"'°'^ hands folded before him, his hair tumbling
about his forehead, and his faithful glasses
doing all they can to hide the fact that his eyes are closed
in slumber. He has filled Disraeli's place for three months
now, and the House has had adequate opportunity of forming an
opinion of his capacity as leader. I like Sir Stafford, and am
sorry to have to record the fact that, on the whole, he has not
come up even to the modest expectation formed in advance. No
one hoped that he -would make a brilliant leader ; but it was
thought that at least he would be a competent one. It seems a
hard thing to say of a man who does not by presumptuous manner
court harsh criticism, but it is nevertheless true, that even his
most friendly critic could not, after three months' experience,
affirm that Stafford Northcote is a competent leader.
The standard of excellence in this matter is pitched very high,
as may be tested by a single fact. Practically Northcote led the
House of Commons last session, Disraeli studiously withdrawing
himself and, with great adroitness and a skilful kindness that
may only be appreciated in retrospect, pushed his intended suc
cessor to the front. At that time Sir Stafford's frequent inter
position appearing to be accidental, and his function not being

250 A DIABY OF TWO -PABLIAMENTS. mn.
officially recognised, he received great kudos for the successful
manner in which he extricated tbe Government from frequent
dilemmas. It was the season when the Merchant Shipping Bfll
was in full course, and the tact, temper, and presence of mind
with which he frequently stepped in to guide the House out of
the blind alleys into which Adderley had led it became matter of
daily comment.
But at that time Northcote was only Chancellor of the Ex
chequer, and as nothing was expected from him in the way of
leadership, indications of ability in that direction were received
with tokens of grateful surprise. Now that he actually fills the
position which last session he occasionally dropped into, the
standard of criticism is altogether changed. Between this year
and last there is, as far as points of criticism go, just that differ
ence between the Leader of the House and the Chancellor of
the Exchequer that exists between the reception of a gentleman
who earns the enthusiastic plaudits of an audience before whom
he presents himself as an amateur, and the cool critical stare of
the same people when he comes before them as a professional
actor. It would seem that Northcote was a much better leader
of the House of Commons last session than this. For the reasons
indicated, I believe that conclusion to be fallacious.
But the fact remains that Northcote, being tried, has been
found wanting. He is void of the principal qualities whieh go
to make a successful leader of this sensitive and critical assembly.
He has not eloquence ; he lacks lightness of touch ; heaven has
denied him wit or humour; and there is missed in him that
lightning-like perception of the right thing to say in a difficult
moment that distinguished his predecessor. These are danger
ously definite statements, that may be cavilled at, and possibly
confuted. But there is one fact, which no member of the House
of Commons accustomed closely to attend its business will deny.
However it be, from whatever lack, or from whatever super
abundance, Northcote has not that weight of personal authority
in the House essential to a successful leader. When he speaks,
his dictum carries precisely that authority which pertained to
the centurion ; but there is nothing more. No man ever in
dulges in curiosity as to what he will say on a given subject,
beyond the measure of interest excited by a formal announce
ment of a Ministerial decision, which might as well be made by

1677.] SIB STAFFOED NOETEGOTE AS LEADEE. 251
Cavendish Bentinck. In fact. Cavendish Bentinck is of him
self a much more interesting personage than is the Chancellor of
the Exchequer.
Northcote is the only Chancellor of the Exchequer of modern
times who might have been expected to produce a Budget which
left taxation precisely as he found it. Nobody questions that he
did the right thing. There was no actual necessity for increasing
taxation, and there was no particular opportunity for reducing it.
Accordingly he did the most natural thing in the world — he let
the machinery of taxation alone. But what other man amongst
contemporaries who have held similar office would have done the
same ? Would Disraeli ? Would Gladstone ? Would Lowe ?
Not one of these great spirits could have existed after such an
ignoble feat. Disraeli would have performed some financial
legerdemain. Taking sixpence out of the right-hand pocket
he would have conveyed it to the left, and while thus leaving the
actual state of the finances as he found it, he would have in
terested the nation, and possibly have made it believe that he had
reduced its taxation. Gladstone would not have slept in his bed
till he had discovered some means of taking off something some
where ; whilst Lowe would probably have introduced the income-
tax into the newly acquired territory of Fiji, and so obtained the
double gratification of disturbing a hornet's nest and of carrying
forward a considerable surplus, without tempering tbe full enjoy
ment of the moment by making some people comfortable by re
duced taxation.
To the mind of Stafford Northcote it appeared the simplest
thing in the world to produce the unambitious Budget which has
already become part of history. It is in the same matter-of-fact
manner that he leads, or attempts to lead, the House of Commons.
The pity of it is that the House does not like matter-of-fact
management, and, on the whole, prefers the little excitement
consequent on being driven unpleasantly near to a ditch, to the
calm and equable enjoyment of life under a man of whom it may
be safely predicted what he will do next.
May 29. — Dull I do not kuow whcu I was so much struck with the
hopelessly depressed aspect of the House of Com
mons as to-night. It was bad enough last night ; but there was
then an adventitious hilarity connected with meeting after a brief

252 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
recess. Members had at least the opportunity of opening con
versation by asking each other how they were, and where they
had been during the recess. To-night this privilege was denied
them, and a deep melancholy settled over the assembly from the
moment the Speaker took the chair. The only really cheerful
man on the premises is KnatchbuU-Hugessen, who, in the absence
of everybody else, found an opportunity of presenting himself as
Leader of the Opposition, and in that capacity questioning the
Leader of the House on the probable course of public business.
There was not, throughout the night, an average of fifty members
present, and the general aspect suggested that the remaining six
hundred and ten had been swallowed up by an earthquake, and
that this half-hundred had met to mourn their untimely decease.
Claud Hamilton, who had on the paper a motion relating to
harbours on the north-east coast, was quite subdued in his
manner, and as for Pease, his tone could not have been more
melancholy had he just received information that the whole of his
mines were flooded. Brassey, whom we expected to see return
with a jovial sea-air about him, was not able to resist the pre
vailing atmosphere. Even Big Ben, who, as usual, took
advaiitage of the empty condition of the House to inflict upon
those present a repetition of his familiar speech, roared you as
gently as a sucking dove. In brief, the House is not a lively
place, and even the harsh metallic voice of Biggar, with his " Mr.
Speaker, sir," would cause a welcome ripple on the dense and
stagnant atmosphere.
Mayso.- What's Twenty-three Irish members met to-day to con-
tc) be done with gj^jgj. -^^jja^ jg ^q j^g ,Jone about Biggar and Parnell.
Parnell and "^
Biggar? Both these gentlemen were expected to be present,
but they failed to put in an appearance at the
meeting. After a brief delay, Parnell arrived, the bearer of a
message from Biggar to the effect that he would be " down
direckly." After a brief deliberation, the members arrived at
the conclusion that perhaps they had better not wait ; so they
adjourned till next Saturday.
I am told it was quite delightful to hear the sigh of relief
with which the members present arrived at this conclusion, and
found themselves getting safely out of the room without having
had to face the difficulty they had not ventured to settle. I

1877.1 SIE STAFFOED NOETEGOTE AS LEADEE. 253
beheve that if the meeting does not come off on Saturday, Biggar
and Parnell will hold a meeting to consider what is to be done
with the Home Rule Party.
Apropos, there is a conundrum with an obvious answer current
just now.
Q_ — "Why isn't Parnell the biggest bore in the House ? "
A. — "Because there's a Biggar."
June 6.— Mr. Be- Midhat Pacha is improving the shining hours of
resford-Hope's j^jjg enforced retirement by studying other British
institutions than the hoarding which stands before
his hotel windows, and obscures the view of the river Thames.
He was in the House of Commons this afternoon, sitting
throughout the prolonged, and not always lively, debate on the
Women's Suffrage Bill. To a gentlemanly Turk, it must have
been an occasion of especial interest to hear the first legislative
assembly in the world debate whether she, whom Beresford-
Hope more than once referred to as "lovely woman," should
have a vote. He arrived too late to hear Harcourt's somewhat
unnecessary inquiry as to whether the Government were dealing
out to Turkey the same measure in respect to the Suez Canal as
they meted to Russia. He also missed the public apology and
penance of that amiable and ingenuous young man, Hanbury.
But he heard Forsyth, who has got over the curious emotion
that possessed him when he addressed the House on Monday
night, and when his white neckcloth seemed so tightly tied as
to throw an unaccustomed guttural tone into his speech. He
heard the mellifluous eloquence of the O'Donoghue ; the forensic
f unniness of Hopwood ; the more and more impressive speech of
Barttelot; the funereal observations of Duncan McLaren, who
always succeeds in throwing an aii: of domestic affliction over
any subject he touches ; the Union-Club argumentativeness of
Balfour ; the slow utterance of the venerable member for Oxford
shire; and the chuckles of the member for Cambridge University
at the jokes of Beresford-Hope.
I hear that Midhat was immensely delighted with Beresford-
Hope, who, indeed, being on a subject which specially pleased
him, surpassed himself. The funniest thing I have heard in the
House for a long time was the chuckle with which he followed
one of his own witticisms. He had made a joke, the House had

254 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [i877.
smiled, and was waiting for him to proceed. But Beresford-
Hope stood silent, holding himself tightly with both hands by
the collar of his coat, and with his head gently reposing on his
right shoulder. Was he finished and about to sit down ? Jacob
Bright thought he was, and prepared to rise. But still Beres
ford-Hope stood in the same attitude, his face convulsively
moving, and, as those who sat near him testify, volcanic agencies
evidently at work within his body. Was he ill ? Would apo
plexy supervene, and would he, like an almost greater statesman,
die on the floor of the House ?
Matters were growing alarming, and the pause awful, when
suddenly there sounded throughout the silent chamber a single,
short, sharp chuckle. The convulsive movement had ceased,
the working of the face had resolved itself into a broad grin,
and the House, reUeved of anxiety and immensely tickled at the
comicality of the situation, burst into a roar of laughter, in
which the grave Turk heartily joined.
Beresford-Hope, thinking that his audience had seen the
joke. at last, devoted himself to a succession of discharges of
profound chuckles, which set the House off again, and for fully
two or three minutes the remarkable scene was prolonged,
Beresford-Hope feeling convinced that he had never made such
a good joke as this in all his life.
Mr. Courtney The House was evidently in for fun, and later in
talks himseu ^-^^ evening it found its opportunity, and enjoyed
itself to the full. At a quarter-past five, when
there had been quite enough of set speeches on a subject with
respect to which every one was agreed, Courtney rose, with por
tentous notes in his hand. Courtney is a gentleman who has
illustrated, in a marked degree, the danger which assails the
wisest men when they enter Parliament. If any man might
be expected to understand the House of Commons, and to
know wherein lay the possibility of success and wherein the
certainty of failure, it is Leonard Courtney. Long before
he was elected he was an Aaiitwe of the place, his face and
figure being as familiar in the lobbies and under the gallery
as those of the- Serjeant-at-Arms. It was liis business to
write about proceedings in ParUament, and in the performance
of his work he displayed conspicuous ability and supremely sound

1877.] SIB STAFFOED NOETEGOTE AS LEADEE. 255
judgment. When he took his seat, considerable curiosity was
felt as to whether he would be a success or a failure. The odds
seemed vastly in favour of the former result, and it was confi
dently anticipated that the Radical section of the Opposition
had gained in the new member an important ally.
Courtney did not long leave the House without an oppor
tunity of judging of his capacity and style as a Parliamentary
speaker. The readiness to thrust himself into debate was, in
deed, ominous. But he met with a favourable reception, though
the impression left on the mind of impartial judges was not
such as to maintain enthusiasm among his friends. A somewhat
heavy, solemn manner, a voice which may not be said to be bell
like in the clearness of its intonation, and a general disposition
rather to dogmatise than to argue, were the characteristics at
once noted in the new-comer.
The difference in point of view when a man is writing a
leading article and when he is addressing an assembly is enorm
ous. But it was bridged by Courtney's self-confldence, and
the House, from the beginning, has resented the unflattering
mistake. It cannot be said of Courtney that he is self -conceited
or presumptuous, as self-conceit and presumption are exemplified
in the person of Edward Jenkins. He knows too much, and
has seen too much, to make mistakes that are natural enough in
an inflated bladder which for thoughts has dry peas, the rattle
whereof stands it in place of argument. Courtney has even a
inodest, quiet manner. But he is also an obstinate man ; and
the more the House declines to hear him^ the more he insists
that it shaU.
This disposition was prominently sho-wn on the occasion
when, in spite of opposition coming from all sides — not least
from his o-wn friends — he persisted in pressing forward his
motion on the Eastern Question. It was exemplified to-day
in another and more direct shape, when he wanted to make a
speech and the House would not listen to him, and when,
angrfly persisting, he literally talked out the Bill on which he
and his friends earnestly desired to divide. I have seen a
man in a similar position come off victorious ; but Courtney,
after a long and obstinate struggle, was hopelessly beaten. There
are several ways of getting to the other side of a stone wall
which bars one's progress. E-vidently the least effective way is

256 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
to beat one's head against it. Courtney, at the outset, lost his
temper, and for fully thirty minutes battled against the deter
mination of the House not to hear him. Had he been en
dowed with a spark of humour, he would have made an open
ing in the wall through which he might have crept, and thence
forward might have proceeded on his way with fiying colours.
But when members see before them a gentleman who, some
of them feel, may at one time or other have castigated them or
their party in the leading columns of the Times, and who to
this speciality adds the reputation of thinking a good deal of
himself and of his opinions — when they have at their mercy
such an one, and behold him, pale with passion, hurriedly mop
ping his face with a pocket-handkerchief which he has violently
rolled into a ball ; when they see him gulping down glasses of
water ; and, above all, when they behold him raise his clenched
fist to high heaven, and shake it, the while his lips move in what
amid the roar is dumb show— on such occasion the temptation is
too much for them, and they give themselves up to the cruel
enjoyment of the scene with the same abandon as their fore
fathers devoted themselves to the charms of cock-fighting, or the
delight of badgering the beaver.
" Mon Dieu ! " said Midhat Pacha, as his bright face and
thickset but active figure disappeared down the steps of the
gallery, " and this is the Parliament of the EngUsh people — the
nation and the assembly which have been shocked by the little
divertissement of our people in Bulgaria ! Talk about shooting,
ear-slitting, or even impalement ! I would rather suffer any one of
these inconveniences than have such a bad half -hour as ce pauvre
Courtne. For persistent, relentless, merciless baiting of a human
being I shall, if you please, take your House of Commons ! "
June 7. — "The Sir W. Edmonstone, better known as "The
"^* ¦ Admiral," is improving every day, and is
rapidly becoming as indispensable a part of the machinery of
Parliamentary procedure as the Secretary to the Treasury, or
the Speaker himself. It must be admitted that his " Hear I
bear's 1 " are monotonous. It is enough for him that a
Minister is speaking, or that a faithful supporter of the
Government is addressing the chair. In such case the emphatic
" Hear ! hear ! " is as much a matter of course -vrith the Admiral

1877.1 SIB STAFFOED NOBTECOTE AS LEADEE. 257
as the indra-wing of his breath. It is in other directions that his
genius manifests itself, and he demonstrates the fact that a man
may be surpassingly eloquent -without uttering an articulate
word. For Parnell, Biggar, or Edward Jenkins there is no
member of her Majesty's Government who is so effective in
reply as the Admiral unattached. A turn of his body, a
particular wave of his fan, are more expressive than a full-
fledged speech.
Parnell has come to watch the Admiral with the care with
which a mariner keeps his eye on the weather-glass. When he
sees the gallant old gentleman thrust both his hands into his
pockets and sit low down on the bench, with his knees on
the Treasury bench, he knows he is treading on dangerous
ground. When the Admiral glances at him with angry surprise
and straightway turns away his head, Parnell understands
that a crisis is approaching. When the Admiral turns his
hody half round, and begins fanning himself, Parnell can,
using the word in a Parliamentary sense, see the white breakers
immediately under his bow. When the Admiral coughs — and
what a volume of surprise, disgust, indignation, doubt, scorn,
reproof, or warning he can comprise in a cough ! — Parnell furls
his sails and makes all taut. When the Admiral stops his
fanning, and, turning round, looks full across the House and
cries " Oh I " Parnell takes an early opportunity of observing
that he " will now conclude."
To-night the Admiral was in fine trim, full of infinite
resources. He terrified Whalley to a degree pitiable to behold,
and so obfuscated that gentleman's usually clear intellect that
he really did not know what he was saying, and so grievously
offended the Speaker that he came very near to being " named."
June 12.— Debate After Spending five hours in a morning sitting at
eg ows. ^ijicii nothing was done, the House met at nine
0 clock this evening to discuss the question of the Abolition of
Capital Punishment. There were not many members present,
and the atmosphere of the place seemed impregnated with the
associations connected with the subject-matter of Eardley
Wilmot's resolution. At any time between nine and half-past
eleven no one would have been absolutely surprised to see the
chaplain walk across the floor of the House reading the Burial
R

258 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
Service, the while the clock in the Tower tolled dolefully. Even
the Admiral coughed in a muffled tone, and his volleys of "hear,
hear ! " were attuned to the sound of musketry that rolls across
the mound where some hero has been buried. As for the speaking,
it was infinitely more mournfully impressive than one imagines
would be tbe sensation of being hung. If a culprit, who had a
full knowledge of the alternative implied, were allowed to make
a choice between being bung straight off or hearing four long
speeches in succession, the speakers being Eardley Wilmot, Pease,
Henry Jackson, and the Attorney-General, I firmly believe he
would stretch out his arms towards the gallows, and ask to be
taken quickly away.
Sir John Holker. All four members were surpassingly dull, and
supremely prosy, so much so that it is difficult to
establish any distinction. Nature has gifted the Attorney-
General with a voice the tone of which would, of itself, raise him
above mediocrity. I think the most exact similitude might be
conveyed to those who are familiar with the creaking of the
cordage in a ship's rigging the while the vessel lies at anchor in
a pitchy sea. Over and above the possession of this unique
voice, Holker has a deliberate way of saying nothing which is
exceedingly irritating on a sultry summer night when the nerves
are unstrung.
Sir Eardley "Wil- Eardley Wilmot, who always speaks with 'tears
™° ' ' in his voice, and has a rapid, glib intonation, for
whieh there is, apparently, an inexhaustible supply of words, is
an amiable man, full of good intentions and generous sympa
thies ; but not in-vigorating as a public speaker. A slight nuance
of difference in the heaviness of Pease, as compared with
Eardley Wilmot, is found in the superior aggressiveness of the
latter. Eardley Wilmot throws into his speech a certain depre
catory tone, which says pretty plainly —
"I know I am not a favourite speaker, and that you think I
am prosy. I do not think so myself. I know that in Warwick,
where I presided for twenty-two years at the Quarter Sessions,
my observations were listened to with the profoundest deference
by the ushers and other officials, and that sometimes when I have
made a joke (for I can joke if you only let me), the court has

1877.] SIE STAFFOED NOBTECOTE AS LEADEE. 259
been con'vulsed with laughter. The remark applies to Bristol,
where I was County Court Judge ; and at Marylebone, where I
held the same important office, a similar state of things was
established. Still you have a right to your own opinion, and I
can only say that I shall be very much obliged to you if you
will let me finish my speech."
Mr. Pease. Pease shares Eardley Wilmot's self-conviction that
what he has to say is very well worth the while of
the House to hear. But he carries this conviction to a point
which precludes admission of the possibility that the House may be
right in taking a contrary view. Pease also is a good rnan, and
comes of a family whieh is a glory to Durham and an honour to
England. He knows this as well as I or any one else, and upon
it he grounds the assumption that the House of Commons must
hear him, 'willy nilly. For one who, as Forster would say, is of
Quaker parentage. Pease even assumes a bellicose air, when the
House shows impatience under his dreary harangues — a frame of
mind in which he is strengthened and comforted by George
Balfour and Alderman McArthur, who always make a point of
rallying round Pease when he turns upon the finally rebellious
House and insist that he has a right to read the concluding fifty
pages of notes of liis speech.

Sir Henry Jack- Henry Jackson, when he happens to speak on
^°"' subjects to which he has devoted special atten
tion, carries more weight than either of his coadjutors in the
task of burying the hapless House of Commons under heaps
of sand-dried words. He is a man who stands high in his pro
fession, and does not too often trouble the House ; but when he
does he brings to the task a voice which possesses a singular
quality of somnolence, and a manner tinged with a shade of
subdued, yet irresistible grief.
On the whole, it will be gathered that the House of Commons
was not a cheerful place to-night, for, in addition to this acci
dental concurrence of dulness, each member found it necessary to
take up a considerable portion of time in setting forth his argu
ments, using — if the appropriateness of the simile may excuse
its unpleasantness — the short drop in the process of concluding
the lives of members.
e2

260 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
Mr. Bright. Bright, who had been sitting patiently waiting
for an opening, did not find it till after midnight,
by which time it was generally thought he had abandoned his
well-known intention to speak. For some sessions past he has
avoided speaking at a late hour of the night, and has, indeed,
found it very difficult to speak at all. Often he has come
down with the intention of taking part in a debate, and
when a favourable moment arrived has, whilst he hesitated,
allowed it to pass away. You have seen boys standing on the
brink of the water, with the palms of their hands joined, and
head bent ready to plunge in — ready in everything save the
power of determination. Thus it is with Bright in these later
days. The great orator, the indomitable debater, who in
former times plunged into a debate as a duck takes to the water,
now stands shivering on the brink, mortally afraid lest when
he looks towards the chair he should catch the Speaker's eye.
When he is once on his feet this curious trepidation vanishes,
or is at least sternly subdued. He is then as calm, self-pos
sessed, and apparently as strong as of yore. His voice has lost
its finer tone, but is still superb. His pathos is as moving, his
argument as convincing, as of old, and if his denunciation and
his personal references seem occasionally unduly peevish, it is
because he has lived his lffe in times when denunciation had a
daily new birth in continued wrong, and, the habit remaining,
it is fain to-be applied to petty things.
For example, his lofty scorn and almost unutterable contempt
for Holker in his capacity as Attomey-General, is one of the
smaller passions of his Parliamentary Ufe. But there is some
thing that grates on the senses in the spectacle of a man who
has been a foremost figure through a quarter of a century of
English political life occupying his time in the hopeless
endeavour to scorch an intellectual salamander such as the
present Attorney- General.

CHAPTER XX.
THE COUNTY FRANCHISE.
Mr. 'Waddy on Home Affairs — Mr. Sharman Cra-wford's Oratory — The Indian
Budget — Sir George Campbell — Sir George Balfour — Mr. David Davies —
Mr. Whalley and the Dnhappy Nobleman — Cabinet Pensions — "The
Di-vine "Williams " — Lord Hartington votes for the County Pranchise Bill —
The Straight Tip on the County Franchise " Selling Stakes " — Sir Charles
Forster in Search of a Petition. «
June 14. — Mr. How a man's career may be ruined, and his
home affahs ° prospects in a certain direction blighted, by an
accidental success is forcibly illustrated in the
ease of Waddy. Two or three sessions ago he happened to do
something that very much wanted doing, and which nobody
else had shown a disposition to accomplish. It was at a time
when the Hon. Windbag who nominally represents Stoke was
as yet unpricked. The House of Commons, in the aggregate
scornful of the man and individually disinclined to touch him,
had permitted the Windbag to swell and swell till it threatened
to exceed in bulk the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral. The
humblest pin, the cheapest needle, would have sufficed to make
the whole thing collapse. But there was wanting the hand that
should give the necessary direction and propulsion. This hand
Waddy supplied, and in a speech of native coarseness and
physical -vigour which would not have disgraced the Doctor
himself in the palmiest days of the Tichborne trial, he not only
pricked the Windbag, but kicked the empty and flaccid case up
and down the floor of the House, to its great discomfiture and
the supreme satisfaction of onlookers.
Waddy deserved and obtained great applause for this service,
and was temporarily lifted up from the position of member from
whose addresses, as savouring of an unwholesome mixture of the
conventicle and the Old Bailey, the House had hitherto decidedly
shrunk. The pity of it has ever since been that Waddy was not
able to perceive that this was a succes d'occasion. At brief
. intervals since that period he has been setting himself deliber-

262 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [i877.
ately to prick bladders. Like Hudibras, whom in some other'
respects he resembles, he is at all times prepared to
" abandon dweUing,
And out to ride a-colonelling."
His special pride is that he is " a plain common-sense man."
No sentiment for him, if you please ; not that he does not
understand sentiment and poetry, and all that sort of thing,
for he understands everything. But he has acquired his
knowledge, as chemists ascertain the qualities of noxious and
poisonous drugs, with the intent that he might the better
purvey antidotes.
He brings into the House of Commons a manner of address
which may be successful -with a common jury, but which grates
upon the feeUngs and taste of the House, and irritates it beyond
expression. It is his special vocation, when a debate on a given
subject is in progress, to present himself and give " a common-
sense view" of the case under discussion. As he has a loud
voice, an emphatic manner, and a professional art (much culti
vated in cases of breach of promise or of assault and battery)
of accentuating facts until they are barely recognised by the
bewildered person chiefiy concerned, Waddy has no difficulty in
getting up a storm. When, as happened some nights ago, he
tries to swim in the troubled waters of foreign policy, and
brings common-jury oratory to bear upon the Eastern Question,
the effect is simply ludicrous failure, unrelieved even by the
pleasure of goading some one into angry reply.
To-night he took the " plain person " and " common-sense "
view of the status of political prisoners, baring his small and
fussy soul to the indignant gaze of men who are Christians
rather than Methodists, and whose Liberalism is untrammelled
by the daily habitude of subjecting their convictions to the yoke
of a brief. The eloquent scorn poured out upon Waddy by
Joseph Cowen — a man not easily moved to saying bitter things
— and the more official disclaimer put forth from the front
Opposition bench by Hibbert, will not have been lost, if they
convince the member for Barnstaple that there are influences at
work in political questions beyond the narrow prejudice which
plumes itself with the title of " common-sense," and the offensive
egotism that would pass for " plain speaking."

1877.] TEE COUNTY FEANCEISE. 263
June 14. — Mr. I wish it were convenient for Sharman Cra-wford
Sharman Craw- ^ ^ -^j^ ^g ^ jj^^ig ^^^.^^ jj^ ^g ^^^ of^-g^
ford s oratory. here, and when he comes he generally refrains
from obtruding himself upon notice. He has, however, his field-
day once a year — if he can get it — when he brings forward a
Bill, generally but vaguely understood to be an amendment on
Gladstone's Irish Land Act. A pleasant, quiet-looking gentle
man, on the shady side of sixty, Sharman Crawford endears
himself to the student of Parliamentary manner by his interest
ing but hopelessly unavailing struggles to explain the details of
his Bill. It would be unjust to say that he does not understand
the Bfll himself. His failure lies in his inability to make other
people comprehend it.
He got the butt-end of this afternoon all to himself, and
amid the breathless excitement of a very small House he strug
gled with his self-imposed task. A peculiarity about Crawford
is, that the co.nsciousness that certain words which may present
themselves to him do not convey the desired expression is no
obstacle to their use. He begins a sentence, the end and object
of which are perfectly clear to him at the outset. But as he
proceeds the difficulties thicken, his meaning becomes an ignis
fatuus, and he stumbles along, gallantly persisting in keeping
up a show of locomotion, although the fact that he is no nearer
the desired end is painfully apparent, not less to him than to
his audience.
I took down just now a verbatim note of one or two of
Crawford's sentences, which, apart from the special interest of
the case, have their value as indicating the kind of literature the
official reporter might produce.
" It is so strong upon that in favour of the principle that I
advocate," said Crawford, " that I could not help bringing it '
before the House, though on the other hand there is a hostility
which may not be so.'''
This passage referred to a synopsis of the bearings of his Bill
which had appeared in the Standard, which Sharman Crawford,
hopelessly floundering in a sea of words, gratefully produced and
read to the House, "because," as he said, " it is so plain."
" Sir," he continued, taking a fresh start, " this is a question,
this is, perhaps, a question in reference to this Ulster custom, and
those others which is more difficult, and not easy to be understood

264 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
by persons who do not understand what the custom means, or
would have been in former ages."
"The difference between tbe Engl ish tenants and Irish tenants,"
he continued, coming to the point, " to a very great extent is
this : that nearly all the improvements are made by the tenants
in Ireland, the improvements which in Ireland by the landlord,
consequently the tenants will and must expect they will have
some security for the laying out of the capital, whieh is all
they have to look to now or then. And so the landlord, as
compared with the tenant as against the . landlord, the tenant
is not in the same position as the landlord with respect to
improvements." Nothing could be clearer than this, and Cavendish Bentinck,
standing in his favourite attitude near the Speaker's chair, evi
dently was much moved by the argument. It only shows how
deeply rooted is the prejudice of a Saxon Parliament against all
that concerns Ireland, that three minutes being left for debate
after Crawford had moved the second reading of the Bill, and
Plunket had moved its rejection, the measure was talked out by
the inoffensive-looking but really iniquitous Goldney.
It was refreshing to see how shocked O'Connor Power was at
this, how pale Parnell grew witb righteous wrath, and how ob
viously Biggar came to the conclusion that further dealings with
an assembly like this was little short of criminal.
Nothing offends the sensibility of an Irish member so much
as the cowardly act of declining to meet a question on a
plain issue, and taking refuge in the dubious device of talking
it out.
June 15. — The Hearing that the Indian Budget was the chief
Indian Budget. bugingss in the House of Commons to-night,
knowing that India is regarded as the most precious jewel in the
British crown, and having heard something of the outburst of in
dignation which followed upon a foolish expression, indicating
mental equanimity in view of a contingent perishing of India,
Synd Yakwob Khan Tora donned his pink silk bed-quilt this after
noon, and hastened down to the House of Commons. Having
been some weeks in London, and having grown accustomed to the
excitement which swells in the popular and official mind in view
of any great event — such, for example, as that which took place

1877.1 TEE COUNTY FEANCEISE. 265
to-day, when the Prince of Wales visited a training ship on the
Thames — the Ambassador of the great potentate of K'ashgaria
was uneasy at the dalliance of his guide.
" We shall be late," he said, in the language of his country ;
" we shall never get in. There will be crowds round the House.
Your policemen will be drawn up in line to secure an entrance for
the Members of Parliament, as I have read was necessary when
the great Kenealy made a speech on the question of Tichborne.
Every seat in the House will be occupied, from floor to topmost
seat in the gallery, and when my master, Yakoob Beg, asks me
to tell him how the British House of Commons dealt with the
affairs of India, I shall have to say that I could not get into the
Plouse, and that I know no more than what I shall read in the
newspapers." And Synd Yakwob Khan Tora hitched his bedgown about
his colossal person, and strode mightily up and down his
apartment. Sir George Camp- When the Envoy entered the House George
¦ Campbell was on his feet, and had been in that
position for three-quarters of an hour. He followed George
Hamilton, who had gradually worn out his voice in the course of
a speech of upwards of an hour's duration, and had scarcely
breath left wherewith to fulminate his peroration. There were
at the moment exactly seven members representing the numbers
and the majesty of the House. George Hamilton, with his hat
pushed back on his forehead, was pensively contemplating the
white gaiters that cover his well-polished boots, and communing
with himself as to whether he had better go to dinner whilst
George Campbell was speaking or when Smollett rose. Just
behind hirn sat the Admiral, with arms folded and head bent
down, curiously quiet and subdued. He had started heartily
enough with George Hamilton, cheering him from Calcutta to
Bombay. But he had broken down when the noble lord went
into the question of accounts, and having been fixed with a
supercilious stare when he called " hear, hear ! ''' in the wrong
place, he had suddenly subsided, and sat silent and motionless,
like a clock run down.
Above the gangway the Admiral represented the full tale of
the rank and file of the Conservative Party. Below the gangway

266 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
on the same side the prospect was just twice as inspiriting, there
being two members present, Smollett and Arthur Balfour. Half
an hour earlier, Smollett, noticing signs of huskiness in George
Campbell's voice, had hastily gone out and fetched himself
a glass of water, ready to refresh himself when his time came to
speak. But George plodded gallantly along, and Smollett,
nervously sipping at the water, had by this time left himself
only about three spoonsful, which he judiciously put beyond
reach of his arm. The position was an awkward one, for he
could not leave the House for a fresh supply without running the
risk of losing his chance by George Campbell's suddenly sub
siding, and, being the sole tenant of the upper range of benches,
he could not impress into his service a friendly member.
Balfour sat on the lower bench, gracefully reclining upon
the seat usually sanctified by the presence of his affectionate
friend and gesticulatory mentor, Beresford Hope. On the other
side of the House the front row of benches would have been
empty but for the presence of Fawcett, who sat patiently in
his familiar corner, with head resting on his hand. On the
bench behind there was no one. But, following up the line
above the gangway, the eye of the Envoy of Kashgar rested
with a gleam of recognition upon the figure of George Balfour,
who, with arms folded and knees uplifted, to the end that
they might rest upon the back of the front Opposition
bench, sat just below George Campbell, so that not a word
of his concise speech, not a note of his melodious voice, should
escape him.
Sir George Bal- George Campbell is to George Balfour what
°^' Hector was to the Trojans, or Achilles to the
Greeks. The storm of Parliamentary contumely and scorn has
passed over George Balfour, and, after a gallant resistance, has
laid him low. Long he stood and braved the tempest, with
growing furrows on his brow, fresh depths of pleading in his
eyes, and new notes of plaintiveness in his voice. But in the end
it was too much for him. It broke his spirit and soured his life,
and though, even yet, he has not given up his passion for making
speeches, he is content humbly to catch the Speaker's eye in mid-
dinner hour, and is glad if he may rattle out a few thousand
words, even though there be none to hear. George Campbell,

1877.] TEE COUNTY FEANCEISE. 267
however, though temporarily floored by the great storm that
burst forth when he made his ill-judged reference to a fallen man,
still stands erect and defles the tempest. George Balfour would
if he could. But things being as they are, he is content to
shelter himself under the spare figure of his harder brother in
affliction, and to bleat commendatory "hear, hears ! " when Sir
George of Edenwood remorselessly talks for an hour at a time to
an empty, or, if full, a restive House.
On the same bench as George Campbell is Laing, who, it is
too evident, has also a speech ready. Behind these there is
nothing but empty seats and the bare walls.
Mr. David Davies. Below the gangway, two seats behind Fawcett,
sits in elegant attitude, and what Gladstone
would call West-end attire, David Davies, the member for
Cardigan. What attraction the debate has for him it would
be hard to determine. India is not a place the chief spe-
ciahty of which is its possession of working men, and it is
working men that form the strong points in Davies' Parlia
mentary oratory.
" I have been a working man myself, Mr. Speaker," he
has often told us, with his fine South Wales accent, " and now
I employ a good many men, and pay more in wages in a week
than some of you would think." *
Davies' early Parliamentary life was much chequered by
conflicts with the attendants in the lobby. There are a good
many of them there, and it took him some weeks to convince
them individually that he was not the carpenter come to ease
a door or nail down the matting. Davies was never offended
at this mistake, only feeling the inconvenience of having
to explain it to so many. All that has passed now, aud he
is known, both in and out of the House, as one of its most
modest and most genuine members, who never speaks on a
subject with- which he is not thoroughly acquainted, and who
never sits down without having first imparted to the House
some shrewd observation or some humorous notion. One night
very recently, when the House had been wasting its time for hours
over a discussion on the Prisons Bill, occupying itself with senti
mentally inquiring as to what measure of tenderness was a
prisoner's due, Davies brought it back to a comprehension of the

268 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
true state of affairs by reminding it that " nobody need go to
prison unless he liked, and that nobody wanted to have people in
prison ; but if some people would go there, they must not be too
nice about the treatment they receive."
This is what the Envoy from far-off Kashgaria saw to-night
when a question of vital interest to India was under discussion, a
discussion presently threatened with a sudden conclusion by the
House being counted out. But ere this happened the Envoy had
left, his mind flooded with a new light on the subject of British
interest in India.
June 16. — Mr. A curious table might be formed of the varying
ae^^'unhappy V^^^^^ ^J which Whalley has, during his Pariia-
Nobieman. mentary career, referred to " the unhappy noble
man.'" Early in the course of his championship
he was accustomed to call him " Sir Roger." The House
would not stand that, and in order to be allowed to speak
at all, Whalley was fain to change it, and to call him "the
prisoner at Dartmoor." There was also an epoch when he
loftily alluded to him as " the convict known as Arthur Orton."
At present his habitude is to refer to him as "a certain
prisoner." In the same way Whalley avoids direct reference
to the Jesuits, whom he is content to indicate as a "foreign
influence." June 19.— Cabinet Gladstone has taken steps publicly to contradict
pensions. ^-^^ report that he is in receipt of a pension of
j62,000 a year. This refers, of course, to the Cabinet pensions.
There are only four of them, and they are now held by Beacons
field, Walpole, Sir George Grey, and Milner Gibson. The
qualification for the pension is a declaration that the recipient is
otherwise unable to maintain the dignity of his position as an
ex-Minister of the Crown ; and the award rests with the Ministry
in power when one of the pensions becomes vacant. It so
happens just now that two are held by Liberals and two by Con
servatives. Perhaps, however, it may be as well to explain, to
avoid misconception, that Beaconsfield does not draw his pension,
it becoming merged in the salary when the pensioner takes office.
So that really only three now draw the pensions — two Liberals
and one Conservative.

1877.] TEE COUNTY FEANCEISE. 269
June 20.— "The Like each of his six brothers and his uncle, the
Divine Wil- ^^^]^q^ f^j. Malton, the Liberal candidate for
hams. ...
Hunts, is a William as well as a Fitzwilliam.
Another cherished family appellation is that of Mary, the five
sisters of the former representative of Wicklow possessing it as a
second name. "And how are the Divine Williams ?" the late
Disraeli used to ask Earl Fitzwilliam when he met him. Since he
has himself become a peer Lord iBeaconsfield feels that nobility is
not to be made the subject of low jesting. But he must have his
joke, and it now takes the milder form of the assertion that the
noble family of FitzwilUams is so enthusiastically Protestant
that they would perpetuate at the baptismal font the reign of
William and Mary.
June 29. — Lord There were very few questions on the paper, and
votes"fof\he ^^ ^a^^J" ^ half-past four Trevelyan found au
County Fran- opportunity of moviug his resolutions. The
first declared that it is desirable to adopt a
uniform Parliamentary franchise for borough and county
constituencies. The second affirmed that it would be desirable
to redistribute political power and to obtain a more complete
representation of the opinion of the electoral body. Referring
to the familiar character of the resolution, which has assumed
the position of an annual motion, Trevelyan declared that so
long as grievances which more or less affect three-fifths of the
population of the United Kingdom remain undenied and un
redressed, there would be always found men who were not
to be deterred from reintroducing the subject by fear of being
considered tiresome.
Dilke addressed himself chiefly to the second resolution,
which he supported by the citation of a large number of in
teresting statistics showing how greatly needed is the proposed
reform. Smollett, in opposing the resolutions, took the oppor
tunity of deUvering a short dissertation on what he described
as sections of the Liberal party, declaring on the whole a pre
ference for the Whigs, with whom he had, he said, so much
similarity of feeling that he liked to treat the Constitution to
homoeopathic doses of reform, avoiding drastic purgatives.
The debate was continued by Stansfeld. Up to this time the
House had been pretty full, both the front benches holding

270 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm.
their full complement, a notable absentee being Gladstone ; but
at the approach of the dinner hour the House rapidly thinned,
and shortly before eight o'clock, Gladstone, standing in the
gallery, and surveying the House, beheld Goldney addressing
fourteen members.
Two hours later the House filled again, and Goschen, rising
at eleven o'clock, had a full audience. In an animated speech,
much cheered from the Conservative benches, he, " believing
that the phase which the question had reached made reticence
unpatriotic," declared against the resolution. After a maiden
speech from O'Donnell, and a criticism of Goschen's speech by
Mundella, the Chancellor of the Exchequer agreed with Goschen
in the principle he had laid do'wn, that it was the duty of every
man to speak out on this question. Thus regarding his duty,
Northcote, speaking on behalf of the Government, said, " We
are unable to accept the principles laid down in these resolutions ;
on the contrary, we deny their reasonableness or their truth."
This, he added, amid Ministerial cheers, is not the time to be
entering upon great Constitutional changes. To accept the
resolutions would be to embark without a chart upon a great, a
wide, and a strong sea.
Hartington, rising at twenty minutes past twelve, was
received with loud cheers from the Liberal benches, the
applause being renewed and prolonged when he declared his
intention of departing from the course he had hitherto taken
and of voting for the resolutions. At one o'clock the House
divided on the first resolution, which was rejected by 276 to
220. The Opposition in a body voted in the affirmative. Lowe
and Goschen voted with the minority. The second resolution
was not put.
The straight tip Sir Wilfrid Lawson has been dropping into
on the County poetry again. The following verses from his
ling stakes." pen are making the round of the House to
night : —
" Let them in," cried George Trevelyan,
" There are Just about a miUion ; "
" Never ! never ! keep them out,"
Ans'wered Smollett 'with a shout ;

1877.1 TEE COUNTY FEANCEISE. 271
Hugessen, the syllogistic.
Made a speech quite Communistic ;
Like a storm upon the ocean
Eaged the furious foaming Goschen ;
Northcote, puzzled -what to do.
Held the bala.nce pretty true ;
Hartington, arrived from dinner.
Made a bet " he'd name the -winner."
.Loud -we cheered his bold decision.
And -we took a great division,
And, although we lost that heat,
"Were not very badly beat.
"We have made a good beginning,
And -we're sure to end by -winning ;
For Lord Beaconsfield has got
In his stalls a curious lot.
Some, no doubt, are steeds of mark ;
Some are " scre-ws," but some are " dark."
Still, I know a thing or two,
"Which I prophesy '11 come true.
Mark my -words, and note the dodge,
Dizzt/ means to wm with " JECodffe."
When all's ripe, beyond a doubt,
" The Stable " mean to bring him out.
And send him spinning 'o'er the course
Beating every other horse,
Carrying the Tory " tin,"
" Meant " for mischief, backed to -win.
Beating every Liberal hobby
That e'er cantered through the Lobby,
Backed by Northcote, Hardy, Hunt,
Tories of the very front ;
Backed by Manners, Beach, and Cross,
Firm believers in the " hoss " ;
Backed by Holker and by Giffard
(Surely they have never differed)

272 A DIARY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1877.
And — ^my news is quite authentic —
Backed by Adderley and Bentinck !
Backed by " educated " Tories —
Those in -whom the Premier glories.
At least I mean, by every one
"Who can " get his money on."
Our's the duty to defeat them,
Our's the mission high to beat them ;
Prompt and bold must be our action
To out-wit the dangerous faction ;
We must send to " Hodge's " stable
Some one strong, and bold, and able.
Some one iu the cause who's hearty.
To steal him for the Liberal Party.
Noble sportsmen, now's the minute.
If you're anxious to be in it.
Make your bets, your money lodge.
Lay your 5 to 1 on Hodge.
July 2. -Sir Chas. With the thermometer at 80 degrees in the
Forster in search gi^ade, with the browuiug earth rasping for
of a petition. ' _ f . .
rain, and with the pavements glowing in the sun.
Sir Charles Forster is something to be thankful for. At this
season of the year Christopher Sykes is not to be despised, as,
arrayed in dove-coloured clothing, he passes along the corridors,
or stands at the Bar and surveys the House. Regarded from a
distance, when the sun is shining upon him, Sykes conveys
the general impression that he is a flag of truce. Monk, in his
celebrated dusty suit — which, through several sessions, the
House has been accustomed to behold about Midsummer — spoils
the generally pleasing effect by his similitude to a miller who
has satisfactorily disposed of a consignment of grain. Moreover,
one gets tired of seeing the same suit session after session.
Such is the passion for variety implanted in the human breast
that there came a time (it was at the close of a decade) when
even Lowe's Inverness wrapper became a weariness to the eye
and a dolour to the soul.

1877.] TEE COUNTY FEANCHISE. 273
Charles Forster has the advantage over others, inasmuch as
it ^ not owing to the tailor's art or taste that he bears along
with him the gift of mitigating the climatic oppression. To
see him moving about the House, in the lobby, or down the
corridors, with hat in hand, a flush on his brow, and a gentle
but regular cadence of puffing going on, is much better than
iced claret or a squeezed lemon. The calamities of our friends
always have a soothing effect on our minds, and to behold
Forster so uncompromisingly hot suggests that, after all, the
heat is for us not really so unbearable as we thought it was
before we met him.
It is a peculiarity of the good Chairman of the Committee on
Petitions that it is not alone in the summer months he is
accustomed to perambulate the precincts of the House with his
hat in his hand. On a bleak day of February I have met him
mooning across the octagon hall, always with his hat in his
hand, and that curious expression on his face which suggests
that he has lost half a sovereign, and is retracing his steps in
search of it.
What he passes his life in looking for nobody knows, though
the generally accepted belief is, that many years ago he lost a
petition, and feeling deeply how essential to the maintenance of
the British Empire is the due assortment and record of- petitions
received in the House of Commons, he has ever since been look
ing out for the missing document. Lowe, who is of an irritable
tum of mind, and gets unreasonably annoyed when Sir Charles
goes pottering about the front Opposition bench, says he is none
other than the Wandering Jew, and that he is compelled to
roam restlessly up and down, treading on people's toes, upsetting
cherished glasses of water, and driving half-mad members who
want to get a Uttle quiet sleep after dinner. Whatever be the
explanation, the fact remains that the amiable baronet, whom
everybody likes, spends a good many hours of the Parliamentary
session in perambulation.
On Tuesday night, when the discussion of the Paterson case
was on. Sir Charles had a very bad attack, and nearly drew ^pon
himself the rebuke of the Speaker. He came in about ten
o'clock, his dress indicating that he had been out to dinner.
Standing at the Bar for some minutes, he looked vaguely round
in search of the petition. Not finding it floating in the air, he
s

274 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1877,
strolled down the House and seated himself on the steps of the
gangway by the Treasury bench, at the end of whieh Sir
James Elphinstone was slumbering. Probably "from informa
tion received," Sir Charles suspected that the petition had
been deposited under the Treasury bench, behind the screen of
legs provided by her Majesty's Ministers. A long and careful
scrutiny convinced him of his error, and, rising, he dejectedly
crossed the House and sat next to Robert Anstruther, evidently
attracted by a bundle of papers projecting from that gentle
man's coat-tail pocket, and, to a mind not engrossed by a single
object, fearfully suggestive of a collection of prepared jokes
presently to be fired off at a suffering House.
Having convinced himself that even this was not the missing
document, he next, with face full of anxious thought, moved
down to the table, and began diligently searching among the
papers laid thereon. He stood there for fully three minutes,
and was so engrossed in the search that, though few men are
better acquainted with the etiquette of the House, he braved
the rule which makes it a misdemeanour for two Members to
be on their feet at the same time. Again disappointed, he
disappeared behind the Speaker's chair, and, when everybody
thought he had gone, suddenly he was found standing at the
Bar precisely in the same attitude he had presented himself
a quarter of an hour earlier, and still looking vaguely round
for the petition.
He had simply been for a walk round the corridor -with the
unknown something on his mind and nothing whatever on
his head; and only a fresh wrinkle on his brow, a sadder ex
pression on his face, indicated how deeply he felt the renewed
disappointment.

CHAPTER XXI.
THE STATIONEEY OFFICE SCANDAL.
Sir'WiUiam Harcourtunder a Cloud — Not going Home tiU Moming — Tete-a-tHe
-with Dr. Tait — The ne-w Black Eod — One of the Things One -would rather
not have said — ^A Scandal in the Stationery Office — Lord Beaconsfield on
his Defence.
July 3.— Sir Wil- Harcourt politically is in a state of torpor. Time
IJ^L^ douT ^^ ^^™ ^e fill^**! ^ considerable figure, not only
in his ovvn estimation (that is a condition of
affairs which probably remains undisturbed), but in the estima
tion of the House of Commons. It was the period when he sat
below the gangway, and used, with rare impartiality, to twit
Disraeli or thwart Gladstone. As a lawyer deeply versed in
Constitutions, and specially qualified to direct Senates, he
occasionally felt it his duty to deliver orations on important
topics, in the course of which he put everybody right and settled
everything generally. These efforts were, however, his failures.
He was best at skirmishing attacks, and, standing on that
prosperous borderland between two contending factions — a
position which doubles a man's power by giving him an
opportunity of striking out indifferently right or left — ^the late
Mr. Vernon Harcourt distinguished himself, and was always a
welcome interloper in more serious debate. He had sat long
at the feet of the Gamaliel who is now sunk in the obscurity of
the House of Lords, and had learned a great many of his tricks
of manner and of speech. The best proof of his success is found
in the fact that he was, in the course of time, invited by Glad
stone to step across the gangway and take his seat on the
Treasury bench.
The bait was a tempting one, and Mr. Vernon Harcourt was
not able to resist the temptation of swallowing it. But it has
proved as fatal to him as the bit of scarlet cloth sometimes
proves to the insatiable cod. Sir William Harcourt, become
Solicitor-General, has not a tenth part of the influence in the
s2

276 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
House of Commons that Mr. Vernon Harcourt, plain member for
Oxford, was accustomed to wield. The Treasury bench is the
grave of many Parliamentary reputations. Men who, speaking
from below the gangway, are accustomed to feel themselves some
bodies, soon learn the fact that tbey are mere nothingness when
salaried and docketed as units among her Majesty's Ministers.
There is a double influence at work in this direction. There is
something in the air they breathe, and there is something in the
atmosphere through which they are regarded by the House. C.
S. Read felt this, and took early steps towards delivering him
self from his gilded bondage. None have suffered more in this
direction than the successor of Mr. Vernon Harcourt. Whether
the change be permanent remains to be seen. But, in the
meanwhile, there is something melancholy, to those who
remember former triumphs, to find Harcourt dolefully uttering
ponderous witticisms in a half-empty and wholly unappreciative
House.
Julys— Not going " Dcmmc ! " exclaimed Sir Charles WethereU,
home till morn- j^ leaving the House of Commons at five
ing. o
o'clock one morning during the debates on the
Reform Bill, now nearly half a century ago, " if I had kno'wn
it was raining, I would have given them another division or
two." No such regret tempered the perfection of the satisfaction
of O'Connor Power as he left the House five minutes ago. The
sun was shining brightly through a sky as yet unclouded by
London smoke. The birds were singing in the unaccustomed
quietude of the garden in the square. The dew glistened
brightly on the shortly cropped grass, and the statues, which
put to shame the minor beauties of Westminster Abbey, were
yet damp with their morning bath. Everything was fresh and
bright and vigorous after a night's rest, and in prospect of
another day's work; everybody, save the thirty legislators who
wearily tramped across the yard with dulled eyes and haggard
cheeks, and brains dizzy with continuous perambulation of the
lobbies. " It was the kettle began it," if, in using a familiar quota
tion, I shall not be suspected of lack of respect for her Majesty's
Secretary of State for War. But there are some circumstances

1877.] THE STATIONEEY OFFICE SCANDAL. '2.11
under which a kettle can no more help boiling over than gun
powder can refrain from explosion if a lighted match be put to
it. For many hours Gathorne Hardy had sat on the Treasury
bench, waiting for an opportunity to go into Committee of
Supply. It was not the first experience of the sort. It was,
in fact, one of a succession of similar trials of the spirit. Just
before midnight the desired opportunity had come, and reason
able progress was being made, when O'Connor Power rose and
wanted to know why it was that Ireland was not allowed to
have Volunteers ? The question, though interesting in itself,
was not pertinent to the business immediately under considera
tion, and Gathorne Hardy made mo response. This naturally
excited the ire of the Home Rulers. They are themselves such
models of courtesy, such pinks of politeness, that any devia
tion from the highest standard of courtesy is naturally dis
tasteful. It was resented accordingly, and thereupon was
introduced the motion to report progress, with whieh miserable
Ministers having charge of public business are too familiar.
For all that followed, Stanley, the Financial Secretary of the
War Office, is largely responsible. Partly from a generous
desire to bring forward a young colleague, partly because he
was himself tired out, and partly because Stanley was under
stood to know something about the subject, Gathorne Hardy
put up the Financial Secretary to reply to some criticisms on
the direction of the militia force, Stanley's intention was good,
but his command of language is not extensive. In fact, the
ordinary relative position of words and speakers is reversed in
the case of this budding statesman. So far from having a
command of language, language piteously commands him.
Shortly after he rises to address the House, he strays into a
thicket of words, and there is irretrievably lost. It is evident
he would get out and make a finish of his journey if it were
possible. But he no more sees the end of his sentences or
whither they are leading him, than does his unhappy audience —
perhaps not quite so clearly. The further he goes the more
involved he gets. Words start up under his feet, and he
stumbles over them. They shoot across his pathway, bramble-
wise, and lacerate his face. Thus bruised and bewildered, he
scrambles on till at last he accidentally sees an opening in the
thicket, by which he gratefully darts out and resumes his seat.

278 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
leaving the House considerably more in doubt as to the matter
on which they want an explanation, than they were when he rose
to explain it.
Thus it was last night. Stanley, like Sterne's starling,
" could not get out," and beat about the bush for nearly three-
quarters of an hour, during which time, under a happier
dispensation, the House might have been in Committee.
At half-past one this morning the House was in full conflict,
a hundred members on the one side, and five on the other — that
is, five ff you count the Major only as one. Both sides were
exasperated to the utmost pitch, to which desirable end
O'Donnell had contributed a speech of three-quarters of an
hour's duration. With bountiful and contumaciously curled
hair, impartially distributed over his forehead, with spectacles
warranted to glare fiercely on the Saxon, with much beating
together of hands, and with a general aspect and manner
suggestive of a recent escape from an asylum, O'Donnell talked
inconsequential nothingness to the House of Commons.
Sturdy Locke, who has a curious habit (probably not uncon
nected with professional duties) of turning up at midnight, had
the good fortunfe, sitting on the front Opposition bench below
the gangway, to have a considerable portion of this incoherent
eloquence poured directly into his right ear. Perhaps it was
this excited his indignation to a pitch above that of the
average member. However it be, Locke, with something more
than Parliamentary frankness, turning upon O'Donnell, said,
indicating precisely whom he meant by a nod of the head —
" As for this one, I never saw him before, and I hope to
heaven I may never see him again ! "
Loud cheers greeted this sally, and O'Donnell had the satis
faction of feeling that within a week he had out-Biggared the
member for Cavan, and had out-Parnelled Parnell.
It was a curious scene at half -past two o'clock this morning,
the light of daybreak streaming through the windows, and
paling the abundant gaslight. Harcourt, who had entered the
House shortly before one o'clock, having apparently been
engaged upon some Parliamentary Committee where evening
dress was de rigueur, had the front Opposition bench all to
himself, and had, as is his wont at this festive hour of the
several times addressed the Committee. On the

1877.] TEE STATIONEEY OFFICE SCANDAL, 279
Treasury bench the Chancellor of the Exchequer sat, supported
by Hardy, Cross, the indefatigable W. H. Smith, the eloquent
Lord Barrington, and the lively John Manners. The benches
were thinly sprinkled with a hundred members, Parnell,
O'Connor-Power, and O'Donnell sitting together on the second
bench below the gangway, whilst the Major spread himself out
onthe front bench, for the better con venience, of walking out
during the many divisions. The Strangers were gone, save two
determined men. In the Speaker's Gallery sat Shiel, wide
awake, and Callan, fast asleep.
Locke's speech had imparted some liveliness to the proceed
ings ; but the level was decidedly dull. Now and then a flame
burst forth in some part of the House, and after furiously
fizzing, went out. For one of these explosions Blake was
responsible. He had brought down an extract from a speech
made by Parnell at a public meeting some weeks earlier, at
which that gentleman had abused the House of Commons, and
personally insulted the Speaker. The member for Meath
wanted to wriggle out of this, but Blake was too much for
him. He writhed and dashed himself against Blake with
some such result as an angry and untrained man might dash
himself against the fists of an experienced boxer. *It seems
that in making reference to the Speaker, Parnell had guarded
himself by the use of the expression, "If I were to say that,"
and thereupon saying it. The accuracy of Blake's recollection
being called into question, the report itself was forthcoming,
and read aloud.
" Ah," said Parnell, triumphantly, " if, you see ; I said if."
Then came a deep and familiar voice from the other side of
the House. The Admiral was observed to throw his body about.
His hands went deep down into his pocket. His knees were
thrown up on the bench before him. Not a muscle of his face
was seen to move, but the exclamation —
" Shabby ! "
which reverberated through the House, could have come from
none but him.
At half -past two one hundred and one voted in the majority
against the obstructionists. In the next division this wae
reduced by the defection of a member, and for the two next
divisions the number marshalled against the indomitable five

280 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
was one hundred. Naturally, it was thought that this majority
would further decrease as the hours rolled by, and' when, some
time after three o'clock, the figures were read out, " For the
motion, five ; against, one hundred and one," a loud cheer broke
forth. It was Agg-Gardner who thus, at a critical moment, had
come to the rescue of the State. Driving home from a ball, he
had observed, to his great surprise, the light still burning in the
clock tower. With that uncompromising obedience to the calls
of duty which ever distinguishes this rising politician, he at
once ordered his unwilling coachman to turn into Palace Yard,
and finding how matters stood, he placed his vote at the dis
position of his chiefs and his country.
And the Major? Well, the Major early in the morning saw
that a great struggle was at hand, and, like an old campaigner,
he made his arrangements accordingly. One thing was clear to
his mind — that he must sit it out. But it was also beyond
question that the weather was exceedingly hot, that a long
day had already been gone through, and that if he were to
spend the watches of the night in walking about the lobbies
of the House, he must not unnecessarily waste his energies.
Accordingly he planted himself on the front Opposition bench
below tffe gangway, as near to the door as possible, so as to
shorten the journeys, if it were only by a single pace. Then,
taking account of the necessity of saving his breath, he
determined to take no part in the verbal contest, confining
his efforts to occasionally answering the Admiral's volleys of
" Oh ! oh ! " with a broadside of " Hear ! hear ! " Lastly, he
folded his arms, and, with his hat cocked on one side, so as to
present a truculent appearance to the enemy, he adroitly took
advantage of the intervals between the divisions to get a little
sleep. Here, where midnight had left him, daybreak found him — at
the post of duty. As the sun mounted in the heavens and began
to shine through the windows of the House, there was pre
sented to the eyes of all who were awake a natural phenomenon
not often witnessed. Men travel hundreds of miles, and do them
selves despite in the way of getting up in the dead of the night,
to see the sun rise on Mont Blanc or Snowdon. But what are
these sights compared with the spectacle of the sun rising on
Mount O'Gorman ? Slowly the gas-light pales in the glass

1877.] TEE STATIONEEY OFFIOE SCANDAL. 281
roof of the House. A dull, cold light fills the chamber. It
grows warmer and brighter, and presently a timid ray of sun
light breaks in, settling on the top of the Major's hat, flashes
for a moment, and is gone. But it has only fled to tell its com
panions that it has found the Major, and back they come
in thousands, till a shaft of Ught reveals the upper half of the
Major's hat.
Slowly the shaft broadens, till the massive brow is revealed
beneath the overhanging hat-brim. The minutes pass on.
The sun mounts higher. The shaft of Ught grows more per
pendicular, and the Admiral, glancing across, trembles as he
catches a gleam from the Major's eye, glowing with the light of
battle. Higher and higher rises the sun, lower and lower falls
the light ; till, passing over the twitching mouth, and falling
on the manly chest, heaving with strange emotions, it creeps
down to his very feet, and the Major sits revealed, glorifled in
the fresh light of the young day.
July 4. — TSte-i- Dr. Tait is not the sort of man from whom one
Tait ^^^^ ^"^ would expect keen appreciation of a rough joke.
Yet his Grace of Canterbury tells with much
gusto a good story against himself. Riding down to the House
on the day after the critical division on Lord Harrowby's
amendment on the Burials Bill, a gentleman, who found it
necessary to-prop himself up against the lamp-post as he offered
a few remarks, broke in upon his reverie by calling out —
" Hallo ! Arshbishop — hie 1 — warabout the Burials — hic 1 —
Bill, now ? "
Julys.- Thenew Sir William Knollys is making approaches to
wards that perfection of Black-Rod gait which
the lamented Sir Augustus Clifford had attained. But he has
yet much to learn. He advances up the floor of the House of
Commons pretty well save for a too-solemn slowness, which
suggests that he has come with a message from the undertaker's,
instead of the House of Lords, an impression confirmed by the
funereal silence with which the House watches his movements.
Also there is a tone of sadness in his recitative, which makes the
ladies in the gallery instinctively take out their pocket-handker
chiefs. It is in the strategic retreat, however, that the gallant

282 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
General chiefiy fails. His fixed stare, the evident motion of
his lips as he counts the steps, his cautious backward reach,
and his total inability to preserve a straight line, go to make up
an irresistibly comic spectacle.
To-night the House of Commons behaved with commendable
self-command all through the performarfce, till Black Rod
showed a disposition to land in the corner seat where Fawcett
sat, all unconscious of the approaching catastrophe. Then they
burst into a roar of laughter, while the General, still steadfastly
fixing his agonised gaze on the top of the Speaker's chair, his
legs yet cautiously feeling- their way backwards, gratefully dis
appeared through the portals of the House.
July 6.— One of That was a charming distinction which the Fin-
the things one ancial Secretary for War made to-night, when
¦would rather •' . .
not have said. replying OU Colonel Naghten s motion relating to
one of the recommendations of the Militia Com
mittee. Speaking of a witness, the gallant Stanley said —
" Although he gave his evidence in a straightforward and
manly way, it agreed with the views of his Royal Highness the
Commander-in-Chief." Tbe " although " is very good, though somewhat hard ou
H.R.H.
Juiyie.- Ascan- On the motion to go into Committee of Sup-
UoniVoffiTe!" P^y^ Jo^^ Holms Called attention to the appoint
ment of a Mr. Pigott to the Controllership of
ber Majesty's Stationery Office, and moved a resolution de
claring that, having regard to the recommendations made in
1874 by the Select Committee on Public Departments, such
appointment is calculated to diminish the usefulness and influence
of Select Committees, and to discourage the zeal of officials em
ployed in the public departments of the State. Holms showed
that from his former experience Pigott could know nothing of
the duties to which he was appointed, his chief recommendation
appearing to be that he is the son of a former rector of the
parish of Hughenden, in which the residence of the Prime
Minister is situated.
The motion having been seconded from the Conservative
side by Melior, the Chancellor of the Exchequer defended the

1877.) TEE STATIONEEY OFFICE SCANDAL. 283
appointment, on the ground that Pigott's qualifications had been
carefully considered by Lord Beaconsfield, and it had appeared
to- him that he was a proper person to be Controller of the
Stationery Office.
The discussion was continued by Childers, Mitchell Henry,
Gathorne Hardy, Watkin Williams (who roundly denounced
the business as "a job"). Bates (who, with the exception
of Ministers, was the only Conservative who opposed the
resolution), George Balfour, Mundella, and Rainald Knightley,
who said that, having come down to the House with an unpre
judiced mind, he must, after what he had heard, vote in favour
of the resolution.
The House divided, and when on the return of the tellers the
paper was handed to Holms, indicating that he had the majority,
prolonged cheering greeted this conclusion of the controversy.
Onthe figures being announced, showing 156 for the motion
and 152 against, the cheering was renewed.
July 19. — Lord This evening the House of Commons has gone
on h^°defence ^^^^ ^^® House of Lords, and familiar faces are to
be found there, piled in serried rows iu the gal
leries flanking those set apart for the accommodation of strangers,
huddled together in a close mass at the Bar, and displayed more
formally, but under circumstances of scarcely less pressure, in the
space before the throne. Noble lords, sedulously trained to pass
through life without displaying traces of emotion, show some
evidence of interest. The benches are almost crowded, and
Redesdale, sitting before the table, and conveying to the unedu
cated stranger the general impression that he will presently go
out and bring-in the tea on a butler's tray, is squeezed up in his
seat at the table by three noble lords who are afflicted with deaf
ness and dominated by a desire to "hear Dizzy."
For it is he, erewhile the delight, if not the ornament, of the
House of Commons, who is about to make a speech. For long
months he has sat silent on the broad-bottomed red-cushioned
Ministerial bench, with Richmond providentially interposed as a
sort of buffer between him and his much-loved colleague, Salisbury.
He has sat and listened, and dozed, and gone away to dinner,
thinking, peradventure, with a grim smile, of how, " in another
place," dinner means to distressed Ministers only a brief interval

284 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS, mn.
between question-time and a long bickering with Biggar or a
tedious parleying with Parnell.
Here, in this gilded chamber, in which they have given up
to ornament what was meant for comfort, the ghost of the late
Mr. Disraeli reposes, labelled "Lord Beaconsfield." Between
the Shade and the familiar Substance of last year and innumer
able years that went before there is not much outward differ
ence. As compared with Mr. Disraeli, Lord Beaconsfield is a
trifle more pallid in the face, the wrinkles are a thought deeper,
the eye is a shade less bright, and the artistic thinning of
the still curiously abundant hair indicates the conviction that
when a man has passed threescore years and ten baldness need
not make him abashed. Otherwise the illustrious Shade is but
the Substance labelled with a new name, and set up in another
place. " Lord Beaconsfield," entering the House of Lords, pulls
himself up on the threshold in much the same manner as he was
wont to do when, after stalking through the division-lobbies,
" Mr. DisraeU " carefully prepared himself for jauntily strolling
down the floor of the House of Commons till such time as he
might reach a particular spot, where, on one side of the table or
the other, he has, ever since the new Houses of Parliament were
built, paused and bent his head with lowly grace to the majesty
of the Speaker.
There is no one to bow to in the House of Lords, so Beacons
field, pulling himself up on the threshold, and steadying himself
with a shrug of his shoulders, walks across the carpeted floor
(past the throne, where, with uplifted but swordless scabbard, he
erewhile proudly conducted his Sovereign to open Parliament),
and takes his seat on the Treasury bench, careful that a space,
presently to be filled by Richmond, lies between him and the
black-browed " master of flouts and gibes and sneers." Once
seated, he crosses his legs, carefully disposes his coat-tails across
his thighs, folds his arms, bends his head, and to all appear
ance is, mentally, as remote from the House of Lords as if he
were in the Straits of Malacca.
The Lord Chancellor is already seated on the woolsack, and
some cursory remarks are made about a Bill not wholly uncon
nected with gas, or sewage, or water. Then, recovering his
position, and placing a hand on either knee, Beaconsfield glances
at the Lord Chancellor, and rising- with another shrug of his

1877.] TEE STATIONEEY OFFICE SCANDAL. 285
shoulders, as if the machinery had got out of joint when placed
in a seated position, and must needs be readjusted, he approaches
the table.
What he is going to talk about everybody knows. What he
shall say, and how he will say it, are matters of quickest interest
in the crowded chamber.
From the steps of the throne Gathorne Hardy looks
confidently towards his chief, certain in his capacity to make
the worse appear the better reason. Further back in the
crowd, and raised above it by a step ofthe throne, Sandon gazes
forth into space. Lower down, the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
speetacled and grave, awaits with evident curiosity to hear how
the Premier will acquit himself in the performance of a task
in which he, honest man, ludicrously failed. Cross is also there,
with perpetually pleased expression, looking round perkily at
the Lords as if he were saying, " Well, come what will of this
unfortunate business, the Prisons Bill is passed." Of the chiefs
of the Opposition only Goschen shows himself here, and with
his eyeglass imbedded in his eye, restlessly looks from side to
side as if he were not quite certain which was Beaconsfield
among the dimly sighted peers.
Tffere is no one to cry " God bless him ! " when the Premier
rises; and he begins his speech amid a chilling silence that
must have sent a pang to the heart of the Admiral, who,
having secured a front seat in the gallery over the bar, by firm
application of his right hand to nose and chin sedulously keeps
his mouth closed, and strangles in their birth the strident
cheers. That the Admiral managed to sit it through, and not
cry out, " Hear, hear ! " and that he refrained from greeting
Granville's rising with a resounding " Oh ! " supply evidence of
remarkable seff-command.
In form of speech and manner of address, the Premier is in
no whit changed. We simply have Mr. Disraeli addressing the
House of Lords. Here is the same untrammeled audacity, the
same boldness of assertion, the same freedom in travestying
the arguments and phrases of opponents, the same outward
wave of the hands, the same deepening of the voice at desirable
passages, and the same shrugging of the shoulders, which
suggests an innuendo though it be spoken not. As a successful
speech, delivered under critical circumstances, this address of

286 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
Beaconsfield's may rank with his most celebrated efforts. When
he rose he was in the position of a Prime Minister accused of
perpetrating a job — a Minister more than accused, one who had
been tried at the Bar of the House of Commons and found
guilty. When he sat dovra he had succeeded in conveying the
impression, whether permanent or not it does not matter, that
if there were a Minister of the Crown who spent days and nights
in the performance even of the smallest details of his duty, this
is he who now addresses this illustrious assembly.
" It has been said, in an assembly almost as classical as that I
am now addressing, that the appointment was a job."
" A job ! " It was worth being crushed and crowded and
hustled to hear Beaconsfield simply pronounce these two words.
His indignant shoulders went upwards in dumb appeal to his
sympathising ears. His still plump hands were held out, palm
upwards, that noble lords might see how clean they were. His
eyes were widened to their utmost capacity, in astonishment at
the supposition that he might be thought capable of this thing
charged against him, whilst his cheeks puffed out to emit, in an
almost horrifying whisper, the fearsome words —
" A job ! "
But not only did Beaconsfield succeed in clearing himself.
He managed to show that if tbere were such a being as a
Heaven-born Controller of the Stationery Department, it was
Mr. T. Digby Pigott. His picture of that gentleman having
been placed, by the misguided impulse of the House of
Commons, " in a condition of honourable but absolute destitu
tion," was affecting in the extreme. It required no stretch of
the imagination to picture Mr. T. Digby Pigott standing at the
Peers' entrance in threadbare clothes, and napless hat, all
brushed to distraction. It was a remarkable instance of the
power of oratory to observe how, at this point, noble lords
instinctively put their hands in their pockets, as if in search of
stray half-crowns. That other little word-picture, of the de
cayed tradesman, who, if the behests of the Select Committee
were too scrupulously observed, might have been placed at the
head of the Stationery Department, was, for its immediate
effect, inimitable. Of course, it was no argument, but Lord
Beaconsfield, like the late Mr. Disraeli, is not anxious about
argument if he can secure effect. To-night he triumphed

1877.] A TWENTY-SIX EOUES' SITTING. 287
beyond hope or expectation, and, the speech over, the Commons
went sadly back to their own place, lamenting the fate that had
too early deprived them of one who, even with the weight of his
seventy-three years, stands without a compeer.
CHAPTER XXII.
A _TWENTY-SIX HOUEs' SITTING.
The Major and the Speaker — " Taking do-wn his "Words " — A hvely Skirmish —
Mr. Gladstone ignored— Death of "Ward Hunt — An Appeal — A twenty-six
Hours' Sitting.
July 24. — The On the motion to go into Committee on the
^plto"* ""^ South African Bill, George Campbell moved a
resolution, declaring that no measure establishing
a seff-governing federation for South Africa will be satisfactory
unless direct provision be made for the settlement of the relations
of the white and black races. He chiefly took objection to the
Bill on the ground that the proposed constitution gave all the
power to the whites. Forster, whilst criticising some details of
the Bill, expressed his approval of it as a whole, and trusted
that, though late in the session, it would become law. E.
Jenkins took exception to it, on the ground that proposals for a
scheme of federation should come from the colonists themselves,
rather than from the Imperial Government.
The discussion was continued by H. Holland, Parnell, and
O'Donnell. The latter gentleman addressed the House at con
siderable length, and -not al-ways with appreciable relevancy to
the subject matter. He also succeeded in occupying time by
reading voluminous extracts from various periodicals, and
members, apparently arriving at the conclusion that his
intention was rather to occupy a certain number of minutes
than to discuss the Bill, left him to the performance of his task.
Biggar, coming in about nine o'clock, and finding this state of
things existing, moved a count. That there were a large
number of members in attendance was testified to by the appear
ance at the usual signal of nearly a hundred gentlemen, who, as

288 A DIABY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. mn
soon as the counting was over, again left the House, leaving
O'Donnell to pursue his monologue. A few minutes later
Biggar again moved a count, and members had scarcely got
settled in the various resorts outside the House than they were
brought back again by the sound of the bell.
Ten minutes later Major O'Gorman, entering the House for
the first time within a space of three hours, resented the non-
attendance of other members by straightway moving that the
House be counted. Under ordinary circumstances the process of
counting occupies seven or eight minutes, the glass being tumed
and the Speaker .waiting till the sands have run out. On the
present occasion the right hon. gentleman took the unusual
course of at once rising, and even whilst the bell was ringing,
counted the House, in which he had no difficulty in finding
forty members. Another ten minutes having elapsed,
O'Donnell, who had now been speaking for an hour, entered
upon a disquisition on education in Ireland. The Speaker
called his attention to the fact that he was travelling beyond
the subject matter, whereupon Major O'Gorman rose, and said
in an angry voice —
" I move that the House be counted."
Having uttered these words, he hastily seized his hat, and
was making his way out of the House as fast as it was possible
with him, when the Speaker quietly said —
"There are forty members present. It is unnecessary to
count." The Major, who had by this time got as far as the door,
turned round and walked back to his seat, where he occupied
himself in a series of attempts to test the Speaker's accuracy by
counting for himself. This quiet rebuke from a high authority
whose forbearance in troublesome times has excited the marvel
and the admiration of the House, had the effect of stopping
further interruptions, and O'Donnell, beginning to show signs of
physical exhaustion, brought his sentences to a conclusion, having
been speaking for two hours.
July 25.— "Tak- The House of Commons to-day witnessed one
wordt°™ "^ °^ ^^® most remarlaa,ble scenes presented in
recent Parliamentary history. "A House "was
made a few minutes earlier than usdal, and business proceeded

1877.1 A TWENTY-SIX HOUES' SITTING. 289
in the ordinary course till the first order was reached, it being
the Committee on the South African Bill. On the question
that the preamble be postponed, O'Donnell moved to report
progress, complaining chiefly of the " light, airy, perfunctory
manner" in whieh he said Lowther had introduced the measure
to the House. Lowther quietly repUed, amid laughter and
cheers, that during the three-quarters of an hour he had been
occupied in explaining the Bill, O'Donnell had not been in his
place. G. Campbell, Whalley, and the Chancellor of the
Exchequer urged O'Donnell to withdraw his motion. A remark
from Courtney drew from Stafford Northcote the explanatory
statement that, war being apprehended amongst the South
African tribes, it was urgent that the Bill should be pushed
forward, and a system of federation completed.
Edward Jenkins was addressing the House when he was in
terrupted by an impatient exclamation from Monk, who sat just
behind. Jenkins resenting this. Monk explained that he had
interrupted because, in his opinion, Jenkins was abusing the
forms of the House. Jenkins moved that these words be taken
down, a crisis which brought Parnell to the front. In seconding
the motion, he declared that the limits of endurance had been
passed in respect to the language which members had addressed
to him, and to others who sat near him.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer hastily rose and moved that
these words be taken down. Parnell objected, blandly arguing
on the point of order that a motion being already before the
House, a second one could not be put. The Chairman attempted
to throw oil on the waters, already growing dangerously trou
bled, by suggesting that Monk had had no intention of im
puting mahce to Jenkins, and that, on the whole, the business
had better now go on.
Monk, without withdrawing the obnoxious words or even
excusing them, was explaining that he had imputed no malicious
intention, when Courtney rose to order. But Monk, refusing to
give way, continued, concluding (having had his say) with the
expression of the hope that the discussion might now cease.
Courtney having repudiated ah allegation, which did not appear
to have been made, that he had abused the forms of the House,
Parnell again rose and descanted on the intimidation -to whieh
he was subjected in the discharge of his duty. The Chair-

290 A DIAEY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [im.
man caUed him to order, and invited him to withdravv these
words, when Parnell said that the intimidation of which he
complained was on the part of the Press. He c<»ntinued his ¦
address amid caUs to order by various members, including, .the
Chairman. A climax was reached when he declared that he
" had satisfaction in preventing apd thwarting the intentions of '
the Government in respect of passing this" Bill.'
Once more the Chancellor of the Exchequer rose, and moved
that Parnell's words be taken down. The disorder into which the
Committee was plunged obscuring tbe fact that two resolutions
— that of Jenkins, and Stafford Northcote's resolution (No. 1)
— were already before the Committee, the clerk at the table,
amid solemn silence, wrote down the words just uttered by
Parnell. Raikes left the chair, the Committee having agreed
that progress should be reported, and that the words used
should be reported to the House. The Speaker was sent for,
and having taken his seat, Raikes, standing at his right hand,
fully reported the words used by Parnell, and the order of the
Committee that they should be taken do-wn.
For some time previously the House had presented its usual
Wednesday afternoon's aspect, that is to say, it had been almost
empty. It gradually filled as rumours of the disturbance went
forth, and at this time it was about half-fiUed, and in a state of
considerable excitement. The Chancellor of the Exchequer
described at length to the Speaker the proceedings which had led
up to Parnell's words being taken down, and concluded by moving
a resolution to the effect that Parnell should be suspended
from his functions of speaking or taking part in the debates
of this House till Friday next, when he undertook to submit '
, a motion with reference to the course of public business which,
he trusted, would have the effect of facilitating its progress.
Loud and prolonged cheering greeted this conclusion of the
ChanceUor of the Exchequer's speech. Amid the noise Biggar
rose, but, as interposing between the Speaker and the House, he
was met by loud cries of " Order." The Speaker, before pro
ceeding further, invited Parnell to address the House ff he
desired, an invitation of which Parnell took no notice. Biggar,
however, again manifested his desire to speak, but his rising was
met by such angry cries of " Order ! " that after a brief struggle
he resumed his seat. The Speaker again called on Parnell,

1877] A TWENTY-SIX HOURS' SITTING. 291
Biggar for the third time rising, and once more subsiding, under
the cries of " Order 1 "
At a fourth invitation, Parnell, speaking with considerable
deliberation, and expressing at the outset a doubt " whether it
really was of any use his addressing the House," asked — still
strong on the point of ordei; — whether the Chancellor of the
Exchequer was in order in moving the resolution without giving
due notice. The Speaker reminding him that he was to address
himself, if he desired to speak, to an explanation of the words
reported, Parnell admitted the accuracy of the report made by
the Chairman with the exception that he "thought" he h?.d
used the word " interest " instead of " satisfaction." He pro
ceeded at some length to address the House, taking occasion
to note that the English nation was in the habit of bullying and
oppressing weaker nations, " much in the same way," he added
parenthetically, " as he was subjected to menaces from members
of that House."
The Speaker now directed that these words should be taken
down, and a controversy arose as to the precise phraseology,
Pamell denying having used the terms generally accepted. The
House, having now reached a pitch of high excitement, by loud
cries demanded Parnell's withdrawal, and he walked out accord
ingly. The Speaker then explained that a member convicted of
persistetit obstruction of the business of the House was guilty of
contempt, and was liable to censure and suspension from his
right to take part in the proceedings of the House. Having
thus explained the rule, he left it to tbe House to decide what
steps should be taken.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer thereupon moved a reso
lution to the effect that " Mr. Parnell, having wilfully and per
sistently obstructed public businesSj is guilty of contempt of
this House, and that Mr. Parnell for his said offence be suspended
from the ser-vice of the House till Friday next." After some
words from Whitbread, who suggested that the House should be
content with agreeing only to the first portion of the resolution,
omitting that portion which would have kept Parnell out of the
House till Friday, Sullivan, whilst disclaiming holding any
brief for Parnell, urged upon the House, in an eloquent speech,
that they were entering upon a dangerous course in thus pushing
matters to extremities.
t2

292 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. [i877.
The debate was continued by KnatchbuU-Hugessen, who
happened to be the sole representative present of the late Govern
ment; and finally Hardy, on the part of the Government, accepted
the suggestion that the debate should be adjourned till Friday.
This course was agreed to, and as the Speaker left the chair and
Raikes resumed his position as Chairman of the Committee,
Parnell, who had been waiting outside the issue of events,
entered escorted by Biggar. Taking up the thread of his
discourse, somewhere about the part at which it had been left
nearly two hours earlier, he proceeded to discuss the claims of
the South Africa Bill. After some debate the preamble was
agreed to, and the Committee got as far as the third clause, on
which Parnell had moved an amendment which Biggar was
supporting, when a quarter to six was reached, and progress was
necessarily reported.
July 27.— A lively The Chancellor of the Exchequer lost his head on
s rmis . Wednesday, and, failing that indispensable addi
tion to the perfect man, the House of Commons became as a
seething cauldron. To-day the House meets to undo — or, at
least, to do over again — the work then unwisely commenced.
We should, under ordinary circumstances, bave been busily en
gaged on the South Africa Bill, or on Supply, or on some other
matter-of-fact business ; in which case there would have been
from five to forty members present. As it is, and there being
a prospect of a row, or at least of " words," the House is crowded
in every part, and noble lords who do not have many opportuni
ties of this kind in their own part of the building have come
down to see the struggle. At their head, though not forming
one of their number, is Prince Teck, who holds a pair of highly-
starched cuffs over the clock, and observes with curious interest
Whalley's attempts to catch the Speaker's eye.
As soon as the Chancellor of the Exchequer moves the formal
resolution which, being passed, shall give precedence to the re
solution he has substituted for that wrathfully drawn up on
Wednesday, Dillwyn rises from the corner seat below the gang
way and objects. It is an odd coincidence that the member for
Swansea always turns up when there is a row of this sort on. He
has grown grey and thin in the House of Commons, and he
must be a good fellow at heart, for although he is generally

1877.1 A TWENTY-SIX HOURS' SITTING. 293
objecting to something, he is himself held to be by no means
an objectionable man. It soon becomes clear that Dillwyn is the
spokesman of a numerous section of the House, Mitchell Henry,
Anderson, O'Shaughnessy, all speaking from different points of
view, and each taking exception to the haste with which the
amendment has been brought on.
By the time Whalley succeeds in catching the Speaker's eye
and begins his discourse, gentlemen on the front Opposition
Bench begin to grow uneasy. Lowe lifts up his meek, white
head from the lower part of the front Opposition Bench, where it
has been reclining, and passing upwards takes his seat by Har
tington, who has only been ten minutes late to-day, and who is
now being earnestly talked to by Forster. On the other side is
KnatchbuU-Hugessen, bursting with some proposition he wants
to pour into the ear of the imperturbable Chief, but cannot
get at him by reason of the contortions into which the body of
Forster is thrown by the working of mighty thoughts. Forster,
it would seem, cannot take a clear view of a critical complication
unless he be spread out as nearly as possible in a horizontal
jiosition with his chin sunk in his chest, curiously foreshortening
his head. It is this difficulty which KnatchbuU-Hugessen cannot
get over, for Forster is not to. be approached too closely at the
time of these earthquakes, and the difficulty is enhanced by the
possibly unconscious, but decidedly effective, determination of
Hartington not to notice the fussy person who once had charge
of the interests of the British Colonies.
Childers changes places with Lowe, so that he, too, may come
within whispering distance of Hartington, and then Harcourt
has an opportunity of uttering his counsel, KnatchbuU-Hugessen
all this time watching an opportunity to dive in, in a compa
ratively quiet moment on the part of Forster's legs, just as a
boat, skilfully steered, tries for an opening in the surf, to run in
and land its freight. Presently Forster rises, and everybody on
the front Opposition Bench quickly withdrawing his legs, he
shambles down between the bench and the table till he reaches
the Speaker's chair, and holds consultation with the right hon.
gentleman. This is Knatehbull-Hugessen's opportunity, and he
eagerly seizes it, pouring into the ear of Hartington what is
doubtless a settlement of the whole ease. But his lordship sits
staring at his boots, and makes no sign of recognition, and

294 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. mn.
Forster coming back, KnatchbuU-Hugessen despondingly and
adroitly gets out of the way, lest he should be sat upon.
Mr. Gladstone The Only man on the front Opposition Bench
ignored. whom nobody consults, and who offers his
opinions to nobody, is he whose merest word used to be law
among gentlemen, the majority of whom he has lifted from the
obscurity of the rank and file of the Liberal party. Gladstone,
of whom it was said two days ago that he was going down to
his castellated residence in FUntshire, is here sitting lower down
even than Lowe's modesty leads him. He has brought his
white hat out to-day— the white hat with the black band round
it — and has carefully disposed of it on a stick which he is
holding out in a manner suggestive of scarecrow practice in
view of a visit to the quiet fields of Hawarden. He speaks to
nobody, and nobody speaks to him ; and the man who disestab
lished the Irish Church and freed the Irish land is just now
chiefly occupied in saving his cherished hat from contact with
some of the reckless gentlemen who are moving to and fro, en
grossed in the new phase of the question which the Opposition
below the gangway has evolved.
As Whalley proceeds, and is occasionaUy called to order by
the Speaker, there is time for the excitement to spread to the
front bench opposite. Dyke has a hurried conversation with the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, and, disappearing, shows himself
again behind the Speaker's chair, whence he beckons to Adam,
and the two Whips retire for consultation.
Henley, venerable and respected patriarch, stands for a
moment in deprecating attitude, and, foreseeing a long vista of
purposeless talk, carefully picks his way out of the House.
Then Roebuck, painfully rising from the corner seat below the
gangway, slowly crawls down the floor of the House ; seeing
which, George Bowyer, who had been hovering at the bar, and
has been serving his constituents by darting into temporarily
unoccupied seats, and being incontinently dispossessed by the
rightful owner, now dashes down at the corner seat. A few
minutes ago Eslington having left the House to post a letter
in the lobby. Sir George took his seat, which he enjoyed
through four anxious moments. Then, taking up his old point
of observation at the bar, like a grey eagle poised above its

1877.]

A TWENTY-SIX HOURS' SITTING. 295

prey, he became aware of the fact that Francis Conyngham,
who had been sitting on tbe cross-benches, had gone out to
speak to a friend. Sir George thereupon darted into this
seat, and reclined with a vain attempt to look as if he had been
there since prayer-time. But Lord Francis comes back again,
and lays his lavender-gloved hand on the shoulder of the baronet,
who, glancing up with-a startled look, hastily regards the back
of the bench, and seeing Lord Francis's name there, is quite
surprised to find that the seat had been appropriated. Now he
is in better quarters, for Roebuck takes a long time to tra
verse the House, and Sir George feels so safe that he places
his hat far out on the floor of the House in front of him,
which is the usual token that he is, in Parliamentary sense.
At Home.
Parnell, the immediate cause of this interesting gathering,
was a few minutes ago defiantly leaning -with his back against
the cool stone walls of the corridor, prepared to face one or all
as the case might be. Now he has entered the House, paler
than usual, though he wears a sickly smile, as if, on the whole,
it were good fun. Biggar is in his place, greatly enjoying the
excitement of the occasion, and O'Donnell, the third and newest
recruit of the famous trio, has just walked in with an air of de
liberation, and that blase look which he understands marks the
air of good society. The Major is at the back seat near the door,
ready for contingencies in the way of a succession of divisions.
He has just tried his voice in ironically cheering Mitchell
Henry, and is evidently in fine form.
The interchange of communication between the two front
benches results in a determination to stand by the resolutions,
and this is announced in speeches from Hartington and Stafford
Northcote, whose rising the Major cheered thunderously, and
with a fine irony, the untimeliness of which is resented by
angry cries of " Order I" When the Chancellor of the Exchequer
sat down it might have been thought that all was over ; but
Peter Rylands has something to say, as, indeed, he generally
has. ^ Taking off his glasses, he desired to express that he was
" enxlous " to support the Government.
" Do not let them think that we are not embarrassed by the
obstruction complained of," Peter says. " We are embarrassed,"
he repeats, in a firm voice, letting his outstretched hand fall

296 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
swiftly, but emphatically, whilst Whitwell, who sits near, look
ing up in his face, nods approvingly.
Even this does not settle it, nor do the speeches of several
other members ; nor does Andrew Lusk, who cajoling a member
into lending him his seat whilst he makes a speech, holds out his
white hat, waving It over the contending hosts like a flag of
truce, and beseeches members, In his most imploring tone, to
" come now." The House will have its division, and so divides,
deciding, by an overwhelming majority, that it will begin to
discuss what it might have settled in the time It was arguing
whether or not it were wise to begin.
July 28. —Death To-day after a painful illness Ward Hunt died.
of Ward Hunt, jj-^ ^^^^^^ ^ -^ ^^^ ^^^^ deprived the House of
Commons of the counsel of its wisest man, has removed from
its midst the familiar figure of its largest member. Fully six
feet four inches in height, and broad to boot, the late First
Lord of the Admiralty figured amongst his colleagues as a
porpoise might disport Itself in a school of herrings. Seen by
himself. Major O'Gorman impresses the mind with the sense
of unsurpassed largeness. But Ward Hunt, though not so
much run to adipose tissue, was a bigger man than the Major,
and having a straight back and a firm stride, impressed one
with a sense of superior strength and vigour.
Ever so many years ago a reading party went forth to the
Highlands, and was subsequently discoursed about by one of its
members. From Mr. Clough's picture-gallery we get a glimpse
of Ward Hunt : —
' ' Stoutest and rashest of creatures, mere fool of a Saxon,
Him I see frisldng and whisking, and ever at s-wifter gyration
Under brief curtain revealing broad acres— not of broad cloth.''
I dwell upon this personal peculiarity because. In an odd
though not unaccountable manner, it had considerable Influence
upon the popular reputation and even the poUtical career of the
late First Lord. The general preference for stout men as com
pared with lean men, on the score of superior goodness of
nature, has survived the times of Cassius. There are few pre
judices stronger than the belief that a stout man must necessarily
be a good-tempered man, and the notion Is drawn from an ex-

1877.] A TWENTY-SIX EOUES' SITTING. 297
perience which affords rare variations. In the case of Ward
Hunt people were inclined to forgive many shortcomings on
the ground that he was "so good-tempered." Even so keen
an observer as the writer of the brilliant series of Political
Portraits published during the winter of 187^ — 73, fell into
this error.
"Mr. Ward Hunt, we believe," Mr. Frank Hill writes,
" never provoked an adversary save by failing to lose his own
temper, and by growing cooler as the opponent became more
heated. His conversation is cheerful and good-humoured."
This, which expresses the general opinion of the character
of Ward Hunt, is, I will venture to say, not only incorrect,
but it is so directly opposed to the fact that, if it were not
familiar as an article of popular faith, it might be regarded
as a sneer on the part of the political portrait-painter. The
truth Is that precisely the reverse was the fact, and that among
his colleagues the late First Lord was distinguished for an un
fortunate asperity of temper, and a certain "nagging" way of
answering questions or participating in debate — a constitutional
tendency phenomenal In a man of Falstaffian proportions. It
might reasonably be suggested that the physical suffering he
bore during the current Session, and the persistent misfortune
which followed his administration at the Admiralty, had the
effect of souring his temper. Casting the mind back over Ward
Hunt's official and ex-official career, it is not possible to accept
this explanation.
It was highly characteristic of him that, at a time when
there were lobby rumours of personal dissensions in Glad
stone's Cabinet, he should rise from the front Opposition Bench,
and ask " whether it is true that right hon. gentlemen opposite
are not on speaking terms with each other ? " This question,
and the tone and manner in which it was put, offered an
illustration of the constitutional turn of Ward Hunt's mind.
Of late the First Lord had Captain Bedford Pirn attached to
him, much after the style that a man-o'-war might have an
ineffective but annoying torpedo-boat continually hanging
around, and making feints of dashing in at it. Some excuse
might possibly be found for his manner of throwing over his
shoulder snappish scraps of answer to the member for Gravesend.
But this mode of address was simply an aggravation of a habit,

2«8 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1877.
and Childers and Goschen, whilst themselves studiously cour
teous in their inquiries or criticism, were snapped at whenever
they dared to open their mouths on naval questions.
At the very outset of his new departure as First Lord of the
Admiralty, and at a time when Lord Beaconsfleld's policy was
one of general conciliation. Ward Hunt's Ill-temper roused a nest
of hornets about the Treasury Bench. He came down to the
House, on a memorable Monday night, and tossed into the
midst of the placid and unsuspecting assembly that little bomb
shell about " paper ships " and a " phantom fleet." He did not
mean anything, as he was subsequently obliged to admit. It
was only his pleasant way of saying that the Minister whom he
had succeeded was a thoroughly incompetent person.
Next to Captain Bedford Pim, or perhaps on a par with
him. Ward Hunt reserved his bitterest animosity and his most
snarling contempt for the Press. The mere mention of a news
paper in the House of Commons was sufficient to bring him
up with an angry and contemptuous expression. It was not
that the newspapers, as a class, displayed any special antipathy
towards him. But it is the duty of newspapers to comment
upon daily events, and as it frequently happened that things
went wrong at the Admiralty, it followed that the Department
occupied, in an exceptional degree, the attention of the Press.
Hence Ward Hunt's anger, and hence his conviction that life
would be endurable only for its newspapers.
It must be admitted that Ward Hunt's reign at the Admi
ralty was not a successful one. But it is only fair to point out
that he was hardly fairly dealt with in being placed at the head
of the Department. Born a country gentleman, and gifted with
abilities which admirably fitted him for the post of Chairman of
Quarter Sessions, held for many years with credit to himself
and advantage to the county of Northampton, he was suddenly
called upon to take charge of the British Navy and all that
concerns it. If it were possible for the human mind to admit
the idea, it might well be thought that this was a practical
joke on the part of Mr. Disraeli, akin to that which induced him
to find a place In the Ministry for Cavendish Bentinck. If one
had placed before him all the prominent men on the Conserva
tive benches in the year 1874, and were asked to say which was
likely to be appointed to the head of the Admiralty, the burly

1877.] A TWENTY-SIX HOUES' SITTING. ' 299
Northamptonshire squire, who had made his first Parliamentary
reputation in connection with the Cattle Plague, would surely
have been the last to occur to the mlnd.-
Whatever other failings may have fallen to the lot of Ward
Hunt, he did not lack courage, and the post being offered him,
he accepted it. Also he devoted himself to the details of his
office with an energy and an industry which left nothing to be
desired. But when a square stick is thrust Into a round hole
there will, to the end of time, be something lacking in respect
of adaptability. The principal marvel in connection with Ward
Hunt's administration of naval affairs is that it proved so little
disastrous to the country.
As a speaker, the late First Lord had tbe great gift of brevity.
His statements on introducing the Navy Estimates are amongst
the briefest on record, a heterodoxy which, at the outset,
shocked Childers, who was convinced that there was nothing to
hope for from a man who could explain the Navy Estimates
within the space of three-quarters of an hour. In this, however.
Ward Hunt succeeded, and bis exposition of the policy of his
administration was, perhaps, the most creditable feature in
connection with It. Even this brevity of speech arose out of his
prevailing contempt for the views and opinions of people in
general, and of gentlemen opposite In particular. He would
have made an excellent, or at least a contented, Minister under
the Czar, or the Emperor Napoleon before his Majesty's fatal
craze for Parliamentary co-operation took possession of him.
He could never fully understand what business Parliament
had to want to know anything. It was enough for himself —
and he held that it should be enough for other people — that
Ward Hunt was at the head of affairs at the Admiralty; and
that. In view of this circumstance, people should go asking
questions and proffering criticism, appeared to him more than
human nature could bear. He resented inquiry into the public
business of his Department as a man might resent a personal
affront, and tbe consequence was that his Parliamentary career
vvas a constant wrangle.
Occasionally when his unfortunate manner had brought
about a chorus of disapproval, or had culminated In a formal
Indictment, Ward Hunt found it necessary to make an elaborate
defence. His penultimate appearance in the House of Commons

800 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1877.
was on an occasion of this sort, and Seely will probably carry
with him to his grave the scars he received at the hands of the
irate First Lord, whose general policy he had presumed to call
in question.
Aug. 2.— An ap- The following rhymes by Sir Wilfrid Lawson
^^^^" fairly illustrate the condition of the House, at this
time overpowered by the nightmare of Obstruction.
" Oh ! Parnell Mavoumeen ! Oh ! Biggar go bragh !
It's the pride and the joy of your country you are !
Sastained by O'Donnell and mighty O'Gorman,
You have broken the might of both Saxon and Norman.
" A light o'er the darkness of Erin now breaks.
You have buUied the Speaker and trampled on Eaikes,
And the House, dispossessed of its prestige and -yigour,
Lies low at the feet of its Pamell and Biggar.
"Oh! Parnell Mavoumeen ! Oh! Biggar go Bragh !
The noblest your country has sent us by far ;
Through the lobby you march with a conqueror's stride,
"When you've summoned your host to the cry of ' Divide. '
" Yes ! -we feel that at length the Celt's -wrongs are revenged,
And years of oppression by you are avenged.
But, Pamell Mavoumeen ! and Biggar go Bragh !
While proudly you ride upon "Victory's car,
Let Mercy beside 'mid your virtues appear.
And think of the state you have brought us to here.
"The Speaker, exhausted, gro-ws daily more sad,
And Raikes, as you see, is almost driven mad.
Sclater-Booth in his figure is visibly shrinking,
Aud two or three members have taken to drinking.
" Oh ! keep us not here in this terrible -weather,
"While the grouse-cocks are calling us off to the heather,
"While the yacht, with its sails flapping out to the breeze,
Invites us away to the smooth summer seas.
" The clerks at the table look languid and wan.
Gloom sits on the face of the noble Lord John,
The wig of Sir Erskine is turning to grey.
Sweet Biggar — kind Parnell — please let us away ! "
Aug. 1.— At-wen- The difficulty of defining what Home Rule really
sitting ^°"'^^' ^^' ^^^ what it precisely means, has always
cropped up when the matter has been debated in
the House of Commons. The difficulty no longer exists. After

1877.] A TWENTY-SIX EOUES' SITTING. 301
the experience of the last twenty-six hours it is clear enough
that Home Rule means not going home all night yourself, and
keeping as many other people as possible out of their beds. To
this laudable endeavour, this high political end, O'Donnell,
Parnell, Biggar, and O'Connor Power seriously set themselves
last night. They had come down in the ordinary way, pre
pared to obstruct the passage through Committee of the South
Africa Bill. At the outset they were puzzled by a curiously
elate expression on the face of their natural enemy, the Saxon .
Puleston, in particular, walked about with a pleased smile,
whilst there was a dangerously amiable look on the expressive
countenance of Lo-wther, as he sat with his hat well pushed back,
so that not a line of his expansive forehead should be lost to
the contemplation of Biggar.
What it all meant was speedily made manifest. The Minis
terialists had determined to beat the Obstructionists at their
own game, and to that end Dyke had Issued a whip, mysteri
ously indicating that there might be a prolonged sitting. In
brief, the Ministerialists had consented to be told off in
" watches," and preparations were made for sitting till the Bill
was passed through Committee, or till the arrival of the visitor
from the Antipodes, whose name O'Connor Power had in the
earlier discussions boastfully invoked.
This plan took the Obstructionists at a great disadvantage.
Never at any period of the Session had their small forces been
so weak. The Major, content -with the glory he earned on
Friday night, when he had so triumphantly criticised the
phraseology of the resolutions " designed to put down " obstruc
tion, had wisely gone home, determined not to weaken the
effect of this great triumph by comparative success. Richard
Power had also left for Ireland, and "W. H. isky" O'Sullivan,
as his compatriots humorously call him, was at the moment
engaged, hundreds of miles away, in obtaining information as to
the alleged deterioration of pure Irish spirit by demoralised
Scotch. At a council of war hastily summoned it was decided by
the Obstructionists that, despite these conditions, battle should
be accepted. Despatches were immediately sent off to Ireland
for reinforcements, the Major being speciaUy requested to return
forthwith, as it was felt that in fighting by a system of relays

302 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1877.
he would count for two. Parnell and O'Donnell undertook to
keep the enemy engaged until one o'clock in the morning.
Then Biggar and O'Connor Power were to come on, whilst Gray
and Nolan were prepared to act as skirmishers, harassing fhe
enemy and picking off an officet as opportunity offered.
The plan of the campaign being thus arranged, the fire
opened, O'Donnell making a reconnaissance in force, by moving
to report progress as soon as the House got into Committee.
This had the effect of aggravating members, and matters soon
grew lively. At eight o'clock Parnell, pale and passionate, was
trying his voice against the united roar of the Committee, who
insisted upon a division. Julian Goldsmid, seated immediately
below him, so persistently raised a strident voice In the chant
for the division that, after glaring down for a moment of speech
less anger at the back of his head, Parnell made a sudden dash
at the table, and standing at Raikes' left ear, attempted to pour
his speech into it. Two seats behind, Whalley, moved by some
inscrutable purpose, was constantly on his feet, rising to points of
order. What he precisely wanted to accomplish, nobody gathered
amid the uproar. But from a chance expression it appeared
that he was animated by the benevolent intention of having
either Parnell or O'Donnell twice called to order, when he would
have tested the efficacy of the new rule.
After this little scene matters went on quietly till eleven
o'clock, when Harcourt came in from dinner. He had not been
in his place many minutes before he seized an opportunity of
stirring up Parnell with a long pole, and the Committee had
once more the satisfaction, now somewhat palling on the accus
tomed palate, of seeing that gentleman glaring upon the laughing
throng through angry eyes, set in a face of death-like pallor.
At one o'clock in the morning Parnell moved that progress
be reported, a mild suggestion supported by Fawcett in a speech
of some length. Lowther answered blandly that the Chairman
would leave the chair only when the Bill had been passed through
Committee. This was the end of the skirmishes and of masked attacks.
The real' line of battle, never seriously obscured, being now
plainly announced, the combatants prepared for the worst. The
House was full, and on both sides there reigned a determination
to die on the floor if necessary, or in any event to sleep there.

1877.] A TWENTY-SIX HOUES' SITTING. 303
Forster, stretching his legs far out on the horizon, lay down on
the front Opposition Bench, and, refreshing himself by rumpling
his hair all over, settled himself for a few minutes' sleep. The
Chancellor of the Exchequer sat watchful and unperturbed
on the opposite bench, supported right and left by Hicks-
Beach and Cross, the group suggesting under the circumstances
a modern and Parliamentary " Laocoon." Nolan bustled in
and out as if the Thames were rapidly rising, and he were the
cellarman engaged in reporting the advances of the flood.
O'Connor Power, finding a general disposition to somnolency,
woke up the Committee by a genial reference to the action of
the majority as being " a conspiracy." This brought up Harcourt
in his happiest mood, and In a moment the erewhile sleeping
House was in a blaze of excitement. Also, it would appear that
the water in the cellars of the House was providentially, and
pari passu, growing higher. Nolan bustled about more like a
bomb-shell than a Member of Parliament.
He had a turn to himself later on, or rather earlier In the
morning. Edward Jenkins, an unquestionable authority on
matters of decorum and good taste, took an opportunity of ex
pressing, what every one feels, a sense of astonishment that
Captain Nolan, a gentleman of education and position, and,
moreover, an officer on full pay in Her Majesty's service, should
prominently associate himself in a political warfare of a kind
that naturally enough commends itself to Biggar and Parnell.
This rebuke had an extraordinary effect upon the Admiral,
who, it goes without saying, was In his place. He cheered
stentorlously, and Nolan, firing over the head of Jenkins,
played the battery of his denunciation full on the Admiral,
whose intelligent political discrimination he called in question.
The Admiral winced under the shot ; but he had his answer
ready, "Half-pay," he said, rising, and attempting to interrupt the
torrent of speech which Nolan was breathlessly pouring forth,
" HALF-pay," he shouted, " I'm only on half -pay,"
The Committee saw the point In a moment, and cheered en
thusiastically. An officer on full pay is under certain political
obligations, which are lightened in proportion as he Is permitted
to draw only half-pay.
About this time, whilst the dawn was wrestling with the

301. A DIAEY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. nm.
gas-light and the promise of a new day lay behind its certain
victory, there befel an Incident which marked the lowest depth to
which the House might sink. All night long Courtney had sat
in his corner seat below tbe gangway, watching and waiting for
some glimmering of reason to flicker over the House, under the
light of which he might read out his thoughts to it. He had
many amendments on the paper, and a little professorial essay,
for each. Several times he rose and tried to bring the angry
House back to the paths of reason. But it would not be led,
and at length, himself wearied out with the endeavour, he rose,
and with a look of infinite pity, and speaking more in sorrow
than in anger, he told the House that as it evidently was in no
mood for reasoning, he (Courtney) must leave It, And he did,
walking towards the door amidst the jeers and laughter of the
unthinking herd.
Since Coriolanus turned his back upon the riotous citizens
of ' Rome, and " banished " the Senate, no such scene has
been enacted in the Western Plemisphere, " Despising," said
Coriolanus,  " despising
Eor you the city, thns I tum my back ;
There is a -world elsewhere."
And thus with equal dignity, and with the same noble scornful
sorrow, the member for Liskeard " banished " the House of
Commons. " And Reason shrieked -when Leonard Courtney fled."
At four o'clock In the morning Biggar was gently led out and
put to bed in the library, disposing his person -with some difficulty
on three chairs.
" My hon. friend the member for Cavan," Parnell said, an
hour later, " Is peacefully slumbering, and will presently return
like a giant refreshed."
This, however, was simply a figure of speech. The fact
is, Biggar's slumbers were disturbed by a certain mysterious
agility displayed by the chairs, which. In all parts of the room,
were continually and unaccountably toppling over with crashing
noises. On the whole the episode most resembled a familiar
scene in the tragedy of "Richard III." As Biggar lay prone on
the hastily-made couch, it required no stretch of imagination to

1877.] A TWENTY-SIX HOURS' SITTING. 305
behold rising up behind him the ghosts of the various BiUs he
had slain in the course of the Session, each addressing to him
words of eloquent reproach. However it be, it is certain that
Biggar did not this morning sleep any better than did Richard
III. on the eve of Bosworth Field.
But the gallantry that sustained his comrades was not
lacking in the member for Cavan. Shortly after seven o'clock
in the morning he entered the House, with what was intended
to be a genial smile extended over the lower part of his expres
sive countenance, and a general air of jauntiness which ill
befitted bis languid step.
" Mr. Smith — Sir," he said, " I have had a good sleep and a
rare good breakfast, and am naterally able and ready to go on
with legislation ; " a pleasant Uttle fiction, carefully designed to
make the Committee feel uncomfortable.
W. H. Smith was in the chair now, having stepped into it
over the prostrate body of Childers, who had succeeded Raikes.
The House was in other respects beginning to change its appear
ance. The white necktie era was passed, and shining morning
faces replaced the paUid visages of the Members who had kept
the night watch. Forster, true to his pledge, had gallantly kept
his post all through the night, always having as vis-a-vis the
ChanceUor of the Exchequer. Reinforcements arriving with the
morning milk, he felt at liberty to go off to that bath and break
fast which have been the only rest and nourishment nine out of
ten of the British Legislators have enjoyed to-day. Of those
who had taken their places at four o'clock on the previous after
noon, only half-a-dozen remained, disdainful of rest, and deter
mined to see it out.
Of these the most prominent were the Admiral, and O'Donnell.
The Admiral sat in his familiar place behind the Treasury Bench,
-with a slight heaviness discernible about his eyelids, and the
shattered remains of many copies of the Orders at his feet.
Otherwise he presented no evidence of his long watch. He was
as ready to cheer at noon on Wednesday as he had been at six on
Tuesday evening.
As for O'Donnell, his endurance was worthy of a better
cause. At two o'clock this afternoon, when the Bill was on the
verge of being passed, he was, to all appearances, as fresh as
when he had begun at five o'clock on Tuesday afternoon. In

306 A DIARY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
twenty-one hours of constant watchfulness, and almost incessant
speech, he had not turned a hair. Early in the previous evening
he had settled, though at some expense of facial expression, a
prevailing difficulty which he formerly had with his eye-glass.
Beginning his legislative career with double eye-glasses, he was
led, possibly by observing Chamberlain's success, to adopt a
single orb. This change of front in the face of the enemy
naturally threw him back, and is probably equal. In the course
of the Session, to tbe loss of seventeen notices of amendment.
But he had mastered the difficulty last night ; and, all through
the long and heavily-weighted hours, the eye-glass did not once
tumble out and compel him, instead of moving an amendment,
to search for it in the recesses of his waistcoat.
Even when, at ten minutes past two this afternoon, a pro
longed shout announced the costly triumph of the majority in the
matter of the South Africa Bill, O'Donnell was not worn out.
Just as his countryman, O'Leary, having walked an impossible
number of miles in an inconvenient number of hours, took a
Uttle run to show that he was not in the slightest degree
fatigued, so O'Donnell, having sat and talked through a twenty-
one hours' discussion on the South Africa Bill, placidly entered
upon a long speech In opposition to the East India Loan Bill.
Having saved and accomplished this trot for the avenue,
O'Donnell went off to his well-earned rest, whilst Parnell and
Biggar took a fresh start in opposition to the Judicature Bill.

CHAPTER XXIIL
PEOEOGATION.

"Whale in Turtle Soup—" Sing ! Sing ! " — Mr. Gladstone's Post-cards— Sir Charles
DUke — Sir J. Elphinstone breaks out — Fighting for the Crown — ^Mr. Glad
stone's Decline — Prorogation,
Aug. 6.— Whale There is a wicked story told in the House about
in turtle soup. ^ member, who is not altogether unconnected
with the whaling trade,* but who, when he comes south, so
far yields to the influences of civilisation that he may frequently
* Mr. Yeaman, member for Dundee.

1877.] PEOEOGATION. 307
be met dining out. The other night he was observed religiously
to separate the green fat of the turtle from the liquid of the
soup. His neighbour said to him,
"Don't you eat the fat?"
"Nae, nae," he replied, "It's nae that. It's the blubber
that's nae boiled enough."
Aug. 7.— "Smg! Whalley was greeted to-night with the almost
'°^'' forgotten cry of "Sing, Sing!" He was
dilating upon a familiar subject and was about to offer to the
House a quotation, when some member, bethinking himself of
the old story of Whalley's hymn, raised a shout that recalled a
scene that happened at least fifteen years ago.
The cry of " Sing ! " arose in this way, WhaUey at the
remote period mentioned was addressing the House upon the
subject of the Church of Rome, He wished to gain Its opinion
upon a certain hymn accustomed to be sung in a Catholic
Sunday-school, and, drawing a little book from his pocket, ob
served that he would read it to the House, A member struck
with a happy thought called out " Sing it," and forthwith arose
a unanimous shout of " Sing, Sing ! "
For some time after it was the custom to greet Whalley
in this fashion, until at last the practice was stopped by the
then Speaker, who ruled it to be out of order.
Aug. 8. — Mr. Gladstone is not to be laughed out of his
polt-c^dB°*'^ proclivities for post-cards. I was talking to an
aged official at the Fishmongers' Hall the other
night, when Hartington dined there and was presented with the
freedom of the Company.
" They invited Mr. Gladstone to come, sir," said he, " and
what d'ye think ? He wrote on a post-card to say he couldn't
come. I took it in myself,"

Aug. 9.— Sir Chas. Members who, at the outset of their Parliament-
^' ary career, find themselves failures, will discover
much cheering matter for reflection in the career of Charles
Dilke. When, nine years ago, he entered Parliament, he
claimed the suffrages of Chelsea on the ground that he was
a Radical, and he had not long taken the oath of fealty to
tj2

308 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
his Sovereign before he seized an opportunity of showing to
what lengths Radicalism might lead him. In conjunction
with that other hot-headed youth, Auberon Herbert, he essayed
to lay rough hands on the sacred ark of the Civil List, raising
such a storm in the House of Commons as, in those far-off peace
ful days, was regarded as a phenomenon worthy of engrosssing
public attention for a whole week. At the present epoch we
think nothing of having strangers spied, and galleries cleared,
and Pandemonium temporarily let loose on the floor of the
House of Commons. Seven years ago these were less frequent
occurrences, and the night when Dilke and Auberon Herbert
entrenched themselves in the corner seat below the gangway
(where Beresford Hope and Bentinck now sit), and defied the
House of Commons, lives In vivid colours in the memory of
members of Gladstone's Parliament of '68.
Dilke is seven years older since that night, and has travelled
with seven-leagued boots away from the position he then as
sumed. He still calls himself " a Radical," and would, beyond
doubt, vote straight on most points of the Radical charter; but
he is, withal, the most courtly-mannered Radical that ever
shocked a duke, or fluttered an earl. In fact, it would be difficult
to find in his speec'nes of recent sessions any trace of Radicalism,
as Radicalism is popularly imagined. It is true he would have
the county franchise lowered, which is, I suppose, a Radical
aspiration. But in advancing his views on the subject he quietly
manages to make it appear that he would have the thing done
because it is fair and right, and because it will in the end tend
to the welfare of the State and the improvement of the people.
The difference between the Dilke of 1870 and him of 1877 is,
that where the one would have declaimed and demanded, the
other argues and convinces.
Whilst Sir Charles has thus gained in force of character he
has also Improved in a direction where improvement does not
always follow. At the time when he so shocked Cavendish
Bentinck and " Jimmy " Lowther that they were obliged to
retire behind the Speaker's chair and give vent to their out
raged feelings in imitation of the vocalisation of the cock,
and the inarticulate but expressive speech of the pig, Dilke
was about as bad a speaker as one would find among an
average score of members. He had a rapid, monotonous in-

1877.1 PEOEOGATION. 309
tonation, which was made occasionally unbearable by an evil
habit of turning his body half round from side to side, as if
it were fixed on a pivot, and speech were evolved by its regular
oscillation. It would not be too much to say that he is at the present
time one of the most effective speakers in the House, If he
were to speak as badly now as he did seven years ago he would
be listened to, because the House of Commons has learned to
hold his opinions in high respect, as being those of a man of cul
ture, experience, independent thought, and above all of sincerity,
that great attribute, which in the House of Commons holds the
relative position to other personal recommendations which charity
has assigned to it In the Apostolic catalogue of virtues.
Beyond this, Dilke is a speaker whose attractions the House
is always ready to acknowledge in the subtly flattering manner
indicated by rapidly filUng benches and fixed attention. In his
prepared addresses, notably those in which he has arraigned the
old-world corporations, his literary faculty is shown by his
skilful grouping of facts, and his effective marshalling of argu
ments. He has a quiet, but by no means inanimate, delivery,
emphasising his points by a few simple and appropriate gestures,
amid which only the faintest ghost of the once-prevailing pivot
motion still lingers. He evidently prepares his speeches with
great care. The other night he showed that he has the
power of ready-speaking which is, as far as Parliamentary
success is concerned, of infinitely greater value than the kind of
triumph which Macaulay achieved. Joseph Cowen had made
one of those powerful addresses by which he sometimes ruffles
the level flow of Parliamentary oratory. His views chanced to
be diametrically opposed to those of his fellow- Radical, and Sir
Charles, immediately following him, made some effective points.
His speech was, as usual, brief; but I never heard him speak
better. Whether all this comes of careful study, or whether it is the
result of unconscious adaptation to the influences of the place.
Sir Charles may, if asked, probably confide to any aspirant to
Parliamentary success who would follow in his footsteps. How
ever it be, the fact remains, and it is gratifying to both sides ;
for there is no more popular man in the House of Commons
than he who seven years ago was hooted and howled at, and

310 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
was for many succeeding months the mark of contumely and
scorn on the part of all well-conducted journals.
Aug. 9.— Sir J. It is a peculiarity of the Irish Member that he
breakiout.""^ not Only uses strong language himself, but is
the cause of the use of strong language by
others. Here is Sir James Elphinstone, for example, who for
four Sessions has led a most exemplary life. Through many
long days and nights he has sat on the corner seat of the
Treasury Bench, listening in most admired dumbness to pro
voking debates. Time was when he was amongst the frequent
speech-makers in the House. Forty-three years ago he was
sailing the briny ocean in command of the good ship Orwell,
carrying the East India Company's flag. When the Company
reduced their establishment they began -with Sir James, who
being washed ashore high and dry upon the crest of this
wave of economy has remained there ever since, young
members of the House having gradually gained the im
pression that a century or so ago, he was, at least, a Rear-
Admiral of the British Fleet, and probably played a glorious
part in the Battle of Trafalgar.
Whenever the Navy Estimates came on, be sure there was
Elphinstone In the midst of them, floundering furiously and
firing heavy guns, not always accurately aimed, at persons In
authority. Dockyard reform was his specially strong point, and
Childers and Goschen retain a lively recollection of the figure of
this Ancient Mariner rising from the seat now worthily filled by
Rylands, and obstructing the passage of votes, whilst he re
delivered a famiUar speech.
Sir James had a compeer and a frequent competitor for the
Speaker's eye in Bentinck, who undertook the care of ships
afloat, whilst the Baronet looked after the dockyards. Between
the two the Government of the day had life made weary and
existence embittered. The only satisfaction to be derived by a
Minister from a contemplation of this worthy pair of old salts
was that they weie perfectly impartial in their criticism. What
a Liberal Govemment groaned under, a Conservative Government
would suffer from the day they were made competent by accept
ing office.
It was a knowledge of this fact whieh led Disraellj when

1877.] PEOEOGATION. 311
forming his Administration, to spend some anxious moments in
consideration of what he should do about Elphinstone and that
other Mariner known indifferently as " the Cap'n " and " Big
Ben." To have them seated below the gangway meant in
terminable and sometimes inconvenient discussions on naval
affairs ; to take them both on board the ship of State would
inevitably be to sink it. It was desirable to choose the lesser
evil, and so Disraeli, shrinking from the prospect of sitting on
the same bench with " Cap'n," offered Elphinstone office as a
Lord of the Treasury with a salary of £1,000 a year.
"There Is only one thing I'd like to say, Elphinstone,"
remarked the Premier, laying his hand familiarly on his shoulder.
" A Lord of the Treasury has nothing to do with dockyards, you
know." Sir James remained silent a moment, pondering over all
this meant. There fiashed through his mind memories of happy
nights when he was wont to beard the First Lord of the
Admiralty touching yellow metal for ships' bottoms, and hold
the House of Commons silent under the spell of his eloquence
whilst he denounced the false economy that imperilled the
British Navy by substituting Inch rope for inch and a quarter.
No more should he scan the Na-vy estimates with eager glance
in search of evidence that the Dockyard staff had been reduced
or increased — it did not matter which.
" Couldn't I," he said, in a tremulous voice, whilst a tear
stood in his honest eyes — "Couldn't I, when the Navy
Estimates come on, show how much better the dockyard is
managed under Ward Hunt than It was under Goschen ? "
DisraeU did not directly answer, but turning over some papers
before him, he said, as if speaking to himself, " I think I must
answer that letter of Bentinck's."
" Ah ! well 1 " said Sir James hastily, " I think you are
right. Perhaps it is as well to let the Dockyard question
sleep a bit. I shall be glad to serve my country as a Lord of
the Treasury."
"Mum?"" Mum ! " and Sir James walked slowly and sadly away,
went home, burned all his old copies of the Na-vy Estimates, and
made spills of the notes of what he had forgotten to say last
Session, and which he had hoped to use in the forthcoming year.

312 A DIARY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. nm.
He has kept his word to the letter. The torture has told
terribly upon him — aged him in the sight of all men. But he
has bome up bravely and calmly, forcing himself to sit silent
whilst other men, and more particularly the " Cap'n," have
discoursed at length, and with the regularity of the Trade wind,
on the cherished topic.
Only on Tuesday the " Cap'n " was on the old subject, and,
leaning on his stick, -with paper held in his left hand, frowned
all round the House, reiterating the inquiry, " Where are your
iron-clads ? " Moving round from side to side, he felt con
vinced that though an effete and badly -managed Admiralty
might fail to have brought an iron-clad down to the House,
some member, more alive to the true interests of the country,
would presently produce one from his waistcoat-pocket. .
The " Cap'n " enjoyed himself more than usual that night, re
velling In the knowledge that his old ally and successful conipetitor
for the mess of pottage has put his foot in it. After these four
sessions of steady silence, Sir James, alas I has broken out. We
hear sometimes of a man addicted to drinking who has taken the
pledge and strictly keeps it several years, becoming a comfort
to his family and an ornament to society. Then, one day or
night, being in famiUar haunts, and meeting well-remembered
cronies, he yields to temptation, and the unaccustomed alcohol
acts upon him with a maddening force that makes his last end
considerably worse than his first.
So it has been with Elphinstone. Through four sessions he
has been absolutely dumb. Last week he received permission to
forestall the recess, and hasten northward to loved Logic
Elphinstone. The sweet, strong air of Scotland, the sense of
freedom after long restraint, the contact -with congenial spirits
at the Farmers' Club — these were too much for the stoutest
spirit, the sternest -will. Sir James was induced to make a
speech. He began gently and cautiously, as befits a responsible
Minister of the Crown, But as the responsive cheers rang in
his ears, the blood began to dance through his veins with
dangerous vigour. His bent form straightened, his eye
brightened, his cheek glowed, the memory of far-off West
minster and the Premier's warning forefinger momentarily
grew more indistinct; and finally, like a war-horse who,
scenting the battle from afar, has galloped up to the skirts of

1877]

PEOEOGATION, 313

the. field and presently dashes in, so Sir James, freed from
official restraint, opened his mind and loosed his tongue on the
subject of the Irish members.
Nearly two years ago Sir John Astley, speaking under
similar circumstances, had referred to the Home Rulers as
"forty of the most confounded rascals he ever saw," Sir
James, further winnowing out the matter, denounced the ob
structive portion as "five or six ruffians," Whereat a great
shout went up towards the blue sky of Gairloch, and awakened
Sir James to the terrible consciousness that he had made a nice
mess of it.
And thus, on Tuesday night, whilst the " Cap'n " was growling
in happy Independence, critically scanning the House in search
of those ironclads which he is convinced are concealed about the
persons of members, A. M. Sullivan was giving notice of his'
intention to have Sir James brought up before the Speaker, and
that mildest of men, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was
frowning terribly at this new and unsuspected catastrophe,
" It is," he said to a member as he walked out after question
time, " a remarkably characteristic thing that, after all, the only
man who is likely to be censured in connection with the conduct
of the Irish obstructives is a member of Her Majesty's Govern
ment, and he is one who has not, throughout it all, once opened
his mouth from his place in the House,"
But matters have cleared off by to-night. Sir James,
alarmed at the prospect of having to travel all the way down to
London to answer the charge, forestalled judgment by writing a
letter of frankest apology, which Irish members, not liking to
miss a scene, and yet determined to leave town to-night, cheer
fully accept J and Biggar smiles as he walks out with dispro
portionately long strides, feeling that he leaves the House
without a stain upon his character.
Aug. 13.— Fight- In one important respect Her Majesty's Opposi-
Crown?'^ ^^^ *^°^ distinctly differs at the present juncture as
compared with its attitude at any former stage
of its personal history. Even at the end of last Session, when
gentlemen who had formed Gladstone's Administration had had
time to shake themselves down in their new quarters, the dis
tinguishing feature of the company of statesmen was the absence

314 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS, mn.
of a Leader. Some of the many who at the outset had backed
themselves for places had, indeed, begun to "tail off." It
had been borne in upon Shaw-Lefevre, for example, that
though a man of wide experience, infinite resource, and almost
violent volubility, there were lacking in him certain qualities
required in the Leader of an Opposition, and a proximate
Premier. Lyon Playfair, who had, at the outset, shown a dis
position to wrestle with Forster for the seat opposite the
brass-bound box conterminous with the position of Leader of
the Opposition, had retired, crushed in body If not subdued In
spirit. A cloud had come over the light spirit of Harcourt, and
KnatchbuU-Hugessen had found the necessity for admitting
that the time was not yet ripe for him to undertake the Leader
ship of the Liberal Party. But there still remained Forster,
Childers, and Goschen, who, vrith more or less awkwardness,
concealed the conviction that sinee Gladstone would not make
up his mind, and as Hartington disdained to push his own
claims, it might be their duty, severally and respectively, to,
assume the vacant post of Leader.
The present Session has seen an end definitively put to the
distractions consequent on this state of affairs. Whatever may
be its other failings, at the present time the Opposition possesses
a Leader whose personal influence is acknowledged on both sides
of the House. Few pages in modern political history may be
read with greater pleasure than that which records Hartington's
growth into the Leadership of the Opposition. The office was
thrust upon him in a manner which, though not intentionally,
was unmistakably offensive. The scarcely concealed impression
of the electoral body was that Hartington was the best possible
man, rather on account of negative qualities than of supreme
qualifications. He was a man who would do no harm in the
post, who created no personal jealousies, who was placed by for
tune above the meaner incentives to personal aggrandisement,
and who, moreover, cared so little about the distinction that
if presently Gladstone signified his Intention to return, or if
some other and more desirable Leader were to develop himself,
he might be counted upon to give up without a sigh of regret
what he had accepted without a smile of pleasure.
It would be too long a task to trace in detail the thorny path
he has trodden to reach the place he now occupies. He has

1877.1 PEOEOGATION. 315
known how to wait and endure, with a patience that may be due
to constitutional habit, but is none the less admirable. Without
observing any slavish adherence to the hours during which the
House has been in Session, he generally happened to be present
when it was necessary for him to say a desirable word, and he
has always managed to say the right thing at the right time.
He has, moreover, marvellously improved in ability as a speaker.
His contribution to the debate on the introduction of the new
disciplinary rules, was, in point of style and effect, perhaps, the
best he ever delivered in the House. As a Parliamentary speaker
he is at least on a par with the Leader of the House, and has
shown a capacity for improvement which, if it proceeds at equal
pace during the next two sessions, will give him a decided
advantage over Stafford Northcote,
One obvious assistance in acquiring this all-important Par
liamentary success is his ultimate conversion to the great fact that,
in all but very exceptional cases, every minute beyond twenty
occupied in the delivery of a speech undermines its strength and
tends to nullify its effect. In former times Hartington was ac
customed to drone through three-quarters of an hour of ineffec
tive wordiness, his strong common sense and clear views
struggUng to show their form under the wet blanket of speech
cast over them. Now he never takes more than twenty minutes
for his speeches, and often says all he has to say within the
limits of ten minutes or a quarter of an hour,
Mr. Gladstone's As the influence of Hartington has increased, the
influence of Gladstone, in the House of Commons
at least, has declined. There is a strong personal animosity
towards Gladstone existent in the House, and by no means con
fined to the Conservative benches. Indeed, bis bitterest enemies
are to be found amongst those who in former times were of his
own household. To this end he has contributed in lavish measure,
and vrith sedulous regularity, by an amount of restlessness, uncer
tainty, self-contradiction, and general recklessness of political con
duct positively appalling. The last thing that a man could count
upon -with any degree of certainty was what line Gladstone
might take on a given question. During the Parliamentary
session now closing he has been like a comet that has got loose
from the control of the solar system, and has dashed about the

316 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
political firmament In a manner that may have proved ex
hilarating to himself, but has been decidedly embarrassing to
others. His present position may be best defined by the fact
that whilst three years ago his retirement from the leadership of
the Liberal Party appeared to be a calamity never to be
recovered from, a proposition for his retum at the present time
would, if submitted for the approval of members who sit on the
Opposition benches, be voted do-wn by a majority of three to
one. Whilst the once great Leader has thus suecceeded in bring
ing about a fatal declension of his Parliamentary position, other
gentlemen who held prominent office under him have begun to
retrieve a personal position affected three years ago by the
general discredit of their party. Goschen is developing unex
pected powers as a smart debater, and as he is less tainted than
some of his fellows -with the disease prevalent on the front
Opposition bench of thrusting himself forward in debate, he is
always listened to with a respect and attention not to be dis
turbed by his odd grimaces and his apparent total inability to
give utterance to his thoughts on high political questions unless
he be comforted by physical contact of the edge of the bench
with the back of his legs,
Childers is still weighed down with the heaviness of his own
wordiness, and does all he can to hide his considerable, though
not first-class, qualities as a statesman behind the delivery of
long speeches unrelieved by the play of fancy, the fire of wit, or
even the use of ordinary emphasis, Lowe sits for the most part
silent, and always watchful, low down on the bench, in an
obscurity made illustrious by the companionship of Bright and
Gladstone, He does not often speak, but when he seizes the
opportunity he shows that he has • lost nothing of his skill in
attack, Forster feels the growing influence of Hartington, and
has during the current session moved at least ten Inches away
from the seat of the leader of the Opposition, which in the
earlier days of tenancy of the front Opposition bench he
determinedly appropriated, Harcourt has distinctly retired
into the background during the past Session, even abandoning
the pretence of regular attendance on the debates, though as he
often looks in after dinner, and is not prevented from taking
part in a debate by the consciousness that he knows nothing of

1877.] PEOEOGATION, 817
the course it has followed throughout the night, his name figures
in undue proportion in the Parliamentary debates.
Of the rest there is not much to say, Baxter is quiet and
modest, and bides his time, KnatchbuU-Hugessen is fussy,
verbose, and patronising, ready on the shortest notice to give
the beneflt of his advice to Her Majesty's Government, or to
any private member who may not have asked for it. In these
respects he finds a rival in Shaw-Lefevre, one of " Gladstone's
young men," in viewing whom, as he glibly discourses on all
matters under the sun, one is tempted to doubt whether the
great services Gladstone has rendered to his country really
compensate for the evU accomplished by his infliction of
Shaw-Lefevre in a ministerial capacity upon the House of
Commons.
Aug. 14.— Proro- It is a happy conclusion of a complicated matter,
ga ion. that, after a Session in which there has been dis
played an occasional lack of dignity, and in which there have
occurred scenes that scarcely maintain the majesty of Parliament,
the business should be brought to a conclusion by the Imposing
ceremony of Prorogation by Commission. To the eye troubled
with reading the records of turbulence in the Commons, and to
the heart weary with watching for the return of the old dignity
of Parliament, there is something soothing and refreshing in the
sight of the five Commissioners seated on the bench before the
Throne. There is a sense of security about the scarlet gowns
slashed with ermine, and a measure of comfort ab9ut the cocked
hats, which atone for much former uncertainty and earlier
wrestling with Obstiruction.
My Lord Skelmersdale, having an abundant beard of
slightly reddish tint, doth not, perhaps, altogether become the
scarlet gown. But my Lord the Marquis of Salisbury, with
his strong black beard disposed over the scarlet tippet, and
his dark eyes flashing beneath the cornice of his cocked hat,
looks better and more imposing than any beadle I ever saw
in similar costume. One is accustomed to see the Lord Chan
cellor in wig and gown, and a change of colour or of shape
of head-gear is neither here nor there. Also the Duke of
Richmond is one of those amiable-looking gentlemen of not very
strongly-marked personality, who are invaluable in private

318 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm.
theatricals, and serve equally well in the parts of the indignant
father, the gratifled bridegroom, or the stolid serving-man. His
Grace bears his honours meekly, as does Lord Harrowby, though
there is rather a tendency, on the part of his Lordship, to slink a
little behind the Duke, and so get out of the line of sight of the
bevy of ladies who cluster on the Opposition Benches, and
mercilessly quiz the unwomanly wearers of skirt and tippet.
For the rest, the chamber is almost empty. Redesdale,
faithful to the last, has come down on crutches to be present at
the ceremony of the Prorogation, and reposes almost at full
length on the otherwise empty Ministerial Bench. Two bishops,
arrayed In lawn, give an atmosphere of coolness to the benches
to the right of the Throne ; whilst four Peers are thro-wn out in
skirmishing order on the benches behind. Black Rod has been
despatehed to summon Her Majesty's faithful Commons, and in
the meanwhile the Lord Chancellor, putting up his eye-glass,
which he does in a manner carefully modelled after the Premier,
surveys the scene, and Salisbury violently essays to regard the
whole matter as a joke, though Skelmersdale, who is seated
immediately on his left. In full view of the critical assembly of
ladies, is not able to see matters In that light.
Black Rod, arrived at the Commons, found Bourke on his
feet, happily answering the last question that shall be put to
him this Session, either by philo-Russians desirous of eliciting
some information damaging to the Turks, or by philo-Turks
studiously bent upon showing that the Russians are no better
than they should be. It has been a hard Session for Bourke, and
also for his pocket-handkerchief, which latter, in bis endeavour to
frame an answer that shall convey as little information as
possible, suffers a good deal, being finally left hanging more
than three parts out of his breast pocket, to the great concern of
John Manners, who, In the aggregate, spends a good many
hours of the Session watching through his eye-glass this
acrobatic handkerchief, fearful lest it should fall, and marvelling
at the manner in which it appears to hold on.
There is a pretty large assemblage of hon. members, some of
whom, like McArthur — " the Father of Fiji," as Whalley caUed
him the other night — are charged with messages of comfort for
distant colonies. The Admiral is there, of course, cheery and
cheering to the last. He has been away for a few minutes, and

1877.]

PEOEOGATION. 319

now retums with news that Black Rod Is coming, and stands for
a moment fully prepar^ed to resume his seat, but waiting with
characteristic politeness till the member who bars his way to it
shall become aware of his presence. The member is deep in
thought, and does not see the Admiral. The Admiral goes off
at half-cock with one of his familiar coughs. The member drops
his legs as if he were shot, and the way is cleared for the
Admiral to resume his seat.
There is a full muster of Ministers, but Her Majesty's
Opposition are already scattered far and wide, by hill and moor
and sea. Kensington takes the opportunity of sitting down for
the first time this Session, it is said, and finds himself in company
-with KnatchbuU-Hugessen, whose leadership is unquestioned,
even by Lyon Playfair. One figure Is absent that might well
be expected to show itself under the circumstances. Where is
Harcourt ? It is his fancy to play the part of the Parliamentary
Casablanca, and to be seen treading the deck whence all but he
have fled. He is like the " Minstrel Boy" who comforted the land
of song with the assurance,
" Though all the -world betrays thee.
One s-word at least thy right shall guard.
One faithful harp shall praise thee ! "
Or, perhaps, more correctly, he is the Mrs. Micawber of the
House of Commons, for it will be remembered that when that
estimable lady was in the habit of declaring to her husband that
she would " never desert him," Mr. Micawber answered with a
look of mild surprise : — " My dear, I was not aware that anyone
had proposed permanent separation." In similar mannerthe House
of Commons is politely surprised when Sir William persists in
these manifestations of untimely fideUty.
Only on Saturday, he played with great effect the part of
Mrs. Micawber. The House met on that day to transact the
formal business which it was prepared to accomplish, and
straightway separate. But Sir William tumed up, and insisted
upon thro-wing his arms round the neck of the House (of course
in a Parliamentary sense) and sobbing on its shoulder : "I will
never desert you." Other members might have gone home con
soling themselves with the notion that the year's debates were
over. Not so the faithful member for Oxford. The time ap-

320 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1877.
peared to him most opportune for raising a debate on Inter
national law, just by way of showing to the House how tireless
was his care for its interest, and how implacable his determination
never to desert it.
Here was another, and even a better, chance for Casablanca.
A speech on British policy in India ; on the limits of belligerent
right in the matter of blockade ; or on the application of inter
national law, in respect to the boundary line of Greenland, would,
any one or each in succession, have been very effective. Perhaps
Sir William took cognisance of the fact that the entrance of
Black Rod might interrupt and put a final end to a speech even
from him. However it be, he was not here to-day. Saturday
had seen Casablanca taking his last turn on the burning deck.
Since Saturday the one sword of the Minstrel Boy had been
sheathed, the one faithful harp had grown silent. To-day Mrs.
Micawber played the part of a deserter.
Sir William Knollys ha-ving, amidst breathless excitement,
safely encompassed his backward journey towards the door, the
Speaker rose, and passed with stately presence through the up
standing ranks of the Commons. The procession moved on In
due order, till it reached the broad gateway to the Lords, when,
like a regiment at the charge, its ranks broke, and a desperate
rush was made for front places. On the crest of the wave which
parted and made for the left gallery, Bourke was carried, coming
in first, with Henry Havelock second, O'Brien third, the rest
not placed. It is said that during the rush there was an
anxious moment, when it was feared that Fiji was about to lose
a Father. The Alderman got jammed up against a post, and
there stuck, uttering exclamations which it is only charitable to
suppose were scraps of the Fijian tongue. He was presently
extricated before the pressure had reached his bones, and on the
whole rather profited by the accident, getting nearer to the front
than he otherwise might have done.
The Five Figures who sat on the wooden bench before
the Throne, observing the presence of the Speaker, three times
lifted their cocked hats. Then the clerk of ParUament,
rising from the end of the table, advanced till he stood at
the side, and producing a large document, began to read the
Royal Commission appointing our trusted and well-beloved coun
sellors to the distinguished position they quite successfully

1877.] PEOEOGATION. 32l
concealed under the red cloaks. It was, as Mr. Pepys says,
" pretty to see " how, when the clerk, reading down the docu
ment, came to the name of one of the Commissioners, he turned
and bowed lowly towards the Five Figures on the form, whereat
one produced a hand from under the folds of the cloak, and,
raising it to the cocked hat, uplifted with stately sweep that
peaked incongruity.
The pink of politeness was reached later on, when the form.
of gl-ving the Royal Assent was gone through. At this juncture
another clerk in -wig and gown stepped out at the other side of
the table, when the procedure was literally as follows : The
clerk on the right hand of the table takes up a Bill, and turning
round so as to face the Figures bows low, the clerk on the
other side performing at the same time precisely the same
gesture, as if the two were connected by an axle and turned by a
single cogwheel. The clerk on the right, who is known as the
Clerk of Parliament, reads the title of the Bill, and then faces
to the left. The Clerk of the Crown on the other side faces to
the right, and the two being thus brought face to face, the Clerk
of the Crown chants,
" La reyne le veult I "
Then some one in charge, possibly the resident engineer,
giving another tum to the invisible wheel, the Clerk of Parliament
and the Clerk of the Crown simultaneously turn towards the
Five Figures, and bow down almost to their boots. The Clerk
of Parliament takes up another Bill and reads the title, after
which he turns and bows again, the Clerk of the Crown bowing
at the same time. Then they turn and face each other as before,
and once more there rings through the chamber the solemn
lugubrious chant,
" I/a reyne le veult ! "
Fancy this going on without intermission or variation for the
space of a quarter of an hour, add to it an aspect of settled
melancholy on the face of the Clerk of the Crown, and an ever
deepening sadness in his monotonous chant " La reyne le veult ! "
and some excuse may be found for the ladies, who, to the
number of sixteen, were before the ceremony was over, reduced
to a state of exhaustion through uncontrollable laughter.
After this, que voulez-voiis ? The Act of Prorogation was
read ; the Lord Chancellor declared Parliament prorogued ;
V

322 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. psTT.
Colonel Talbot shouldered the mace ; another functionary took
up the elegantly- worked bag in which the Grand Seal is supposed
to be conveyed ; the Lord Chancellor walked out in procession by
himself — and the Session of 1877 became a chapter in history.
" What a love of a bag for embroidery and things ! " one of
the ladies whispered, quite audibly, as, -with longing eyes, she
followed the departing figure of the gentleman who carried away
the receptacle for the Grand Seal.

SESSION 1878.

CHAPTER XXIY.
EEADY FOE WAE.
The Opening Day — Mr. Egerton^ — Mr. Rylands — The Admiral — Surprise — Re
lapse — ^Revival — Resignation of Lord Carnarvon — Movements of the Fleet
— In the Lords — Rumours of Lord Derby's Resignation — " In straits."
Jan. 16. — The The Session opened to-day, three weeks before
opemng day. .^^^ ordinary time, a circumstance which in these
exciting times deepened public apprehension, Tennant, who
seconded the Address in the Commons, went far outside the
beaten track in -the matter of uniform, crossing the horizon
of the House a brilliant meteor of bountfful gold lace, and
illimitable tags and tassels. But the crowning marvel was a
sort of supplementary jacket gracefully worn upon his left
arm. What this might be no civilian could tell. Pease, who
sat immediately opposite, was much exercised, and privately
communicated his opinion that Tennant, not being accustomed
to military uniform, had got in the wrong way, or had for
gotten to put his right arm in the sleeve. Beresford Hope,
standing by the entrance door from the lobby, stared aghast at
what he at first thought was a waif and stray from an invading
army of the ruthless Russ. No reference to information respect
ing Tennant's business pursuits could assist the inquiring mind.
When he is not moving the Address, he is a flax spinner. But,
plainly, this could not be the office dress of a gentleman who
owns a flax mill, Wilfrid Lawson says it is the "unexpected
occurrence" referred to in the Queen's Speech, the precise
character of which has excited so much curiosity. However it
be, it was an impressive spectacle, calculated with happy oppor
tuneness, to show to -^homsoever it may concem, that the
martial spirit is not dead in EngUshmen, and that in the hour
of danger, a hundred thousand unfforms more or less like that
v2

324 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
which blazed on the bosom of Tennant, would be immediately
ordered, Mr. Egerton. Wilbrabam Egerton, who, clad in the more
familiar uniform of the Yeomanry Cavalry, formed
the right wing of the compact force mustered under the flag
of the Address, had evidently bestowed a good deal of pains
upon his speech. For nearly twenty years he has sat in Parlia
ment, and has hitherto failed to disturb the pre-eminence of
men like Pitt and Fox, or even Disraeli and Gladstone, Here
was a chance at last for the honour of the Egertons, and the
glory of the Cheshire Yeomanry Cavalry, It behoved him to
make the best of it. Barring a tendency in the early part of
his speech for his well-considered sentences to "telescope"
each other — that Is to say to come into collision, and the-
front part of one train of thought to get mixed in the
middle of another — the gallant Captain did pretty well.
But salt was his ruin. Cheshire, it appears, makes, not only
cheese, but has considerable transactions in salt ; and it had
occurred to the mind of the member for the middle division of
the county that the occasion of moving the Address in reply to
the Speech from the Throne was a favourable opportunity of
offering a few observations on Cheshire salt. The core of the
Eastem Question, it appears, at least as far as India is concerned,
is to be found In the salt-mines of Cheshire. How the propo
sition is worked out Egerton did not make precisely clear. But,
somehow or other, it seems that, ff ships go out to India with
Cheshire salt, they can bring back wheat at ridiculously low
freights. From this circumstance will, in some manner, arise a
complete settlement of most questions on Indian policy, Russia
will be outflanked, Great Britain will be prosperous, and Cheshire
will be cheery. This, perhaps, does not look very clear when
written down on paper ; but It was straightforward enough in
the mind of Egerton.
All .this while Tennant, with his right arm thrown negli
gently over the back of the seat, and the supplementary jacket
worn on his left arm displayed so that the Speaker might with
greater accuracy observe the seams in the back, sat in gloomy
silence waiting the hour when his turn should come, Egerton
had plainly got into a pickle on the salt question, and who

1878.] EEADY FOB WAB. 325
should say what might be his fate ? When the moment came
he met it gallantly, dashing into the middle of his speech with a
soldierly nonchalance which well became his martial attire. He
certainly had the better of his companion in distress. But on
the whole the performance was not calculated to raise the spirits,
nor may it be regarded as starting the Session of 1878 at a canter.
Mr. Rylands. It is a pity that circumstances make it impossible
for Rylands, for example, to move and, indeed,
to second the Address. He is always in high spirits. But his
manifestations of gaiety on such an occasion as the reassembling
of Parliament after the recess are perfectly overwhelming. His
satisfaction at finding himself once more in the House of Com
mons on the eve of a Session that promises to be unusually pro
longed, and opens up a long vista of nights when he may make
innumerable speeches, was quite touching. There were very few
members present between one and four this afternoon whose
backs were not punched, whose ribs were not tickled, or who did
not hear Rylands' voice shouting in their ears. It is said by
statisticians that the shoulders and ribs of Hartington are the
only materials of the kind in the House of Commons which, at
some time or other during his Parliamentary career, Rylands
has not slapped or punched. Locke just escaped the infliction
by effecting a brilliant flank movement on the Post Office,
where he remained, apparently purchasing stamps but all the
while keeping a watchful eye on the boisterous economist, and
waiting an opportunity to get quietly away.
The Admiral His meeting -with the Admiral this afternoon
was quite dramatic. The Admiral, who has
gro-wn thin and looks a little worn in consequence of having
for five months been deprived of the opportunity of sitting to all
hours of the night in the House of Commons, entered about one
o'clock and steered for his accustomed moorings behind the Trea
sury Bench. But Rylands, who had just effusively welcomed
Newdegate, saw him, and as a playful Newfoundland dog will
run towards a new-comer, and will leap upon him, fa-wning
and making believe he would bite, so Rylands descended on the
Admiral, and had slapped both his shoulders, and felt five of
his ribs before the gallant gentleman could cry " hear ! hear ! "

326 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1878,
The Admiral made the greeting as short as possible, for his
mind was intent on gaining his old seat, and this he happily did
before any one else had appropriated it. He placed his hat on
the bench as a ship drops anchor, and, being thus safely moored
and riding free, he felt at liberty to pay a few visits to his many
friends. But he was back in his place before the Speaker took
the chair, and throughout the early part of the sitting created
considerable diversion ou the Treasury Bench by insisting on
shaking hands with every Minister as he arrived.
These little things cast some liveliness on the earlier stages
of the meeting. But the tone of the mover and seconder of the
Address was more in unison -with the spirit of the evening.
There was, at the outset, an unusual feeling prevalent which, to
every one but Rylands, forbade indulgence in high spirits.
Members evidently felt the seriousness of the occasion, and
were anxious chiefly for the arrival of the moment when the
best or the worst should be known. There was not the eager
anticipation which in former times preluded a political crisis in
which the speaker on the one side used to be Disraeli, . and on
the other Gladstone. The business of the evening rested with
Stafford Northcote and Hartington, and men thought a great
deal more of what they would say than of how they would say
it. Gladstone was early in his place, looking as fagged as if it
were the end of the Session instead of the beginning, but still
eager and instinct with lffe, and occupied with correspondence.
Bright was there too in his usual place at the obscurer end of
the bench, making room at the upper end for Harcourt, who
sat with folded arms and a pleased expression of conscious
power. Hartington was in bad voice, but otherwise in good form,
and the fragments of his speech which were audible were full of
point. Whilst he spoke, Gladstone was busy taking notes;
and a chance expression thrown out, just above the salt, by
Egerton supplied him with a text for a speech, which, under
other and less happy circumstances, would have provoked a
tremendous dissertation on the British position during the
Franco-German war — its points of difference and its Unes of
resemblance with the present crisis. But Stafford Northcote
spoiled that speech, as he murdered in its infancy many
another.

1878.] EEADY FOB WAE. 327
Surprise. The House of Commons has of late been accus
tomed to surprises; but never has it been treated
to one so complete as this.
At twenty minutes past seven the House was overshadowed
by apprehensions of grave emergency which had almost passed
the region of doubt. Everybody knew or thought he knew
that supplies were to be asked for. The army was to be
placed on a war footing, and the na-vy was to be increased ;
the only doubt current related to the precise sum the Govern
ment were about to ask for. Hartington, sharing the prevalent
opinion, had framed his speech upon this basis, and, after the
resonant cheers with which the rising of the Chancellor of
the Exchequer was greeted from his own side had subsided, a
solemn hush fell upon the House, and all waited to hear what
might be words of doom. It was charming, under these cir
cumstances, to see and hear Stafford Northcote. With
Beaconsfield it would have been called acting, and he would
have been praised for his skill. But Stafford Northcote has
the great advantage of having inspired men with a conviction
of his sincerity, and, therefore, all the more complete and
unqualified was the success -with which he demolished the War
Spectre. As he spoke, demonstrating rather than protesting the
perfect innocence of the Government of complicity in any of
those heroic plans attributed to them by what he called "in
discreet friends," it was pretty to see how faces in the crowd
on the left of the Speaker brightened, and how a cloud of
doubt and distrust seemed to fall over the Ministerial benches.
No suppUes, no levying of forces — nothing at all !
The Admiral, who had lustily cheered his chief when he rose,
gradually subsided into a silence almost terrible to observe.
He shifted from side to side ; tried to comfort the left knee on
the rail before him after having suffered disappointment with
the right, and took a careful observation of the precise position
ofthe Chancellor of the Exchequer, to make sure that the words
and sentences he heard were really coming from a Conservative
bench, and above all, from the Treasury Bench. Finally, with
an audible sigh, he took up a copy of the Orders, and began
furiously to fan himself.
Never since Stirlingshire made itself immortal by returning
the Admiral to Parliament has such a scene as this been

328 A DIAEY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. nm;
witnessed. That, when Biggar is addressing the House, or
when some deluded person opposite is suggesting the possibility
of one of Her Majesty's Ministers committing an error of judg
ment, the Admiral should seize a piece of white paper, and, with
peremptory and contemptuous gestures, whisk imaginary flies, off
his nose, seems a proper and natural conclusion. But that he
should fan himself when the spokesman of the Conservative
Ministry is making a statement at an important crisis of the
Eastern Question Is an indication of the precise position of
affairs more eloquent than a page of description.
Jan. 23. — Re- The House of Commons has been uncommonly
^^^' dull throughout the week, a condition the more
acutely felt beeause we were specially invited to a more than
usually brilliant entertainment. We came to dance, and re
mained to fall asleep through sheer inanition. We were to
have had a fierce debate on the Eastern Question, and lo 1
Hypothec is already upon us ; our pathway lies along the Roads
and Bridges (Scotland) Bill; we rest a while in the Linen and
Yarn Halls (Dublin) Bill ; and the fiercest flash of passion that
illumines the Houses rises from the second bench below the
gangway on the Ministerial side, as Sir H. Drummond Wolff
looks across the floor to see if Sir Charles Dilke is in his place,
and would dare once more to bar the progress of the House
Occupiers' Disqualiflcations Removal Bill. Even the Major
feels the influence of the time, and the warrior who before the
Waterford Board of Guardians dashed the gauntlet of defiance
in the teeth of the Saxon, now, with tears in his eyes, craves
" pardon of every Englishman." Many Members, either unable
to endure the influence of the time and place, or perhaps feeling
that they might be more usefully employed elsewhere, have
gone away, and one familiar with the varying aspects of the
House would, if he were to look in now and guess what period
of the Session It was, surmise that Stansfeld was on his legs
delivering his annual speech on the rights of his fellow-women,
or that we were in the penultimate week, with all quarrels
adjusted and the Appropriation Bills on the Orders.
I do not remember at any time sinee he left us feeling so
acutely the absence of Disraeli. He introduced into the de
liberations of the House of Commons the element of surprise

1878.]

BEADY FOB WAE. 329

requisite to its perfection. Whilst he was in the House no
one could say what might happen. Anything might happen,
from the abandonment of a cherished Ministerial measure to
the announcement of the discovery of dangerous designs on
the part of the Republican party in Fiji. His very attitude
as he sat on the Treasury bench, with head bent down and
knees and hands crossed, was the final touch to the perfection
of the programme. He seemed comatose, or at least asleep,
and yet he was always -wide awake, ready to spring on Glad
stone or Bright, or on smaller fry like Harcourt, If, in those
days, a dull season befell, there was at least the conviction that
at any moment an earthquake might happen. But now the
House of Commons goes by clockwork, and, being wound up
at four in the afternoon, proceeds with depressing regularity
till it runs down.
Everybody knows beforehand what Stafford Northcote will
do or say, and Hartington is not given to oratorical tumbling
or political tours deforce. Gladstone has long ceased to interest
the House ; nor does Bright sway its passion as of old. Apart
from these, the only men on either front bench capable of
arousing the assembly from the depth of its dulness are Gath
orne Hardy on the one side, and Harcourt on the other. It
is true that new interest centres upon the Postmaster-General
since he thrilled the nation with that picture of a sword
surmounted by the lily of peace. But when Lord John
Manners speaks, it is impossible to associate his gently-
modulated voice and ladylike manner with the shout of
men-of-war and the shock of battle, Gathorne Hardy, by the
warmth of his own passion, and Harcourt, by his success
ful imitation of Disraeli's phraseology, can, under certain
circumstances, raise a crowded House into a blaze of excite
ment. But there must be occasion and a crowded House,
and neither seems possible just now. To Disraeli all things
were possible in this direction. He delighted, when the cur
rent was running most sluggishly, to dash in and kick about
the limbs of invective, taunt, and denunciation, till the smooth
surface grew ruffled and the ripples became angry waves.
But Disraeli has gone to another place; and, if it were not
for the Irish members, we might as well count the slow
minutes in a vestry-hall as in St. Stephen's.

330 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm.
Jan. 24. —Revival. It Is less than twenty-four hours since the above
was committed to paper. But a great gulf is
stretched between the House of Commons to-day and the House
of Commons of yesterday. The magician's wand has been at work,
and the listless, dull, emotionally decrepit assembly of yesterday
is transformed into an eager, intense, solemnly-earnest gather
ing. The little bird that flutters about the Reform Club,
the Carlton, and other places of political resort, had whis
pered that strange things were at hand, and thus the House
was, by comparison with the previous days, quite crowded
when the Speaker took the chair. Ministers looked grave ;
the Opposition were anxious; and Macdonald began to think
that if ever he was to be sent for by the Queen the time was
near at hand.
In brief, news had come that the Russians were marching
on GalUpoli, and might even now be thundering at the gates of
Constantinople. Stafford Northcote, rising hurriedly, and vrith an endeavour
to assume an air suitable to the announcement of intention to
bring in some little Bill referring to County Rates, or the
incidence of the Dog-tax, gave a momentous notice that ap
peared to presage war. Her Majesty's Government, he said,
felt themselves obliged to come to the House for exceptional
supplies. There was a cheer from the Ministerial benches,
whilst there followed on the Opposition side that peculiar
demonstration of feeling which French reporters simply, but
effectually, describe by the word mouvement. It was too early
by five minutes for Hartington to be in his place, and the first
interpellation came from Hanbury. Hanbury is a gentleman
with whom it seems impossible to associate ideas of rapine and
war. He is on the Conservative side what Kay-Shuttleworth
is on the Liberal. In truth there are between the two mem
bers strong points of resemblance. Both are tall, and neither
affects that superiority over the gentler sex which is indicated
by the redundant whisker, or the manly moustache. Both
have gentle manners, and both regard life as much too serious
a thing to be trifled with, even in Its lowest developments, or its
most commonplace phase. Both are of active philanthropic
tendencies, and In either the black man, of whatever persuasion,
would find a man and a brother. Both are essentially good

1878.] BEADY FOE WAE. 331
young men as opposed to the condition of strong young men ;
and both have the satisfaction of knowing that, though the
House of Commons vrill not give up its dinner in order to hear
them speak, whether the subject be the ventilation of wash-
houses or the condition of the negro on the remoter reaches of
the Orinoco river, it thoroughly respects them.
It will hence be understood that when Hanbury rose im
mediately after the Chancellor of the Exchequer's notice to move
a war vote on Monday next, there was some curiosity felt as to
what he might do in this galere. What he did was to ask, in
his grave manner, whether the Russian terms of peace had been
communicated to the Government ? Stafford Northcote, who
seemed terribly afraid of saying a word too much, tersely
answered that they had not. Then, in that odd way in which
big and little things are jumbled in the House of Commons,
Sampson Lloyd gave notice of a Bill to amend the law relating
to Bills of Sale. Hartington, having arrived, asserted his right
to the position of leader of the Opposition, temporarily assumed
by Hanbury, and categorically examining the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, drew from him a declaration of the determination of
the Government to seek an answer from Russia if need were at
the cannon's mouth.
In some Chambers, the French for example, such an episode
would have been followed by an adjournment of the House.
But the English are a great and business-like people ; and the
House, havuig assisted at something which nine out of ten men
were inclined to regard as the preliminaries of a declaration of
war, set itself calmly to consider the question of appointing a
Select Committee to inquire Into the best method of conducting
public business. Stafford Northcote, as leader of the House,
had charge of this motion", and he performed his duty with
characteristic imperturbability. But he made his speech as short
as possible, and, when it was finished, there came a hurried
messenger, who called out all the Cabinet Ministers. The House
watched their departure with growing uneasiness. Things must
be critical when a Cabinet Council should be summoned in the
middle of a debate. More and more Members drffted into the
lobby, where it was possible to talk, and where little groups
were gathered excitedly discussing events. Still the business
of the House must be carried on, and between thirty and

332 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1878.
forty Members remained to discuss the appointment of the
Committee. This Is one of the rare occasions when Charles Forster,
temporarily suspending his wanderings through the precincts of
the House, addresses the Speaker. Dodson, emphatically placing
his hat on the table, delivered a judicial summing-up of the pros
and cons, and was followed on the other side by Raikes, who had
previously undergone ten minutes' training in his private room
so as to enable him to approach the table, and address the House
without firgt calling " Order, order.'-* Irish Members had
marked the evening for their own, and had placed several
amendments on the paper, with the intention of improving on
the Government proposals. The intimate acquaintance of Irish
Members with the forms of the House, and their authority on
the subject, could not be questioned. But even they found it
impossible to get up a squabble within sound of the muttering
of what might prove a mighty war. Biggar described at some
length how "it seems to me, Mr. Speaker." But the en
couraging sound of dissent was lacking ; he presently subsided,
and a debate which, under other circumstances, might have occu
pied the best part of a week, was over in a couple of hours.
At this crisis, the staying power of Scotland, as compared
with that of Ireland, was triurhphantly demonstrated. Like the
French army, the Irish Members have dash and brilliancy, and
will fight all night, and far into the next day, ff they can only
secure a little attention. The Scotch are more like the Germans
in a memorable campaign. They do not make much preparatory
noise on undertaking their work. But they go at it steadily,
and stick to it persistently, regardless of extraneous circum
stances. To-night the Roads and Bridges (Scotland) Bill came
on for discussion, and, in presence of its supreme interest, as
involving tolls and county rates, what was the Russian advance
on GalUpoli, or even the occujpatlon of Constantinople ? Barclay,
in his harsh, dry, uninviting manner, which irresistibly -reminds
one of a field-gate at issue with its hinges, discussed the measure
at length and in detail. Ramsay had prepared a few remarks
on the subject, and was not to be deterred from delivering them
because her Majesty's Government had, at the last moment,
taken a somersault into the troubled sea of a spirited foreign
policy. George Campbell, turning aside for a moment his

1878.]

BEADY FOB WAB. 333

thoughts from India, took the House a Scotch mile and
a bittock down a somewhat uneven turnpike-road. Then
Yeaman, who was able to give a silent vote on the Royal
Titles Bill, felt his spirit stirred -within him at the sight of
the Roads and Bridges Bill on the table, and showed the House
how much it had to be thankful for when less exciting topics
permit him to maintain his usual habit of masterly silence.
Jan. 26.— Kesig- At times of political crises the House of Commons
nation of Lord j^^^g ^j^g advantage over the House of Lords, inas-
Camarvon. o p r
much as its business commences half an hour
earlier, and as on those occasions it is the custom to make identi
cal ministerial statements, the House of Commons has precedence
in learning the secrets of the Cabinet. To-night the House was
crowded In every part, not least in that portion of the gallery set
apart for the convenience of peers. Amongst the score of Lords
present was Granville. All the Ministers having seats in the
Lower House were in their places, and the only conspicuous ex-
Minister absent was Gladstone. He arrived two hours later,
and though he had not the opportunity of hearing the statement
made in either House, he had full reports volunteered to him by
various members.
Hartington, rising as soon as the questions were concluded,
was received vrith loud cheers from the Opposition. He had,
he said, several questions to put, which he numbered down to
six. In replying, Northcote somewhat indignantly protested
against the imputation that he or the Govemment should bave
been guilty of such a suppression of the truth as was involved
in the presumption, that when on Thursday they had given
notice of intention to move for a supplementary estimate they
had been in possession of the Russian terms of peace. " We
had'," he said, " no knowledge of anything of the kind." In the
course of Thursday evening a certain communication of a non-
official character was made to the Governmeht, which led to the
impression that peace negotiations had gone further than they
had suspected. Yesterday morning they had received a commu
nication from the Russian Ambassador, containing the heads of
certain bases of terms of peace. But what these heads were he
was not at Uberty to inform the House, as their communication
had been of a confidential kind.

334 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1878.
Movements of On Wednesday, he proceeded to say in further
the Fleet. reply to Hartington, the Government decided
that an order should be sent to the fleet to proceed to the
Dardanelles, to keep open the water-way, and so provide for the
preservation of the lives and property of British subjects, in the
event of there being any tumult in Constantinople. This an
nouncement was greeted by loud cheers from the Ministerial
side. But when he added that, in consequence of the mysterious
communication received last night, orders had been sent out to
the fleet arresting it at the mouth of the Dardanelles, cheers
broke forth from the Liberal side, and being answered from
the opposite benches, there ensued a scene, during which the
Chancellor of the Exchequer had several moments In which to
re-arrange his notes. On the point of Ministerial resignation,
the Chancellor of the Exchequer was not authorised to make any
statement. This covered the principal inquiries of Hartington, and it
being five o'clock, the hour at which the House of Lords was
opened, there was a sudden and simultaneous rush towards the
door in order to get places. Cries of " Order ! " on the part
of members who had no such intention, or who saw the hope
lessness of joining in the throng, were unavailing to calm the
tumult, and. the Chancellor" of the Exchequer hastily concluded
his speech by protesting that there was not a line In the in
structions issued by the Government which they would have
any objection to communicate to the House at the proper time ;
and, finally, that the supplementary estimate would be for the
sum of six millions.
In the Lords. The House of Lords proper was by no means
crowded ; but all the avenues of approach and
the galleries set aside for members and strangers were thronged.
The whole of the space behind the steps of the throne was
occupied, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Home Secretary,
the Chief Secretary for Ireland, the First Lord of the Admiralty,
and other Ministers whose dignity or whose business engage
ments had not allowed them to gain a place in the front rank of
the flying column, being content to stand on the outermost
fringe of the crowd. A little boy of some seven or eight years
of age had the place of honour in the front rank, and, hanging

1878] BEADY FOB WAE. 335
his straw hat over the rails, occupied himself with swinging
it to and fro whilst at a national crisis a Cabinet Minister was
stating the cause of his resignation.
This part of the House is reserved for members of the Privy
Council or the eldest sons of Peers, But Waddy, who comes
within neither category, had in the excitement of the moment
joined the wrong stream entering the House, and, undisturbed,
enjoyed the advantage of hearing the debate from this favoured
part of the House,
Shortly after the Lord Chancellor took his seat on the wool
sack. Sandwich rose and asked whether the terms of peace had
been received from Russia. The Premier replied that they had
not, though information had reached tbe Govemment which
justified them in countermanding the order to the fleet to enter
the Dardanelles. Carnarvon entered the House shortly after
five, and took his accustomed seat on the Ministerial bench.
As the Prime Minister resumed his seat, Carnarvon rose, and
commenced what proved to be a long statement, describing in
detail the history of his divergence from his colleagues in the
Cabinet, a divergence which he announced had resulted in his
placing his resignation in the hands of Her Majesty, who had
accepted it. Amongst much other interesting matter, Carnarvon
stated that, on the moming after his famous speech to the depu
tation at the Colonial Office, the Prime Minister had thought
proper to condemn very severely the terms in which he had
spoken on the Eastern question. Carnarvon had then defended
himself, and as no public denial of his position had been made,
he had felt himself justified in believing that he had not grossly
mis-stated the views of Her Majesty's Government. On the
12th Inst, the question was mooted in the Cabinet of despatching
the fleet to the Dardanelles ; but no decision was then taken.
On the 15th it was decided that the fleet should be despatched,
a determination Carnarvon strongly opposed, belie-ving that under
existing circumstances, " or anything like them," there was no
reason for active intervention on the part of England. The de
cision of the 15th was held over till Thursday, when, being carried
into effect, and Carnarvon being under the con-viction that the
Government were changing their attitude of observation for
one of menace, he sent in his resignation, which was accepted.
The noble lord was listened to with profound attention

336 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mrs.
throughout a somewhat lengthy speech, interrupted in one or
two places by Opposition cheers. When he resumed his seat on
the front Ministerial bench there was a brief pause, and then
Beaconsfield, rising, declared that he was not able to recognise
in the statement just made a sufficient reason for Carnarvon's
" quitting the counsels of his Sovereign." The personal portion
of the matter the Premier briefly dismissed, and proceeded to
show how " the charter of our poUcy is the despatch of May," in
which British Interests were chiefly, though not entirely, indi
cated. The object of sending the fleet to the Dardanelles
was to guard those interests. He repeated assertions already
familiar, to the effect that the policy of the Government had
never changed, and even — though, warned by a slight movement
on the Opposition benches, he proceeded to qualify the affirma
tion — that there had been no division in the Cabinet. The
Government were resolved to maintain the policy of neutrality
loudly announced and generally accepted. But if neutrality
meant that the honour and interests of England were not to
be vindicated and defended, he was no longer in favour of
neutrality. This last sentiment was loudly cheered from the
Ministerial benches.
Granville quietly observed that he did not rise for the
purpose of continuing the discussion entered into between the
noble lords opposite, but rather to put a series of questions.
These were identical in substance with those set forth in the
other House by Hartington and answered by the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, There was no notable difference in the answers,
except that Beaconsfield, elaborately replying that there was no
armistice, and that tbe Cabinet knew of no armistice, Granrille
asked was it possible that the noble lord had no knowledge of the
terms of the armistice, and yet had countermanded the order to
the fleet at the Dardanelles.
In a confused manner, contrasting strongly with his ordinary
easy almost jaunty address, the Premier explained the difference
between an armistice and proposed terms of peace. But he had
recovered his old manner when he came to answer the question
repeated by Granville as to whether it was true that any other
member of the Cabinet had resigned. It was, the Premier said,
one of the highest and most cherished privileges of members of
the Ministry that whenever they found it necessary to sever

1878.] EEADY FOE WAB. 337
their connection with their colleagues, they should make a state
ment on the subject, and that was a privilege upon which he
would not trench. Thus the debate ended amid hearty laughter,
and the House immediately thinning, presently adjourned,
Jan. 28. — Ru- Granville, seeing Derby in his place, congratulated
mours of Lord j.^-^ upon his restoration to health, and expressed
Derbys resig- ^ ^
nation. a hope that he would be able to afford the House
an explanation of the circumstances that had led
to the recent rumours of his resignation.
On the general question at issue Derby in reply went back
to the despatch of May as setting forth the policy of the Govern
ment, and insisted that from that policy the Government had
never swerved. The Government had not yet received the full
text of the bases of peace ; but they claimed, as other countries
would claim, a right to a voice in the final settlement. As for
the matter personal to himself, he briefly dismissed it with the
remark that a step had been decided upon by the Government
with which he could not agree, and had therefore tendered his
resignation. Within thirty-six hours circumstances had so far
changed that the Government were no longer bound to take
the meditated step, and he found himself able to withdraw the
tender of his resignation,
"In straits." The following verse is current in the House to
night : —
" "When Govemment ordered the fleet to the Straits,
They surely encountered the hardest of fates;
For the order, scarce given, at once was recalled.
And the Russians were not in the slightest appalled.
And every one says, who has heard the debates,
' It's the Cabinet now, not the fleet, that's in straits ! ' "

W

CHAPTER XXV.
A VOTE OF CHEDIT.
Mr. Henley — Mr. Forster— Mr. Cross — Some new Home Rulers — The Vote of
Credit — Dramatic Scenes — The Russians advancing — The Russians uot ad
vancing — Fresh Doubts — Mr. Edward Jenkins settles Matters.
Jan. 29. — Mr. New wrlt f or Oxfordshire moved in the place of
Henley. Henley, "father of the House of Commons."
The fact involved in this formal action was not unfamiliar, for
everybody knew that Henley had determined to bring to a close
his long connection with the House of Commons. But the
announcement fell Uke a shock on the crowded House, and was
borne with varied emotions. Some, a very few, remember
Henley when, already passing the line of middle age, he was a
constant participator in debate and an active power in the
House. Others, a larger number, remember him when, with
physical power fast waning, he still sometimes interposed in
debate, and might reasonably be expected to take part in dis
cussion on any subject with which he was more particularly
associated. With a third section, and this by far the most
numerous, Henley was the embodiment of a tradition regarded
with • respect and veneration, because it was Parliamentary
etiquette to do so, just as much as it is to bow to the Speaker
on entering or leaving the House.
For many years he has lived upon a reputation obtained
before the epoch of the present Parliamentary generation. In
spite of Reform Bills and Radical tendencies. Conservatism has
a wonderfully strong hold on the House of Commons, and new
members in particular are quite enthusiastic in their respect for
Parliamentary reputation. It was the new members who kept
up the laughter which to the last encouraged Bernal Osborne
in rudeness of speech. It was the new members of the last
Parliament who uproariously laughed when Locke was on his
legs, and It is from the new members that Henley has of
late years received the most respectful veneration. They
walked by faith, having nothing to sustain them but this

1878.]

A VOTE OF CEEDIT. 339

pathetic figure of a venerable man, saying nothing particular
in a quavering voice. But, as Bernal Osborne once made a
reputation for being funny, and as Locke, by means whieh it
is difficult to discover, managed to establish a character for
humour, so Henley comes down to the present generation
crowned with the bays of victories won when our fathers and
uncles were in Parliament.
Thus it came to pass that young members held their breath
when Henley rose, and deferentially bent forward to catch the drops
of wisdom which fell distilled from his lips. His Pariiamentary
success in days long gone by was acquired by the legitimate
influence of directness of speech, and the exercise of common-
• sense. He had a habit of lifting things off the lofty Parlia
mentary chimney-piece, and, holding them in his hand, he
would explain their true proportions, and call them by their
right names. Probably if he had sat on the Liberal benches,
he would have attracted no particular attention. But being a
country gentleman, a member for a county, and a Tory, there
was something notable in his original way of looking at things,
and in his abstention from circumlocutory phrase in describing
them. He crowned the edifice of his reputation when he
resigned a largely-salaried office on a question of conscience.
That was nearly twenty years ago, and since then Henley has
sat always in the same place — the corner of the second bench
behind the leaders of the Conservative Party — and must have
witnessed vrith curiosity, not unmixed with amusement, the
growth of his reputation and influence.
Of late years It has come to be part of the Member of
Parliament's creed to accept with veneration any axiom uttered
by Henley. If with slow enunciation and a voice which seemed
to be brought up from profounder depths than ordinary men can
compass, the member for Oxfordshire had observed that it was
" a fine day," a thrill of respectful marvel at his singular power
of discernment, at his curiously accurate observation, at his
native common-sense, at his direct way of putting things, and
at his sturdy independence of thought, would have vibrated
throughout the House, and the soul of the youngest member
would have been filled with admiration. In times past Henley
would have been the first to laugh at this fetish-worship, and
would have found a very plain word to describe it. As it was.

340 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1878.
he accepted it as a circumstance over which he had no control ;
and it must be recorded of him as among not the least of his
many claims to esteem and admiration, that he never abused the
honourable sentiment, and judiciously refrained from imposing
himself on a fatally willing audience. He has gone his way into
honourable retirement, and the feeling of the House of Commons
is akin to that with which members would learn that the mace
had gone astray.
Jan. 31. — Mr. The most Satisfactory phase of the Eastern
Forster. Question I have noticed for some time is that
to-day Forster has, to quote a familiar railway station advertise
ment, had. "a wash and brush up," If the future historian
would know how many times in the course of a long and useful
career Forster has had his hair brushed, and has taken some
pains to dissipate the dark suspicion whieh hangs about the
existence of his shirt-front, he would do well to count up the
number of occasions when he has come forward and made a-
speech on a critical Parliamentary question, Forster does not
care for these little vanities himself, but he feels that something
is due to a great party, and he would not have the prospects of
Liberal triumph obscured for lack of any personal sacrifice on his
own part. On ordinary nights his hair might be taken as a
symbol of the Liberal Administration out of office. To-night
the astonished fibres were combed and brushed till they looked
as smooth and united as a Conservative Cabinet with Carnarvon
driven out,
Forster possibly felt the advisability of paying unusual
attention to his personal appearance, inasmuch as the position he
holds to-night Is an exceedingly embarrassing one. He did not
expect a warm welcome from members opposite; and he had
too good reason to suppose that on his own side his Interposition
was regarded as an Intrusion. The circumstances were in some
respects analogous to those recorded in the Ingoldsby Legend,
when the manager of the Haymarket Theatre wanted to impose
" Fal-de-ral-tit " on an audience that hungered after " Fiddle-
de-dee," The Opposition thought that the occasion was one
when they might expect to be led into action by Hartington ;
and there was an uncomfortable suspicion that Forster had
shouldered himself into the prominent position he occupied.

1878.]

A VOTE OF CEEDIT. 341

Probably it may be that the suspicion is altogether groundless,
that Forster only accepted the position after a long struggle with
the unanimous desire of his colleagues. However that may be,
the uncomfortable feeling existed, and was only partially mollified
by the surprisingly tidy and highly creditable appearance of the
right hon. gentleman.
Mr. Cross. It is much easier for a Conservative to address the
House than for a Liberal. Liberals may be all very
well in their private relations. They may be faithful husbands,
good fathers, and desirable uncles. But they do not know how
to cheer a man who speaks on their own side. The Conservatives
do ; and the moral effect of good hearty enthusiastic cheering is
by no means immaterial.
It probably had an important influence upon Cross just now,
and is largely responsible for the extraordinary speech he de
livered. Cross is not what the impartial observer would call a
large man. He is an admirable Home Secretary, perhaps by
reason of the absence of certain qualities which become apparent
when he poses as a statesman.
It happened, by accident, one night last Session, that he
was put up to define the foreign policy of the Govemment. A
.clear-headed man, accustomed to group details and to marshal
facts, he evolved out of the confused heap of assertion, denial,
definition, and modification, a statement of policy so precise and
unmistakable that it has ever since been used as a sort of text
book. I have heard that no one was more surprised than
Beaconsfield when next morning he read' Cross's statement on
the foreign policy of the Government. He had no idea that,
being reduced to plain language, it meant just that. Being
dravm out in convenient form it was well to adopt It ; and so It
has been accepted in Ministerial speech ever since. The personal
consequence to Cross was that he suddenly found himself in a
position which, in his calmer moments, he feels Providence
never designed him to fill. He went to bed a sort of superior
ehairman of Quarter Sessions, capable even of successfully con
ducting the business of the Home Office, and discovered, whUst
stirring his moming cup of coffee, that he was a statesman and
an authority on foreign politics.
He concealed his emotions of surprise, and has ever since care-

342 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm.
fully cultivated the science of statecraft. One flaw in his firsf
effort was that a naturally ingenuous mind, and a habit of logical
thought acquired in the course of legal studies, led him, when
he came to formulate the policy of British Ministers, to arrive
at a statement not altogether pleasing to intelligent country
gentlemen and to the more polished members of society, whose
gentle instincts find a natural alliance with the Turk. There
were some who even suspected the Home Secretary of being one
of those Russian agents who are sown broadcast throughout
England, and who have managed to work themselves even into
the highest official places. It was exceedingly annoying to a
man of his mental calibre and newly-budding ambition to have
the Opposition continually quoting his speech of last Session,
and insisting upon pinning the Ministry down to it.
Cross determined to change all that, and, to do him justice,
he has succeeded. I have heard many speeches by Cabinet Minis
ters, but do not remember any that equals, in respect of lack of
dignity and of true appreciation of the position of an English
Minister speaking on a question of foreign policy at a European
crisis, the one dehvered by Cross to-night. It was the cheers that
began it, and the continuance of the cheers that finished it.
The intoxication of the boisterous applause got into Cross's
head, and when, immediately after, W^ilfrid Lawson rose, I
really thought he was going to give notice to include unreason
ing party applause among the intoxicating influences, the
operation of which it is desirable to limit by Act of Par
liament, All the mannerisms that spoil Cross's speeches were
aggravated. The impressive but also, unfortunately, inaudible
whisper, with which he concludes a sentence intended to be
particularly striking; his sharp, jerky manner of looking over
papers, and his general air of self-satisfaction, a sentiment
that would find untimely utterance if he did not at convenient
pauses tightly close his lips — each found intensified expression.
Mentally, the Insidious stimulant had an equally disastrous
effect. The cool judgment, the fair speech, the honourable
interpretation of adverse arguments, all disappeared, and in their
place there was presented the spectacle of an ordinarily staid
Cabinet Minister dancing whilst gentlemen of the mental calibre
of Sir William Fi-aser and the Admiral piped.

1878.]

A VOTE OF CREDIT. 343

Feb. '1. — Some Callan has started a new paper in DubUn called
R^rs ^*""^ *^® Vindicator. With pardonable pride he sends
an early copy for the reading-room. Among the
contents is an alphabetical list of the Home Rule members. The
first name on the list is, properly enough, that of Mr. Butt, and
next in due order that of Philip Callan. Then follow less dis
tinguished, but not unknown, names, till near the end we come
upon the following three lines :
"WmHO'Snmvan,AMSullivan,"WHO'Leary,Nicholas Flour quiet. Indian com easier — New mixed
Ennis, Charles S Pamell, Richard Power.
Feb.*.— The Vote An absence of special interest in their own
of Credit. House afforded the peers an opportunity of visit
ing the other, in which they largely a-vailed themselves. By
haff-past four every seat in the gallery of the House of Com
mons appropriated to them was occapied, amongst the early
arrivals being Prince Leopold, the Crown Prince of Austria,
and Prince Christian. Just before five o'clock, whilst Glad
stone was among the early sentences of his speech, the Prince of
Wales, accompanied by the Duke of Teck, entered, and two
lords who had secured favourable places on the front bench were
dispossessed. The Princess of Wales occupied a place in the
Speaker's department of the ladies' gallery, which she has not
visited for many years. Among the peers who managed to
retain their seats, and who remained throughout the debate,
were the Duke of Argyll, the Marquis of Ripon, the Earl of
Rosebery, Lord Houghton, the Earl of Airlie, Lord Monck,
Lord Wolverton, and in the far comer, amid a crowd half within
and half out of the House, was visible the face of Lord
Carlingford. It is needless to add that the other galleries open to the
public were crowded to their fullest capacity. Lord Chief Justice
Cockburn, not discouraged by the dulness of Friday night's
debate, renevring his visit. As for the House Itself, it was fuller
than it has been on any night of this Session. Every seat on
the floor was occupied, whilst the galleries on either side were
filled to overflowing, members, who literally could not find seats,
standing in clusters near the doors.
There were very few notices, and the buzz of conversation

344 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm.
which always preludes an exciting or an important sitting in
the House of Commons prevented their delivery from being
heard. Gladstone, in anticipation of whose speech this magnifi
cent audience had assembled, was early in his place, and took
the opportunity of a brief interlude to submit to Bright, who
sat next to him, a selection from his voluminous correspondence,
which included many newspaper extracts and one or two Illus
trations. Even as he went through letters already in stock
others arrived, and were passed along the front bench till they
reached his hand.
A loud cry of " Order I " greeted the rising of Hartington,
and presently succeeded in quieting the conversation which had
hitherto been incessantly in progress. The noble lord wanted to
know whether Northcote was in a position to give the House
any information with reference to the terms of peace and the
armistice. Northcote answered that the only official information
they had received was in the form of a despatch from the
Turkish Foreign Minister to the Ottoman Ambassador in this
country, which was to the effect that on the Srd of February
the plenipotentiaries of the Russian and Turkish Governments
had signed the protocol of the bases of peace and the armis
tice, and that orders had been given for the cessation of
hostilities. This announcement was received with some cheer
ing, coming more particularly from the Opposition benches.
At ten minutes to five Gladstone rose, and was received
with loud cheers from the Opposition. He was careful at the
beginning to disclaim any intention of entering upon contro
versial matters, and expressed his desire of arriring, if possible,
at a solution of all differences and difficulties. These preliminary
remarks, spoken in a quiet and earnest tone, were met with a
mocking laugh from below the gangway on the benches op
posite, Gladstone, turning in the direction whence the in
terruption came, said —
" I am extremely sorry that before a. word has fallen from
my lips that should excite the susceptibilities of gentlemen
opposite, it has been thought necessary thus to receive the
sentiment expressed."
This rebuke was supported by loud cheers from the Oppo
sition benches, and for some time had the desired effect. In
reference to the part he had taken in the controversy. Glad-

1878.]

A VOTE OF CEEDIT. 345

stone took occasion to observe that whilst in the course of
his speeches he had never made an imputation on the motives of
any man, no speech had been made in which his actions were
criticised -without imputing motives to him — though he acknow
ledged an honourable exception in the case of Hardinge Giffard's
address to his constituents,
Turning to consider the proposal before the House, he asked
what was the object of the Govemment, and arrived at the
conclusion that it was described in the vague and now alto
gether irrelevant proposal that we are to protect British Interests,
For himself he described it as a perfectly unreal vote, emphati
cally declaring that there were no contrivances within the
regular way of business in which the Government could spend
six millions before the 31st of March, the time within which
the money must be spent. Drawing upon his own personal
experience, he stated that, in 1864, at the time when he was
Chancellor of the Exchequer, war against Russia was declared
in the latter end of March, From that time forward no effort
was spared by the military and naval departments to meet the
crisis, and they were so far successful that an army was sent into
the Crimea, and the battle of Alma was fought. After six
months of war the whole of the expenditure was found to be
within a few hundred thousands of pounds paid out of the ordi
nary revenues of the country. The cost of the Crimean War
was about eighty millions. The amount of charges Incurred in
the first half of the time, in twelve out of the twenty-four
months, was six miUions odd — as nearly as possible the sum they
were now asked to vote.
This statement made an evident impression on both sides,
and was followed by cheering from the Opposition benches when
Gladstone went on to demonstrate that it was hardly possible
for any ingenuity of extravagance to get any considerable
portion of six miUion sovereigns into payment before the 31st
of March, The vote was designed to create a moral effect, and
that might have been better done if the Government had
imposed taxes. He spoke in ironical terms of the great effort
made to enter into the mood of heroism, ending in a reso
lution to add six millions to the National Debt, It was the
duty of the House of Commons sternly to refuse to lay charges
on the people without proof that they were required.

346 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1878.
" Cannot you," he asked amid cheers, " express confidence
in the Government without charging the people?"
He thought they might, and after expatiating upon the
undeslrabllity of appearing as a divided nation, he proceeded to
show how it might be done : let the vote be postponed, with the
understanding that It might be brought forward again when
ever the Government felt the necessity. In the meantime an
Address to the Crown should be prepared, and presented in the
name of both Houses of Parliament, expressing a desire to unite
in supporting the action of the Government in the councils of
Europe. Having set forth this proposal in some detail and
sketched the terms of the address, Gladstone sat down, having
spoken for an hour and fifty minutes.
The reception of this proposal was very significant. Mem
bers on the opposite benches, more particularly below the gang
way, are, as was shown at the outset of the speech, exceedingly
quick to deride the ex-Premier, and even ostentatiously to scorn
his advice. They listened to this proposal with attention, and
so far from volunteering derision had not even answered the
cheers vrith which it was welcomed from the Opposition benches.
When Hardy rose there was profound anxiety to hear how
he would treat these overtures of peace. The House was not
left long in doubt. With something more than his usual rigour
he, after a few prefatory sentences, turned upon Gladstone, and
with uplifted arm and stentorian voice declared that those who
had within a few days addressed excited audiences outside the
House had no business to eome there, and with bated breath and
whispered humbleness talk of conciliatory measures. Having
demolished Gladstone, and growing more and more excited with
the cheers that burst forth from the now-excited Ministerialists,
Hardy turned upon Trevelyan, and held him up to contumely
and scorn as a man who had " dared to say " that Lord Beacons
field had never disguised his desire to plunge England into war.
" Let him," Hardy said, or rather shouted — " let him prove
that statement, or let it go under some category which it is not
Parliamentary to name I "
He would make no terms with the Opposition, declaring at
the end of a long speech, which contained matter already familiar
through much repetition, that " we have kept the peace, we
mean to keep the peace, and we ask you to assist us."

1878.]

A VOTE OF OEEDIT. 347

It was just eight o'clock when Hardy concluded his speech,
fully an hour beyond the time at which the House usually thins
in obedience to the call of the dinner bell, A score or two had
gone away when Gladstone had finished ; but on the whole the
House kept weU together, the Prince of Wales being among the
most attentive listeners. But now His Royal Highness rose to
go, and already, whilst Pease was on his feet making an endea
vour to continue the discussion, the floor of the House was
thronged with members hurrying out.
Feb. 7.— Drama- House again Crowded to-night, though not to so
tic scenes. ^^^.^ ^.^ extent as on Monday. The aspect of
the assembly was also different, and it was not difficult to sur
mise, from the eager attention paid to Ministerial statements in
any way touching the Eastern Question, that everybody was
anxiously awaiting an Important announcement. As soon as
the questions on the paper were disposed of, Hartlngtjon asked
whether the Chancellor of the Exchequer could give any infor
mation as to the foundation for the report current that the
Russians had occupied Constantinople.
The Russians Amid breathless silence, the Chancellor of the
vanomg. Exchequer, who for greater accuracy had brought
his answer written out, said that a telegram had been received
from Mr. Layard, dated the 5th Inst., which stated that, not
withstanding the armistice, the Russians were pushing on
towards Constantinople, and that they had compelled the Turks
to evacuate important positions on the line of defence. The
despatch added that the Porte was at the time " In great alarm,"
and could not understand the proceedings of the Russians. The
Ser-vians were also advancing. It was five days since the bases
of peace had been signed, and the Protocol had not yet reached
the Porte. The Russians had insisted, as one of the conditions
of the armistice, that the lines of defence of Constantinople
should be left open.
From the same papers the Chancellor of the Exchequer
read a telegram from the Grand Duke Nicholas at Adrianople,
stating that orders had been given on the 31st January to
cease hostUities, and Stafford Northcote could not undertake
to reconcile these statements. Lord Derby had that morning

348 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1878.
telegraphed to St. Petersburg asking for explanations, and
calling the attention of the Czar to his declaration made to
Colonel Wellesley in July, that he would not occupy Constanti
nople unless by military necessity.
Amid the buzz of excited conversation whieh followed on
the reading of these documents, Forster rose and declared he
could not deny that the aspect of affairs in the East had been
greatly changed by the information just given by the Chancellor
of the Exchequer. Whilst reserving to himself perfect freedom
in Committee, he now proposed to withdraw the amendment to
the vote of credit of which he had given notice. This proposal
was received with cheers, amid which were some cries of
" Negative ! "
Hartington suggested that Rylands, who was to have
renewed the debate, should forego his intention. Rylands, on
rising to reply, was greeted -with laughter and ironical cheering,
against which he warmly protested. An interruption now arose,
the Speaker noticing the new member for Oxfordshire, Colonel
Harcourt, standing at the Bar, called him up to take the oaths.
This done, the orders of the day were called on in usual form,
and Forster formally withdrew his amendment. In reply to
Rylands, the Chancellor of the Exchequer said he saw no
reason for adjourning the debate, which drew forth loud cheers
from the Ministerialists. The information, he said, was of a
more or less serious character, but it was nothing different from
what the Government had expected, and they would stultify
themselves by agreeing to an adjoumment.
Fawcett supported the suggestion for an adjournment, which
was opposed by Watkin Williams, who hoped that the House at
this critical moment would not display the melancholy spectacle
of a divided nation. Hopwood, amid . cries of "Withdraw,"
expressed his doubts of the authenticity of the information
received, seeing that it came from Layard, an allusion which
called forth angry cries from the Ministerialists. E. J. Reed
and Joseph Cowen rising together, there were cries for the latter,
but he, yielding place. Reed proposed to " get rid of this question
of money in order to consider in a large-minded and magnani
mous manner " the only question this country ought to consider
— namely, its policy at the Congress.
Cowen rose again, and vrith him Waddy. But there being

1878.]

A VOTE OF CEEDIT, 349

again loud cries of " Cowen ! Cowen ! " the member for New
castle addressed the House In brief but impassioned sentences,
declaring, amid cheering from the Ministerial side of the House,
that when national interests were at stake patriotism and good
sense demanded that men should not be there as Tories, or
Radicals, or Liberals, but as EngUshmen.
" Let us," he cried, " unanimously vote this money. That -will
be the best answer to the Russian advance on Constantinople."
The House was by this time in a state of high excitement,
the patriotism of members below the gangway on the Ministerial
side running so high that they threatened to prevent the with
drawal of Forster's amendment, insisting upon the triumph
of haring it put from the chair and formally negatived.
Hartington, to clear up this point, asked Ministers what
they proposed to do, and intimated that if the amendment
were not allowed to be withdrawn he and his friends, instead
of withdrawing their amendment, would withdraw themselves.
Hardy thought that " as an unconditional vrithdrawal it would
be accepted." Recurring to the terms of the telegram which had wrought
such a change in the House, Bright pointed out that there was
very little in it that did not require confirmation.
"Our Ambassador at the Porte," he said, amid Opposition
cheers and laughter, "has been alarmed several times."
The movements alluded to were probably a matter of
arrangement between Turkey and Russia, and, therefore, in
no degree altered the position either as regards the interests or
the objects of this country. He thought the true interests of
the country, and the true dignity of ParUament, would be best
consulted by a cessation of the discussion till the House was
enabled to know the precise condition of affairs.
Whilst Bright was speaking a letter arrived at the Treasury
bench and was passed up to the ChanceUor of the Exchequer.
Whatever its contents might be, it evidently created a con
siderable impression on Stafford Northcote and his colleagues,
to whom it was immediately shown. As Bright resumed his
seat, the House being even in a more heightened state of excite
ment, owing to some reference made by him to the Crimean
War, the Chancellor of the Exchequer rose and intimated that he
had something to say of much importance.

350 A DIAEY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. mn.
The Russians A quick movement of members on both sides
not advancing. fgUo^gd^ as every one bent forward to hear
what was to be said. This brought about a renewal of
the solemn silence which had by exception prevailed when
Stafford Northcote answered Hartington's first question. He
now announced that he had just received from Lord Derby a
communication addressed to the Ambassador of Russia in this
country by Prince Gortschakoff, and which declared that there
was not a word of truth in the reports to which Count Schouva
loff had called the Russian Chancellor's attention.
Loud cheers burst forth from the Opposition benches, whilst
the Ministerialists sat silent and puzzled. The Chancellor of
the Exchequer expressed his regret that the circumstances should
have been of so dramatic a character, and repeated that the view
of the Government was in no way altered by these current
incidents. Harcourt asked, in the interests of the peace of
England and the world, what steps her Majesty's Government
would take to arrange for the receipt of trustworthy news with
regard to events in Constantinople,
The Speaker was about to put the question, when Fawcett
rose, and pointing out that the House was now in precisely the
same position as it was last Tuesday, asked what was the
intention of Forster with respect to his amendment. The
Ministerialists had now recovered their spirits, and' joined in the
loud laughter which this inquiry gave rise to, Forster promptly
replied that he thought on the whole it was best for his amend
ment to be withdrawn, and that the debate should proceed on
the proposal of the Government. Gladstone, who was received
with loud cheers, said the remarkable news they had heard
from the Chancellor of the Exchequer filled him with astonish
ment and dismay. The despatch of Mr. Layard, which had been
read in the earlier part of tbe evening, did not contain a word of
qualification. " If," he added, " the Ambassador is not right, he is
tremendously -wrong. If he Is right, the position of affairs is
greatly changed,"
Under these circumstances, he thought it was a very reason
able request that the debate should be adjourned for twenty -four
hours. In reply to a question from Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice,
the Chancellor of the Exchequer explained that the telegram

1878.]

A VOTE OF CEEDIT. 351

he had read from Prince Gortschakoff was in reply to a question
addressed to him by Count Schouvaloff, and of course he could
not say what were the terms of the question it answered.
Fresh doubts. A doubt of a frcsh character now prevailed in the
House, and members were audibly asking each
other which ramour did the reply of Prince Gortschakoff refer
to. Were they those that formed the basis of Mr, Layard's
communication, or were they others of prior date? The Chan
cellor of the Exchequer protested that he could give no informa
tion beyond what he had laid before the House, and he " only
hoped that the House would now proceed with the discussion,"
During the first half -hour of the sitting, the gallery allotted
for the convenience of peers was crowded, amongst others present
being Earl Granville, Lord Halifax, the Earl of Airlie, Lord
Carlingford, the Earl of Rosebery, Lord Northbrook, the
Marquis of Ripon, Lord Selborne, Lord Skelmersdale, and the
Duke of Argyll, These noble lords remained spectators of the
curious and animated scene till ten minutes past five, when they
hurried away to their own chamber, where they heard from Lord
Derby statements identical in form and almost in language with
those simultaneously made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
As soon as the business was over, the peers returned, and occu
pied In great force their former positions in the gallery. They
found the House engaged in discussing the question whether the
debate should or should not be adjourned — " squabbling about
little points," Peel described the proceedings in a prefatory
remark to a speech in whieh he at some length lectured
Gladstone and Bright for a statement understood by him to
have been made in their speeches.
In the course of the conversation Wilfrid Lawson created a
diversion by appealing to the First Lord of the Admiralty, who,
he said, had not yet spoken on the Eastern Question, and to
whom he desired to give an opportunity. He had two questions
to ask, first, whether, sinee the telegram from Mr. Layard had
been received, he had given orders to the fleet to go anywhere ;
and second, if he had done so, whether he had since sent an order
to recall it. The merriment created by this sally turned to
sudden gloom when Mitchell Henry rose and informed the
House that though Irish members had abstained from partici-

352 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
pation in the debate as long as it referred to Forster's amend
ment, gentlemen would be "very much mistaken" ff they
supposed that in Committee Irish members would longer preserve
silence. Eventually Forster's amendment was withdrawn, and the
debate was renewed on the succeeding motion that the Speaker
leave the chair.
Feb. u. — Mr. Vote of Credit up again to-night in final form of
Edward Jen- gj^] rji^ ^^^ j^^n the occasIon was a serious and
kins settles
matters. solemn one. Edward Jenkins had watched the
course of events with gathering gloom. A man
of large mind, philanthropic instincts, just judgment, and,
withal, of modest mien, he had hitherto sat silent and obser
vant. It was not for him to deprive other men of the credit or
the satisfaction of settling affairs. If they could do it, let them.
He had his doubts. But, at least, let it not be said that he
interposed hastily or withheld the opportunity. Thus he had not
spoken in the greater debate ; nor had he availed himself of
openings eagerly seized by lesser men during the supplementary
discussion. But now he might hold his speech no longer. The
Ministry pleased him not, nor the Opposition either. From the
moral eminence of his corner seat below the gangway, he looked
forth upon this little Parliamentary world, and, behold ! it was
very bad. No one could say he had not given it a fair chance.
But there comes a time when compassion is criminal, when
mercy is a mistake, and when justice must be done though the
heavens fall. Jove may not for ever vrithhold his thunderbolts ;
and here, with a sad, stern expression on his face, with left hand
partly hid in his trouser pocket, and right extended in terrible
denunciation, he now launches bolts upon a shuddering Ministry
and a shrinking Opposition.
It was piteous to see Stafford Northcote UteraUy clasp him
self in his own arms as the voice, issuing from the mask-like
face, thundered out the reference to an " invertebrate Ministry."
John Manners, who trembled Uke an aspen leaf, put his hand
behind his back, to see how far Jenkins's depreciatory expression
applied to him. Cross affected to read despatches ; Gathorne
Hardy furtively drew up a memorandum of instructions to the
Colonels, supposing things should come to the worst ; whilst W.

1878.)

A VOTE OF CEEDIT. 353

H. Smith, who has not yet been able to overcome his Iffe-long
associations with peaceable pursuits, went out of the House on
the base pretence of having to post a letter.
On the front Opposition bench, a natural hardihood stood
gentlemen in good stead. Gladstone, with his head bent back
and his eyes fast closed, feigned sleep. Hartington, with both
hands in his pockets, and his knees crossed, stared straight up at
the ceiling. But Forster threw off all pretence, and presented
an appearance of abject, hopeless terror that would require the
pen of Dant6 to describe, or the pencil of Blake to draw.
Partly owing to the fact that he sat at the end of the bench
nearest to Jenkins, and principally, perhaps, because a Quaker
parentage and an ingenuous mind forbade any of those tricks
which more or less befit others, Forster was not able to command
at a moment's notice the little artifices by which those near him
concealed their perturbation.
When Jenkins unexpectedly rose to speak, Forster was in
more than usually good spirits. On Monday night, Hartington
being, as usual, a little late, he had found an opportunity of
appearing as leader of the Opposition, and in that capacity
questioned the Govemment. To-night he had also arrived first,
and though Hartington, being in his place, put the usual ques
tions, Forster had secured the seat almost opposite the box, and,
by a few strategic contortions of the shoulders, was gradually
edging the unconscious marquis lower down, a task which, finally
accomplished, would leave him in full possession of the leader's
seat. But as Jenkins proceeded with his terrible denunciation,
Forster gradually became subdued in manner and limper in
appearance. His body slowly sank into the seat, and his legs
were stretched out farther and farther towards the setting sun.
Slowly his head dropped on his chest, till, before the indictment
was concluded, he was foreshortened in a miraculous manner,
the peers, from their position in the gaUery, ha-ring left in view
only a quantity of rough hair and a pair of legs.
It was a terrible episode, a thrilling scene, a perilous
treading on the confines of tragedy. If Jenkins had only
gone on for another quarter of an hour, he would, Uke Lamech,
have been ready to exclaim, " I have slain a man to my
wounding, a young man to my hurt." As it was, having used
up most of the bad words in the language, and observing that
X

354 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
the audience was gradually dwindling down to the vanishing
point, owing to continual flight of terror-stricken hearers, the
denunciation came to a close whilst there yet remained sufficient
vitality in Forster to lead to his restoration.

CHAPTER XXVL
LOED EANDOLPH CHUECHILL DEVELOPS.
Personal Prejudice— The Admiral in the Doldrums — A dual Peer — A dignified
Rebuke — Respectable Dulness — The industrious Apprentice — ^A nice Distinc
tion — Ash "Wednesday — The Major — Lord Randolph Churchill on Mr.
Sclater-Booth.
Feb.15.— Personal A good story has come to town with Colonel
prejudices. Moray, the new member for Perth. During his
canvass he called upon an elector and opened a conversation
designed to lead to the bestowal of his vote. The colonel
dilated upon the great merits of Lord Beaconsfield, and showed
how he had saved the country by his patriotic and spirited
policy. " Ay, ay ! " said the elector, " Beaconsfield is verra weel,
but that fellow Disraeli I couldna bear."

Feb. 21. — The The Admiral has never been the same man sinee
d^to^^!"*''^ the Fleet was ordered to return, after entering
the Dardanelles on its " first expedition to Con
stantinople, Long habits of discipline, and a natural tendency
to utter " Hear, hear," in stentorian voice, when he observes a
movement of the body of any gentleman seated on the bench
before him which appears to indicate that one of Her Majesty's
Ministers is about to address the House, are not to be finally
crushed in a month. Even now, the Admiral half lifted his head
and raised his voice, when, somebody on the opposite benches
having proposed that Cross should substitute the word " which "
for "that," the Home Secretary, on the part of the Govern
ment, finnly declined. But it was the mere ghost of a cheer
¦ — a sound such as one might expect to hear coming from
the look-out man of the Flying Dutchman, as he hailed a

1878.] LOED BANDOLPE GEUBCEILL DEVELOPS. 355
passing ship. The Admiral is truly broken in spirit and sad at
heart. He has not even sufficient spirit left to fan himself ;
and his copy of the Orders which in happier days presented after
a short debate a ragged and crumpled look, now lies beside him
as smooth as when it issued from the printing-press.
He sits, regarding in a sort of half-dream his old aversions
of past days. There, nearly opposite, is Parnell, sitting bolt up
right, and portentously watchful. A Uttle to his left sits
Biggar, who, with spectacles on nose, and a grotesquely wise look
on his face, is scanning the Bill before the House apparently in
search of the nominative missing from the preamble of his own
Voters (Ireland) BUl. Biggar very nearly brought the Admiral
round the other night, when he calmly prognosticated that, "within
a week or two, we should hear of the British Fleet in the Bos
phorus having surrendered to the allied Fleets of Russia and
Turkey. Biggar has recently added to his personal attractions by
investment in a prodigious waistcoat, made of material that bears
a more or less close resemblance to sealskin. He has an aggres
sive way of imposing this garment upon the House which, taken
in conjunction with so distasteful a prophecy, was more than an
irascible, though retired, sailor could stand. As he stood with
his coat thrown back, so that not an inch of the waistcoat might
be obscured, and as he pleasantly passed his hands up and do-wn
the woolly substance in search of the armholes, in which he
might thrast his thumbs the while he pictured a British Salamis,
there was a dangerous contraction of the Admiral's mouth a
fierce flashing in his grey eyes, and it seemed for a moment as
though Biggar was about to be boarded.
It was, however, but a flash in the pan — flashes which have
played forth once or twice to-night when Macdonald has thrust
himself into debate, leaving his aspirates behind him. But of
this also nothing has come. The Admiral of old is no more,
and, ff his pulseless heart were examined, there would be found
written on it the word, " DardaneUes."
Feb. 22.-A dual Lord Stratheden and Campbell is stiU smarting
under the rebuff he received the other night from
Lord Derby, and now, standing in the middle of the passage of
the gangway for the better convenience of carrying on those
gymnastics which accompany articulation, he is slowly g-vrating
x2

356 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
and bringing up from infinite depths the weighty words with which
he is freighted and would affright his hearers. If he were a
member of the House of Commons, he would be howled at. If
he were not a peer of Great Britain, noble lords who are too
frequently addressed by him would be inclined to give expres
sion in a mild form to their disapproval. But his lordship is
more than a peer of Great Britain, He is two peers — holding
the barony of Stratheden from his mother, and that of Campbell
from his father.
Regarded as a politician, the gentleman thus twice-blest may
scarcely be credited with average intelligence. Ever since the
political crisis commenced he has at brief intervals thrust himself
into its nice complications, has attempted to drag the House Into
inconvenient debate, to draw from Ministers damaging declara
tions, or to involve them in silence that might be misconstrued.
Lord Derby, driven to desperation by fresh outbreaks, plainly
told him the other night, that ff he insisted upon bringing on
discussion he should have aU the talking to himself. That was
a strong thing to say to a single peer ; it was an astounding
affront to offer to a dual baron. It has rankled in the noble
lord's bosom, lending an added solemnity to his lurch, and
making his speech increasingly slow.
Standing in the gangway, with one hand beneath his coat-
tail, and bis body turning from side to side In a slow, strained
manner, that almost suggests the sound of an unoiled crank, he
laboriously utters his protest,' He would lead noble lords, but
they will not follow. He would instruct them, but they will not
listen. He would form a faction which should split up parties;
but, though Lord Denman is understood to have offered to enter
into a treaty both offensive and defensive against a deluded
and contemptuous assembly, his overtures have been scornfully
rejected. So, disgusted alike with Conservatives and Liberals, Whigs
and Tories, Lord Stratheden and Campbell has formed a party
of his own. Sometimes Stratheden Is the leader and Campbell
the foUower. Sometimes Campbell leads and Stratheden is con
tent to follow. But whichever peer is predominant, the unity of
the party is never broken. Stratheden believes that since the
days of Pitt there is no man who has a higher, clearer, and more
patriotic notion of foreign policy than Campbell. Campbell,

1878.] LOED EANDOLPH CHUECHILL DEVELOPS. 357
on his part, believes that, as far as home legislation is con
cerned, whether it regards law or business, sewage or salvation
by clergy, there is no man In Great Britain who, for fulness of
information, soundness of judgment, and readiness of resource,
equals Stratheden. Thus they dwell in rare unity, comforting
each other amid the contumely of envio.us men, and holding
sweet converse together when the two front benches conspire
to impose silence on the House.
Feb. 24.— A dig- Lowthcr took hls Seat after re-election consequent
¦ ™^^^^'"^^^®- on acceptance of the Irish Secretaryship. He
had the better of the other Yorkshireman last week. In return
ing thanks for his election he indulged in some more or less
appropriate remarks on the crisis in the East. Continuing for
some time on this tack, a voice in the crowd called out,
" But, Jim, what about Ireland ? "
" Sir," said the new Irish Secretary, " I don't Uke talking
shop."Feb. 26.— Respect- Hubbard, member for the City, irreverently
ess. known in private conversation as "Old Mother
Hubbard," is the sort of man who would be invaluable on a
board of dhection, on the magisterial bench, or in the office of
churchwarden. He is advancing in age; for it is nearly thirty-
five years since he flashed upon an astonished country that
reinarkable but 'now unread pampElet on the Currency. But he
knows how to combine the virility of youth -with the stability of
old age. He Is the sort of elderly gentleman who can wear a.
breast-pin; and that, though a tri-vial circumstance, is an
incident worthy of serious consideration. He is always
dressed in black, which shows to advantage his almost white
hair and his bushy white whiskers. He lives in a constant
atmosphere of seff-satisfaction, which finds partial expression in
a certain swinging walk. He always looks as if he had been
cutting the coupons of bonds on which interest was yet regularly
paid. One feels a sense of security in his company. His
respectability is so strong and prevalent that it is reflected upon
those who sit around him ; and even Beresford Hope, who occa
sionally enjoys this advantage, looks three degrees less crumpled
than on ordinary occasions.

358 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
This attribute has so impressed people, that when Disraeli
was forming his Administration there were not wanting those
who pointed to Hubbard as the coming Chancellor of the
Exchequer. Disraeli, it is well known, gave up his association
-with O'Connell, because he felt there was a certain lack of re
spectability about the great Tribune ; and, knowing the Premier's
acuteness. It was thought he might be inclined to temper the
more boisterous elements of the Ministry by pitting Hubbard
against James Lowther and Cavendish Bentinck. But nothing
came of the rumour, and when Parliament assembled Hubbard
took up his seat below the gangway, carefully selecting the
upper corner seat, as indicating that though he threw In his
lot with the looser fish of the Party, it must not be expected
that he should do anything that was not highly respectable.
From this seat he rises from time to time and addresses the
House with great satisfaction to himself and to his son, a bud
ding statesman who represents Buckingham, and rather thinks
that the Ministry cannot last long, since it declined the services
of so great a financier as bis father.
It cannot be said that he is an entrancing speaker. He has
one of those weak voices often associated with extreme respect
ability. He seems to bring his voice In a glass vessel with
which he solemnly walks up the fioor of the House when he
is about to make a speech, and which he deposits with
some trouble on the narrow shelf of the bench before him. His
voice, thus materialised, assumes the aspect of a pale, weak,
indeterminate fiuid, and, of course, when it has all gone out of
the glass vessel, Hubbard Is obliged to bring his speech to a
conclusion. Thus members watch with profoundest anxiety the
glass as Hubbard from time to time takes In a supply of voice.
Their spirits rise in proportion as its contents diminish, and
when, after ineffectual attempts to drain out a last drop sufficient
to carry him over half-a-dozen sentences, Hubbard fails and sits
down, there is even a grateful cry of "" Hear, hear." Un
fortunately, Hubbard accepts this as a tribute to his eloquence
and erudition ; and only wished he had brought In another half-
gill of voice, so that he might further gratffy an appreciative
audience. But, if it cannot be said that he is an effective speaker, he
has his uses. He is something to look at — something to show

1878.] LOED EANDOLPH GEUBCEILL DEVELOPS. 359
to members of the American or the French Assembly, when
they come into the Speaker's GaUery, and expect to witness the
familiar sight of an hon. member -with his heels on the desk, or
two other members expounding the principles of perfect liberty
whilst they shake clenched fists in each other's face. It would
be a sad and appreciable blow to the House of Commons if, some
day, the City of London were to discover that there is nothing
in Hubbard, and to protest that it is not its business to supply
the House of Commons -with respectability.
Feb. 28.— The in- It was pretty to scc James Lowther standing
prenHce.^ ''^ ^* *^® ^^^^^ 3"^®* ^°^ moving for leave to bring
in a Bill relating to grand juries in Ireland. He
was plainly but carefully dressed. It was after dinner, and he
had so far yielded to the exigencies of social custom as to appear
in a dress coat. But he studiously abjured the white necktie, as
savouring of days of sin and nights of cock-crowing. The House
welcomed him with a cheer, which token of generous amity
caused a blush to suffuse his ingenuous cheek and added a fresh
grace to the neglige air vrith which he spread himself out over
the ministerial box, and plunged into his subject.
Lowther, as the House could scarcely fail to remember at
this critical moment, has always been a great authority on
Irish politics. Nine or ten years ago, when Gladstone was
carrying through the House elaborate schemes for the refor
mation of the Irish Church and the reclamation of Irish land,
there was no member who took a more lively interest in the
proceedings. In those days there was no reason why he should
not wear a white necktie ; and he very often did, though the
article was wont about one o'clock in the morning to present an
exceedingly limp appearance, owing to dampness induced by
the physical -rigour he threw into his statement of arguments
against the Bill. Not that there was much variety in the form
of the arguments. As far as I remember, they rarely went
beyond the cry of " Oh," or a prolonged chant of " 'Vide, '-ride,
'vide," sometimes varied by exceedingly able imitations of the
vocaUsation of the cock, or talented reminiscences of the unsuc
cessful articulation of the ass. These remarks, in which another
of Her Majesty's ministers, the Right Hon. Cavendish Ben
tinck generally concurred, were sometimes misunderstood and

360 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
misconstrued. At this distance of time, standing apart from all
prejudice or party rancour, one can recognise in them the
struggling of a great and intelligent mind, desirous of stating
its -views on questions of Irish policy.
It is doubtless to these early studies of Irish affairs that
Lowther owes the easy mastery over matters of local govemment
he displays to-night. To bear him talk of baronial present
ment sessions, county at large presentment sessions, and grand
juries, it might well be thought that he had spent all his life in
Ireland, and had even, like the Major, been a member of a board
of guardians. Some young men of high spirits and idle habits are apt to
regard the House of Commons as a convenient club with one
large room in which larks may be carried on. If any question
comes on in which they are particularly interested, they vrill
devote some measure of attention to it, and vrill be careful to
vote as they are bidden. But for the rest, Bills may come and
Bills may go ; but they dine out at their clubs, dally over their
cigar, and look in at the House of Commons at midnight to see
if there is any fun going on. Lowther took a higher view of the
duties of a Member of Parliament, and he has had. his reward.
If, in the session of 1869, any Member had risen and had fore
told that, within ten years, Lowther would stand at the table
a member of the Privy Council, and Chief Secretary for Ireland,
he would have been nominated for the next vacancy in Bedlam.
And yet here he is to-night, decently dressed in black, free from
the smell of cigars, and charged with the destinies of Ireland.
He not more than anyone else knew in 1869 what the fates
had in store for him. But, finding before the House a question
of the gravest Interest to the Irish nation, he set himself down
sedulously to study the question and master the details; and
now, when fortune suddenly calls him to the helm, he is found
capable of guiding the ship.
Feb. 27.— A nice Lord Truro has in him the makings of a great
distinction. orator. Interrupted the other night by precise
Lord Redesdale, on the ground that he had not given notice of
the question upon which he was showing a disposition to enlarge,
he said :
" My lords, my object is not to ask a question, but to inquire

1878.] LORD RANDOLPH GHUBGHILL DEVELOPS. 361
whether Her Majesty's government have had their attention
called to this matter ? "
Mar. 6. — Ash The House was to have met at two o'clock to-
® ^ ^' day ; but everybody is at church, and the serrice
is so prolonged that it seems as If there would be no sitting at
all. On the Opposition side there are a few men who, having
cut short their privilege, managed to get do-wn to the House at
two o'clock. But for fully twenty minutes the great Conserva
tive party is represented solely by James Lowther, who sits silent
and do-wncast on the Treasury bench. James would fain be at
church, where yet linger Cavendish Bentinck, Robert Peel,
Puleston, Holker, George Hamilton, Saul Isaac, Chaplin, Henry
Lennox, and many others. So complete, and in the highest
sense satisfactory, is this strict observance of church duty, that
in despair the Speaker gives directions that the Committee-
rooms shall be searched and members brought down to make
a House. Peter Taylor has not shrunk from suggesting that
this postponement for two hours of the meeting of the House on
Ash Wednesday, in. order that members may attend church, is a
farce. I -wish he could have been here to-day to note this
triumphant refutation of his suspicion ! It might be worth
Beresford Hope's while to move for a return of all members who
attended church to-day. This entered on the Order Book would
be a standing answer to the men of Belial.
The Major. One figure there was present from the earliest
moment. Seated in the modest obscurity of the
far corner Opposition benches, -with hat tilted over his thought
ful brow, sat the Major. For some weeks his presence has
been lacking to the House of Commons. Urgent duties, not
altogether unconnected -with the Board of Guardians, have
called him home. But he always answers to the trumpet-call
of duty, and when the day arrives for moving the second
reading of the Municipal Franchise (Ireland) Bill be sure that
he is in his plaee in the hated House of Commons. Owing to
the prevalence of religious fervour on the part of members,
the circumstances under which the Major presently rose to
deUver his speech were most depressing. As soon as a House
was made, members returned to the Committee-rooms, and it

362 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm.
was in the presence of less than a score of men that the
Major commenced his oration. Some would have taken a
base advantage of their opponent, and would have silently,
moved the resolution, leaving the adversary to speak to empty
benches, whilst they reserved their speech for a later period
of the afternoon, when the House would be full. But, partly
owing to the chivalry of his nature, and principally to the fact
that he had carefully prepared his speech, and would only be
bothered by the necessity of answering arguments that might be
delivered in the course of a debate, the Major plunged straight
way into his oration, and got along very weU till he directly
touched the subject of woman.
Since the earUest chapter of the world's history woman
has fatally influenced mankind, and she got the Major Into sad
trouble this afternoon. He began moderately enough, by ban
tering the Attorney-General for Ireland upon the prospect of a
curtain lecture. As the joke grew upon him the vast form of
the Major heaved with a volcanic chuckle, his left eyelid drooped,
and if he had been within arm's length of Gibson there is no
doubt he would have playfully poked him in the ribs. The
prospects of woman in her marital relations naturally led the
Major to regard woman as a class, and he diverged into a vin
dication of the virtue and beauty of the Irish women generally.
By steps, easy enough to a mind like his, but altogether bewil
dering to the House, this led him up to the Emperor of Russia.
What the Czar had to do with the Municipal Franchise (Ireland)
Bill, or what it had to do with him, is not clear at the first
glance. But to the Major it served as a basis of a burst of
eloquence, thunderous in its passion, beautiful in its language,
and well calculated to bring up the Speaker -with a mild but
effective rebuke,
" Are we," he inquired, in a loud voice, " Uving under a
Constitutional Government, or are we not ? " " One would
think," be added, " we were Uving under the knout — under
the sceptre of the perfidious barbarian of the north, the latest
filUbuster," The Major has a strong contempt for an assembly that wifl
not permit him to denounce the Czar in connection with a
proposal to assimilate the municipal franchise of England and
Ireland. But he had evidently made up his mind to control

1878.] LOBD BANDOLPE CHUECHILL DEVELOPS. 363
himself. His fierceness vanished at the sound of the Speaker's
voice, and having mopped his forehead with his handkerchief
,and found his spectacles (which in the excitement of the mo
ment had got on the top of his head) he, through the remainder
of his magnificent address to the House, roared them as gently as
a sucking dove.
Mar. 7.— Ld. Ran- It is nearly a century and a half since Pope wrote
doiphChurchiu tj^^ scathing essay on "great Atossa." But
on Mr. Solater- ° _ J =>
Booth. some of the lines come back to the memory to
night, when we behold great Atossa's grandson
by some removes ruffling the calm surface of Conservatism after
a fashion not witnessed since Mr. Disraeli wore ringlets and sat
below the gangway. It would not be right to say of Lord
Randolph Churchill that, like his great ancestress, he
"Shines in exposing knaves and painting fools;"
though he has not hesitated to describe Her Majesty's Govern
ment as deliberately designing a scheme of hoodwinking the
people, and has bestowed some pains on the portraiture of Mr,
Sclater-Booth. Perhaps Lord Randolph would not object to
take to himself a couplet wherein Atossa is described as one
" "Who, -ndth herself or others, from her birth.
Finds all her life one warfare upon earth."
He does not often speak. But when he does he says something
to attract attention. Only a few months ago, he appeared as the
apologist of Obstruction, and was acclaimed In some parts of
Ireland, as the only sober-minded and judicious member of a
Saxon assembly.
His earlier triumphs in the House having been gained by
his quaint and sarcastic defence of such corporations as Marl
borough when they have been attacked by Sir Charles Dilke,
Lord Randolph to-night permits himself the more exquisite
pleasure of attacking the Ministry amongst whose defenders
he has been counted, and scarifying poor, dull-witted, slow-
going Sclater-Booth. He has been accustomed to address
the House from the bench immediately behind that on which
Ministers sit. It is not without significance that to-night he
has taken up a position below the gangway — a proridential

364 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm.
circumstance, seeing that the Admiral is in his place. It is
fearful to contemplate the agony that gallant gentleman would
have suffered, supposing he found himself actually seated on the
same bench, or in the same quarter of the House, with a Conser
vative who more than hinted that the Government was a sham,
and that one of Her Majesty's Ministers ranked at something
below mediocrity.
It began on the motion to go into Committee on the County
Government Bill, Rylands moved its rejection, on the ground
that it was another step in the direction of centralisation, against
which he had protested when the Prisons Bill was before the
House, The motion was seconded by Randolph, who whilst pro
testing that he " did not want to say anything disagreeable,"
emphatically declared that he " had ransacked the whole arsenal
of denunciatory phrases and had not found any that adequately
expressed his estimation — or rather his want of estimation — of
the measure," Failing perfect success, he was content to
characterise the Bill as " Brummagem stuff," and as being
" stuffed with all the Uttle dodges of a President of the Local
Government Board when he came to attempt to legislate upon
a great question." He could make some excuses for the
Cabinet, for their thoughts had been occupied a long time in
other and more important directions. Some weeks ago their
minds were engrossed -with the difficulty of getting their
ships into the Dardanelles, Of late they had been considering
how they might get the ships out again. Amid this occu
pation they had consented to allow Sclater-Booth to come
down to the House and, with all the appearance of a great
law-giver, to endeavour to amend in his little way the British
Constitution. The effect of such Ministerial agency was seen In the
details of the Bill, which Randolph mercilessly criticised. As
for its general conception, he described it as " one of those
attempts to conciliate the masses by concessions of principles
dear to them, which concessions were immediately minimised
by the details of legislation. The Government thought that
they were deceiving the people, but the only persons deceived
were themselves." In conclusion, turning towards the mem
bers near him, he called upon them to rally round him whilst
he " raised the last wail of the departing Tory party, and did

1878.] LOBD EANDOLPH GEUBCEILL DEVELOPS. 365
his utmost to defeat this most Radical and most democratic
measure, this crowning dishonour of Tory principles, this
supreme violation of political honesty,"
Randolph had brought with him a sheaf of notes, which
presently got mixed up in inextricable confusion, and added
the charm of adventitious surprise to succeeding passages. His
oratorical attitude is not speciaUy graceful. Possessing a con
siderable collection of sheets of note-paper folded lengthwise,
it occurred to him that it would be an advantage, when
addressing the House, if he carefully inserted a sheet between
each finger. Having both hands full, he waved his arms about
somewhat after the fashion of a windmill. In moments of
comparative repose his gestures suggest that he is about to
perform some conjuring trick, and his confidentially conver
sational manner of addressing members aids the illusion.
But these eccentiicities of manner did not seriously militate
against the success of a speech full of clever phrases. What
added greatly to the enjoyment of the scene, for everybody not
personally concemed, was the contrast between the reckless youth
who represents Marlborough and the right hon. gentleman
who presides over the affairs of the Local Govemment Board.
Sclater-Booth Is a gentleman who acts as a foil to the more
daring selections the Premier made when forming his Ministry.
He is the sort of man of whom Conservative Ministries used
to be constituted in days gone by. A heavy person of pompous
appearance, facile of speech, and dowered with two names —
" Remarkable," Randolph observed in one of his many asides,
" how often we find mediocrity with a double-barrelled name " —
he obtained a minor office in the Conservative Government which
lived upon sufferance in 1867-8. As he was ex-Minister and a
pictorial representative of the bucolic interest, Disraeli, in a weak
moment, offered him office again, this' time as President of the
Local Government Board. In this capacity it has been Sclater-
Booth's duty to dine with befitting regularity, to walk into the
House when the di-rision-bell rings, and to sit bolt upright on the
Treasury Bench when any business relating to local government
IS stirring. He has no lack of speech. All he wants is ideas.
The very embodiment of officialism, the incamatlon of pros
perous head-clerkism, he lives his life and draws his salary
quarterly ; and though there is a general impression that he is

366 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
something more than "a dull man," it has never occurred to
any one to attack him till this rollicking young lord comes
down to the House, and amid a tirade of abuse of the Govern
ment to which he belongs throws him iiow and then a morsel
of contempt. "I have," said Randolph, amongst other magnanimous re
flections on the portly President, " no objection to the President
of the Local Government Board dealing with such questions as
the salaries of Inspectors of nuisances ; but I do entertain the
strongest possible objection to his coming down here, with all
the appearance of a great law-giver, to repair, according to his
small ideas and in his little way, breaches in the British Con
stitution." This is a word-picture which leaves little to be filled up. It
hits off in a few sentences the salient characteristics of Sclater-
Booth — his pompous appearance and his inadequate ability, his
supreme satisfaction with himself and the very different feelings
he inspires In others when an accidental impulse converges
attention upon him. Whether premeditated or not, whether
inspired by any personal feeling or by zeal for the State, it
remains equally true that the effect of this onslaught on the
pachydermatous President was infinitely more effective by reason
of its desultory character. Had Randolph set himself to describe
Sclater-Booth, as Pope set himself to limn the Duchess Sarah,
his endeavour would not have had equal effect. These little
darts shot out occasionally, their venom concealed by a careless
gesture, went straight home, and smote Sclater-Booth, as a man
who loved his dinner might be smitten if he found that, by some
mischance, the salmon was swimming in the soup, and the ice
had tumbled on the roast meat. He sat in his familiar atti
tude, bolt upright, -with head slightly thrown back, one leg
crossed over the other, and hands clasped before him. Some
times a scornful smile passed over his face, and sometimes he
made a hasty and angry note. But, on the whole, assisted by
bountiful nature, he was enabled to assume composure if he
had it not.
When, some hours later, he rose to reply, he observed that
the remarks made by Lord Randolph Churchill did not call for
a!ny notice — a matter on which, I am afi-ald, most people wiU
differ from him. Mediocrity in office, more especially if it has

1878.]

EESIGNATION OF LOBD DEBBY. 367

the prefix "Right Hon." and enjoys the assistance of a hyphen
in Its name, gets along safely enough through quiet times. But
it is a dangerous thing when a reckless youth comes by, and,
with audacious hands, thrusts pins into the stuffed figure.

CHAPTER XXVn.
EESIGNATION OP LOED DEEBY.

An Honour to the. Peerage— The Premier's Hat — ^Mr. Delahunty's Comb and
Brush — ^A " working man's member " — The Attorney-General's Fee — Ee
signation of Lord Derby — An Indian Debate— Lord Leitrim.

Mar. 19. — An Among members who yesterday heard the chimes
Peerage'" *^° ** midnight In company with the Speaker was
Lord Eslington. The noble lord generally is
about when there is any real work to be done. If he had
chanced to be bom in a humble station In life, and had
entered the City of London with the traditional half-crown
in his pocket, and not another, friend in the world, he would
inevitably have risen to be Lord Mayor. Being born the heir-
apparent to a peerage, and the son of a man who had won
glorious victories at the poll. Lord Eslington naturally took
to politics. He has sat for South Northumberland for just
over a quarter of a century, and has, I should say, done more
useful work as a private Member of Parliament than any
man of equal standing in the House. Constitutionally inclined
to regard life as a serious thing, he has never trifled with
oratorical prettinesses, nor lent himself to anything in the shape
of political " marching past." If fireworks were wanted, as on
the occasion of the administering of that direful check to Russia
— the creation of the Empress of India — Eslington was the
wrong man -to apply to. But if you want real work done in
committee or a practical judgment on a difficult question
delivered by a man whom the House of Commons thoroughly
esteems and respects, it would be a great thing if you could
win the approval of Eslington.
He is no orator. But he can make a plain statement on any

368 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm.
subject with which he is conversant, and he never speaks on any
on which he is only partially informed. Never once in the
course of twenty-six years has he been known to wander near
the confines of a joke when addressing the House of Commons.
To him, life is too serious a matter to fritter away inje'ux d' esprits,
and eternity too imminent for mortals to parley with puns. But
he has by no means a funereal manner, such as Newdegate wears
— Newdegate -who, by the way, is a man with the keenest sense
of humour, and not only thoroughly enjoys a joke, but even
occasionally with his own hand strews a few over the pall of his
speech. It must not be supposed that Eslington is morose, or
inclined to be a kill-joy. He simply thinks that there is a time
for everything ; and there is so much real business to be done in
the world that there UteraUy is no time for fooling, however
wittily or pleasantly.
His manner when addressing the House is indicative of his
constitutional habit of mind. He thinks out what he says as he
utters it, wrestling with himself the while, and you shall see him
as he speaks advancing and retiring, and enforcing vrith nervous
forefinger the points of his argument, and the proofs of his
experience. In a speech of half an hour's duration, It is probable
that Eslington literally walks a distance of a quarter of a mile.
But as the rules of the House prevent progress being made in a
straight line, he advances from the bench to the red line on the
matting beyond which no one but Plimsoll may stand when
addressing the Speaker, and he only on one leg. By long
practice, Eslington knows' precisely when he has reached this
limit, and without looking down to see how far he has trenched
on dangerous ground, he will retire and begin ^agaln with his
forward march.
He bas now, however, marched straight out of the House,
and will never more return. Yesterday he was the Hon. George
Henry Liddell, by courtesy Lord Eslington. To-day he is Earl
of Ravensworth, and will carry his good sense, his sound judg
ment, his kindly disposition, his generous impulses, and his true
philanthropy to the House of Lords, where, in truth, an accession
of these qualities is much needed. We shall miss him in the
House of Commons, and he -will, beyond doubt, miss that red
line on the matting, whieh has been to him a source of sustenta
tion and spiritual re-rival through many Sessions.

1878.1 EESIGNATION OF LOBD DEEBY. 369
If the Earl of Ravensworth is wise, he will commence his
attendance in the House of Lords by sitting on a back bench.
If he takes his usual seat on the front bench, he will, in the
course of the first ten minutes of his speech, inevitably find that,
in the absence of the famUiar red line, he has walked over to the
Liberal benches, where, indeed, he might well permanently take
up his place without danger of discovery that he is nominally a
Conservative.
The Premier's When DisraeU went to the House of Lords, his
*'*'¦ earlier moments of gratification at finding himself
a peer of the realm were chequered by a little difficulty with his
hat. He is a most methodical man, and when in the House of
Commons, having completed his saunter down the floor and
seated himself on the Treasury bench, the first thing he did was
to put his hat under the seat. When he went to the House
of Lords and seated himself on the Ministerial bench, he in
stinctively did the same thing, or rather attempted to do it, and
was confounded and perplexed to find that there was no space
under the seat. Several nights the Premier was observed
diligently pressing his hat against the unyielding frontage, and
it was fully a fortnight before he got out of the habit, and
acquired the new one of placing his hat on the table, where it
rests, one of a dozen which Redesdale meditates upon while
Stratheden and Campbell is addressing the House.
' Mar. 21.— Mr. De- We have been playing at Parliament this after-
in'dbrush!'""''' ^0011' ^^<1 ^ii^*'^ *^® *i™^e must be lost there are
few to whom the privilege of wasting it might be
conceded with greater pleasure than to Delahunty. He is,
everybody knows, a great Irish patriot ; and, brooding over the
woes of his country, he has found the golden elixir which shall
renew her life Uke the eagle's, drain her bogs, cleanse the Liffey,
mend the roads, settle the educational question, raze the Castle
to the ground, double the allowance of whisky in every family
having the full average of ten children, make the rent pay itself,
and keep off the everlasting rain.
An earlier patriot (one St. Patrick) had also a panacea for
the woes of Ireland. He aboUshed snakes. Delahunty would
abolish one-pound notes. How this charm is to work no one
Y

*
370 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
knows, probably not even Delahunty. But he has an immense
array of facts bearing impartially either on this question or some
other; and these he brought down this afternoon in a leather
bag, which he deposited beside him, together with a glass of
un filtered Water, the brown colour of which was a disgrace to
the Company that supplied it for domestic use. Standing at
the corner of the bench below the gangway, gracefully con
ceded to him by McLaren, who cannot understand how
Delahunty should get so muddled amongst figures, he com
menced to explain his scheme, and got along very well until
the comb and brush turned up.
It is presumable that Delahunty had promised himself, when
his task was completed, a few hours' relaxation in one of those
gilded saloons he Is in the habit of frequenting. In view of this
arrangement he had, after filling his bag up to the top with
papers, just found room to put in a comb and brush and a few
other articles of his toilet. Starting with a handful of papers
taken out of the bag, and finding they did not seem to lead
to the desired conclusion, he presently turned round, and, amid
an awful silence, dived once more into the bag. Of course the
first thing that came to his hand was the comb and brush. He
hastily thrust them back among the documents and made another
start with his speech. But, the fresh batch of papers also led
nowhere in particular, and Delahunty was fain to make up for
their Indirectness of argument by the use of exceedingly direct
assertion. Then he turned to the bag again, fearfully conscious
of the presence of the comb and brush. With increased dehbera
tion, and amid a pause prolonged till it almost reached the
length of the interval when the Speaker has gone out to tea, he
rooted among the contents, and finally, under the Impression
that he had at last seized the papers he sought, produced a pair
of grey worsted stockings. This seemed to approach the
question of one-pound notes from another avenue. In despair
he turned a third time to the bag, and, alas ! the first thing that
presented Itself on the top was the comb and brush. Growing
reckless, he took the things out In full view of the House,
and holding them In his left hand, deliberately searched with
his right for the papers.
It was at this stage that he enounced the emphatic reference
to the cause of Ireland's ills, and invited the House to assist him

1878.] EESIGNATION OF LOED DEEBY. 371
In abolishing " thim infernal one-pound notes." This was not
Parliamentary. But neither were the comb and brush nor the
worsted stockings; and the Speaker, with his customary wise
moderation, which knows not only when to reprove disorder, but
when to be deaf to a chance expression falling from a good man
struggling with adversity, balanced the one argument against
the other, and said nothing. Tbe House was equally tolerant,
and listened with high good humour to a story that had neither
beginning, middle, nor end, and through which the comb and
brush came and went as harlequin and columbine purposelessly
filt across the stage in the intervals of pantomime business.
Mar. 21. — A There is no surer portent of the near ap-
mlmto." '"'"''' P^o^<=^ 0* ^ dissolution than is to be found in
the sudden waking up of the member for Staf
ford. Night after night we see a figure rise from the front
bench below the gangway, and hear an aggressive voice utter
the formula : " Mr. Speaker, Sir, I begleaf to ask the
'Ome Secre'rary wether  " and so on, through some Ill-con
structed and strangely emphasised sentences. Aspersion ever
pursues greatness, and there have not been wanting, among ill-
natured local secretaries, remarks to the effect that " Macdonald
is getting too uppish." He has acquired a habit of introducing,
in casual (Jonversations, references to his friend " Heslington,"
"Dilke," and "Fawcett." He is known, moreover, to have
possessed himself of a suit of evening clothes.
These are matters which to the meditative miner supply
food for refiection. He has heard that Burt is a man held in
the highest esteem in the House; that he might, if he chose,
form Intimate personal relationships with its most distinguished
men. But he has never heard him mention " Heslington ; " and
his simple mind shrinks appalled before the attempt to conceive
Burt In evening dress. At the beginning of a new Parliament,
these doubts and hints might be borne by their object with
equanimity. But when events appear to shape themselves so
that a dissolution may take place any week, it is desirable to
show the miner that, whatever may be the aspirations of Short,
Codlin is his friend.
Accordingly we hear of Macdonald going about the country;
addressing Inflammatory language to honest working men, and
!f2

372 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1878.
endeavouring to convince them that their employer is their natural
enemy. He has even burst forth Into verse on this subject,
representing, with fine sarcasm, the employers of labour as
singing : — " "We have bought horses at thousands^
Horse-flesh as we like for to own.
Our credit it is painfully wretched.
Let us now give a terrible moan.
" The workers are a terrible nuisance,
They -will not go yet without bread.
These trade-union leaders "will epy on us,
"With one yell let us pray they were dead.-"
In the House of' Commons he eschews poetry and abides by
the " 'Ome Secre'rary." He uses strong language, such as the men
whose ears it is Intended to reach can understand. Accidents
in mines he calls " murders," and by implication accuses Cross
of being an accessory bef ore the fact. These are plain words, and,
being duly reported, together with indications of the reception
Macdonald draws down upon himself in the House of Commons,
will doubtless have the desired effect among men already heated
by the passionate poetry of which a sample is quoted above.
What the miner, or rather what some section of the mining
population, think of Macdonald, appears from the following
verse which an anonymous " Northumberland miner " recently
insisted, at the point of the pick, that his local journal should
publish : — "Noble Mac, who kindly feels
For those who toil iu the mine,
"Watchest o'er their wants and -weals,
"When they in their s'orrow pine.
" Noble hero of thy day.
The poor miner staunchest friend ;
"When false charges to him they lay,
His cause nobly dost defend.
"Let the tyrants in their rage
Thy fair fame try to deface,
Newspaper minions engage
To clothe thy name with disgrace.
"English miners, ne'er forget
The good he has done for you ;
Before his bright sun is set.
His path with flowers bestrew."

1878.1 EESIGNATION OF LOED DEEBY. 373
This is poetry. In sober prose, the miner meditating upon
Macdonald's mission in the House of Commons, doubtless pic
tures to himself an assembly of well-dressed, high-born, affluent
gentlemen, who in some indirect manner live by the sweat of his
(the miner's) brow. Among them, though set apart from them,
is one noble man attired in a threadbare garment scrupulously
brushed. With modest air, but with unflinching boldness, the
threadbare man rises and addresses the assembly, desiring to say
a few words for his distressed and down-trodden co-workers.
Then all the men in broadcloth gibe at him, and swear that they
will continue to Grind the Miner. The quiet, dignifled man In
the threadbare dress persists In his noble mission ; but is at last
overcome by the howling assembly, and is put out of Court by
the suborned Chairman, whom subsequently, and In considera
tion of his complicity, the members liberally supply with mugs
of beer, and to whom they promise to give a brindled pup free
of dog-tax. Ah, me ! I "wish the worthy miner might spend a week in
the House and watch his champion. In these days of cheap
excursion trains and of organised trips to London, -will no one
arrange that a delegation of miners may come and occupy the
Strangers' Gallery on some night when Macdonald is about to
manffest himself ? The British Workman has eyes to see and
ears to hear, and I will venture to say that the 'Ome Secre'rary
and the House of Commons would willingly accept the verdict
of twelve intelligent miners on the issue between them and
Macdonald.
Mar. 26. — The A good story; which has the advantage of being
rai'sTer*^''"'" *™e, is going about, and is to the credit of
Holker. As the Attorney- General was entering
the House on Thursday night he saw a stranger standing in
the corridor inquiring after a member. The member in ques
tion happened to be a friend of Sir John's, and desirous of
obliging him, he said to the stranger —
"Come along, I'll get you in."
The stranger followed, and Sir John passed him Into the
Speaker's Gallery. As he turned to go away the man held
out his hand, and before the Attorney-General quite realised
his position he found he was the possessor of sixpence. Sir

374 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. _ [1878.
John is very proud of the coin, and showed it to his colleagues
on the Treasury Bench, affirming that it was the most easily
earned sixpence he possessed.

Mar. 28.— Resig- The Housc of Lords was by no means full
nation of Lord to-nlght, and if there were either anxiety or
expectation on the part of its members the feel
ings were very successfully hidden. The front Ministerial
bench was only partially occupied, the Premier, Richmond, and
Salisbury sitting together in the centre. The front Opposition
bench was crowded, though there was a notable absence on
the part of Granville. The benches behind were certainly not
crowded, but they were fuller than on the opposite side. In
the galleries there were about a dozen ladies, near a group of
whom sat Schouvaloff, the Russian Ambassador, gazing intently
upon the gathering assembly. The members of the House of
Commons, taking the place by storm, filled, every available
comer appropriated to their use. At the steps of the throne
was the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and near him stood John
Manners, whilst the spectacles of Cross, who had rather missed
his way in the race, gleamed from the background of the host
of Privy Councillors.
Shortly before a quarter-past five Derby entered without
attracting any particular notice. It appeared, indeed, that
some minutes elapsed before he was observed to be sitting
below the gangway, a position which at once, and without
spoken word, announced the fact that he had resigned.
Carnarvon, it may be mentioned, rose from his usual place to
make his statement announcing his resignation, and resumed
it at the conclusion of his speech, deferring his removal to
other quarters till a later appearance in the House.
As soon as it was generally perceived that Derby had
taken his seat below the gangway, a quick movement was
discernible among the crowd of Privy Councillors on the steps
of the throne, and amongst the other and equally crowded
sections of members from the other House. Every man seemed
to turn to his companion to communicate the discovery, simul
taneously made, that Derby was no longer Foreign Secretary.
The noble lord lost no time in confirming this surmise, and
there was no circumlocution or introduction in his statement.

1878.] EESIGNATION OF LOED DEBBY. 375
" My lords," he said on rising, " I take the earliest oppor
tunity of stating that I have ceased to hold the office of
Foreign Secretary."
There was no demonstration amongst the limited and
scattered audience to whom this momentous announcement was
directly and formally addressed. But in the Strangers' Gallery,
where, to the despair of the attendant, everybody was stand
ing up, and straining every nerve to catch the words which
fell from the lips of the Foreign Secretary, there arose a
curious exclamation, like the drawing of a deep breath after
-witiiessing some perilous incident.
Derby went on to show how, under existing circumstances,
it would not be for the public interest that he should avail
himself of the right of ex-Ministers to explain at length the
causes which had led to his taking this step. The Cabinet
had arrived at certain conclusions of a grave and important
character, in which he was not able to concur. Those measures
he believed would not necessarily or inevitably tend to bring
about war ; but he could not regard them as necessary for the
safety of the country, prudent In the interests of peace, or
warranted by the state of affairs abroad. He added that his
objections did not arise from difference with his colleagues as
to the course to be taken in view of the Congress. More
over, he gave the fullest credit to the Cabinet for a desire to
preserve peace, in which he was at least at one with them.
" We agree as to the end," he said, " but unhappily differ
as to the means."
Derby spoke for about ten minutes, and contrary to his usual
habitude, closely followed notes. After a brief pause he was suc
ceeded by the Prime Minister, who, as In the case of Derby, was
received without any mark of feeling. The Premier commenced
by protesting, witb great solemnity of manner, his profound
grief at the separation from a personal friend, which the re
signation of Derby brought about. For a quarter of a century,
" an awful period in the life of any man," he had found a
friend and colleague in Derby, and it was a terrible wrench
to part -with him. But he found some gratification in the
reflection, that when national interests were Involved no public
man could be influenced by sentiments of personal esteem or
friendship. Derby had acted with great prudence in refraining

376 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1878.
from going into particulars as to the causes for the step he
had taken. But to prevent the public from investing the
step with unnecessary mystery, the Prime Minister thought it
jn-oper to state that, in " the hope of rectifying the disturbed
balance of power in the Mediterranean," her Majesty's Govern
ment had determined to call out the Reserved Forces. With
that- object a message would be forthwith laid before Parlia
ment, when tbe House would have an opportunity of con
sidering the policy of the measures and the conduct of the
Government. In the absence of Granville, Cardwell said he would follow
the example of Derby and abstain from entering upon debate.
Here the subject dropped.
April 2.— An In- To night India Is again the subject of discus-
dian debate. ^-^^ . ^nd behold the House of Commons!
Gathorne Hardy, who has just come up from Windsor after
receiving from the hands of the Queen the seals of office as
Indian Secretary, feels bound to be in his place throughout the
debate. So he sits there with folded arms and wearied look,
and promptly acknowledges the influence of the subject by
falling sound asleep. On his right hand, very wide awake,
is George Hamilton. A recent close personal association with
Salisbury has improved the young lord's natural tendency to
belief in Carlyle's dictum, that {other) "people are mostly
fools," and he listens with evident impatience and Ul-concealed
contempt to the remarks on India offered by such men as
Fawcett, Grant Duff, and George Campbell. George Hamilton
is just thirty- three, and from this splendid eminence of youth
he looks down with pitying scorn on the fripperies of fifty.
These two gentlemen, one awake and one asleep, represent
the measure of interest which Her Majesty's Government take
In India. On the bench behind is the Admiral, who, occasion
ally hearing the word " India," is reminded of hot climates,
and forthwith fans himself. At the corner of the same bench
Is Christopher Beckett Denison, who once held rule in Bengal
and the Punjab, and who naturally feels qualified to volunteer
his opinion whenever a night is set apart in the House of Com
mons for the delivery of essays on Indian subjects. Denison
is a heavy man, and withal acrimonious. He somehow or other

1878.] EESIGNATION OF LOBD DEEBY. 377
suggests the appearance of a judge without wig and gown,
and addresses the House of Commons as if he were sentencing
it .to a month's imprisonment and fourteen strokes -with the
birch rod.
On the seat behind Denison and the Admiral Is Smollett,
who sits vrith hands deeply set in his pockets, and hat pressed
forward on his forehead. He is evidently disturbed in mind,
having doubtless remembered one or two nasty things he
might have said about somebody, and which did not occur
to him when, just now, he addressed the House from below
the gangway. This is not Smollett's usual place. But, like
Ritchie, who also sits below the gangway but who has now
undisturbed possession of the third bench behind Ministers,
Smollett has gone up higher for company's sake, there being
not a single member on the wide waste of green-cushioned
benches below the gangway. On the opposite side matters
are slightly improved in point of attendance. There are, under
all circumstances, more intending speakers to be found on the
Liberal benches, and as speakers have to wait their tum, it
invariably happens that on occasions like this, when the House
of Commons is comparatively deserted, there are more men
on the Opposition benches than on the Ministerial side.
Two members occupy the front Opposition bench, both Right
Honourable. At the end is Lyon Playfair, conning over the
speech he wrote out yesterday, and which he will presently
recite for the Instruction and edification of the House. Next to
him is Adam, rare occupant of the bench where, as ex-Minister,
he has a prescriptive right to sit. Usually, the influence of
Adam's cheerful presence is diff'used through the lobby. But
the fact is he was In the lobby up to six o'clock this mom
ing, except when he was walking through the division lobbies
in the mechanical process of legislation, by grace of which
pubUc-houses in Ireland will presently be closed on Sundays.
Now he is fast asleep, thus establishing the balance of power
between the Ministry and the ex-Ministry, there being one
Minister asleep and one awake on the Treasury bench, and one
ex-Minister awake and one asleep on the front Opposition bench.
Adam's sleep Is destined to be brief. WiUiam Dyke enters
and stands at the bar a moment looking round the House,
calculating the chances of the count-out he will presently

378 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
arrange for. As his piercing glance sweeps the empty benches,
it lights upon the Opposition Whip, and a gleam of triumph
passes over his expressive features. He, too, was up all night,
and yet holds sleep at defiance — a singular instance of the
vitality of Conservative principles as compared -with the effects of
disorganised and disarmed Liberalism, Sir William walks down
the House, bound for the Treasury bench. But all the while
his eyes are fixed on the sleeping form of the Opposition Whip,
As he draws nearer, Adam, conscious of a subtle but powerful
influence, moves uneasily in his seat. He is dreaming that the
Session is over, that the 12th of August is eome, and that
among the heather-scented moors by Biair Adam he seeks the
gamesome grouse. Suddenly, just to the left of him there
sounds the well-known " whirr ! " and a splendid bird rises.
Adam is just bringing his gun up to his shoulder when his
hat, which has been at a dangerous angle for some moments,
topples to fall, and waking he finds the eyes of Dyke fixed
upon him as the Baronet slowly advances towards the Treasury
bench. Adam Is fond of sport. But he is an old bird himself, and It
is delightful to see how quickly he realises the situation, and
how sudden and engrossing becomes his interest in the copy of
the " Orders " he had held in his hand as he fell off to sleep.
Asleep ? Nonsense. He had but closed his eyes as he debated
with himself whether there Is any use in trying to keep a House
after Fawcett's resolution had been disposed of.
Behind the front Opposition bench is George Balfour nursing
his hat, that hat which plays so pathetic a part in his occasional
appeal to Ministers. Sir George, like Edmond Fitzmaurice, who
sits just behind, is waiting for the opportunity to make a speech.
But Lord Edmond acknowledges that ina debate there comes atlme
when a man who has prepared a speech Is wise not to insist upon
delivering it. This is a lesson Baffour has never learned;
and when an hour or two later George Hamilton has thrown a
few sentences at the head of Fawcett, and of other gentlemen
who presume to criticise the department for which this young
nobleman is (or was) officially responsible, Balfour rises, and amid
some murmurs and cries for a division, addresses the Speaker at
the rate of three hundred words a minute.
Sir George sometimes attempts to conciliate an impatient

1878.] EESIGNATION OF LOED DEBBY. 379
audience by holding his hat in his hand as he speaks, an arrange
ment designed to convey the impression that it is his intention
to make only a very few remarks. To-night he leaves his hat
on the seat behind him, and when the speech is finished un
wittingly but determinedly sits down upon it, offering it up, as
it were, as a sacrifice on the altar of India. Sir George, who is
highly susceptible to the jeers of thoughtless members who never
were in India, resolutely refuses to acknowledge this little
accident, and struggles to get the wreck of the hat out from
among his coat-tails -without attracting attention. This he
finally succeeds in doing, and carrying out his stoical intention
of making believe that nothing has happened, he lays the
flattened cylinder beside him without looking at it. Presently
he furtively draws it to him and straightens it out, the hat,
failing to appreciate the situation, returning to its original
cylindrical shape with a resonant explosion that awakens Adam,
who, having watched Dyke- out of the House, is just drop
ping off to sleep again.
On the bench behind, in addition to Edmond Fitzmaurice, is
Massey, who is at this moment addressing the House. Below
the gangway, in a corner seat at the top of the bench. Is Bazley,
who, in a limited audience, is an immense comfort to a speaker,
for Sir Thomas always sits attentive and looks as if he were
profoundly engrossed in the endeavour to understand and
appreciate the arguments addressed to him. As he succeeds in
maintaining this impression even when he is asleep, the comfort
is perhaps illusory. But that is a matter of detail. Just below
him, spread over two and a half seats, is T. B. Potter, pregnant
with the fate of Malta, Ceylon, and the Spice Islands of the
IiTawady. The bench below this is empty, and the front bench
has for sole occupants Robertson, who takes an interest in India
as a place for which railway material is often ordered ; and
Macdonald, who has secured temporary possession of Fawcett's
seat in the corner — a situation which he much affects, possibly
hoping to take in political economy at the pores, as Joey Ladle
imbibed wine.
This is the full tale of members. How many does It make ?
Just sixteen; seventeen, including the Speaker — seventeen hon.
and right hon. members, fifteen awake and two asleep, engaged
upon discussion of the vital interests of India at a time when.

380 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm.
we are told, our empire there is imperilled, and would Indeed
have long since vanished had not Lord Beaconsfield opportunely
made Her Majesty Empress. It is true there were more
members in the House just now. Fawcett was here, and
George Campbell, Grant Duff, Maclver, and Arthur Balfour,
were also in their places. But these, having made their speeches,
have gone their way, for it is not the least curious and significant
thing about an Indian debate, that, gentlemen having got
through their o-wn speeches are not under any circumstances to
be induced to wait and hear others. Thus as speeches accumu
late the audience decays, and if it were not for the fact that
l^resently members, having fortified themselves with dinner,
will look in to have their names entered in the dirislon list, a
debate on an Indian topic would reach what In connection with
Her Majesty's ironclads Is called " the vanishing point," and we
should find the last man addressing his observaatlons to Mr.
Speaker and the Mace,
AprU 3. — Lord There are a good many stories current about
ei nm. Lord Leitrim, whose cruel murder is the theme
of every tongue. Here is one I hear from a former neighbour.
Close by Leitrim's house is a small line of railway, leading on
to the main Dublin line. One day as a train was about to
start the station-master observed, at some distance down the
road, a man, dressed like a respectable cattle dealer, who was
waving his hat and shouting with the evident intention of stop
ping the train. But the time was up, and the station-master
could not delay. The whistle sounded and the train was moring
out of the station when the man on the road called out —
" Lord- Leitrim ! Lord Leitrim ! "
Leitrim was a man of autocratic habits, and accustomed to
rule with a rod of Iron. At the sound of this dreaded name the
station-master at once signalled the train to stop. It returned to
the platform to await the arrival of his lordship. Seeing the
train stop the man in the road took matters more leisurely, and,
finally arrived, walked into the station, opened the door of a
second-class carriage, and got in.
" Where is Lord Leitrim ? " said the station-master, peering
down the road,
" Sure I don't know," said the man, wiping his forehead.

\d \d

1878.] CALLING OUT TEE BESEBVES. 381
Presently it dawned upon the station-master that the name
of the terrible landlord had been used as a lure, and the train
went off with the ingenious cattle dealer.

CHAPTER XXVin.
CALLING OUT THE EESEEVES.

Mr. Newdegate addresses a Speech to himself — Calling out the Reserves — In the
Lords — In the Commons — "A gang of smashers" — Mr. Bourke's Disappoint
ment — Mr. Goschen on his Legs — Mr. Gladstone mobbed in the House of
Commons — Mr. Monk — Farewell ! — Sir Charles Adderley, Lord Beacons
field's Joke — Sir Charles Adderley retorts on Mr. Plimsoll — Mr. Gladstone's
broken Windows — A strange Story — A Panacea for the Eastern Question.
April 5. — Mr. Ncwdegate to-night inadvertently introduced
Newdegate ad- gome merriment into a discussion which had
dresses a speech i t i i
to himself. not been lively by unaccountably commencing a
speech with the address,
" Mr. Newdegate, sir. "
April 8. — CaU- In the conflicting interest of a great night in
mg out the Re- ^^-^ Houscs of ParUament, the Lords to-day
serves. ^ .j
undoubtedly bore the palm. At half-past four
the House of Commons was less full than usual. But the seats
were gradually occupied, and when, at about five o'clock, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, amid cheers from the Conserva
tives, rose to move the Address in reply to the Message from the
Crown calling out the Reserves, the House presented a crowded
appearance. Nevertheless, a large contingent of members had
gone over to the House of Lords, attracted by the prospect of a
speech from the Prime Minister. They filled the galleries and
the spaces by the bar, and such as were Privy Councillors con
gregated in a dense mass at the- foot of the throne. At five
o'clock Richmond was the only occupant of the Ministerial
bench, being faced on the Opposition bench by Argyll. Five
minutes later the Premier entered with a light step, bestowing
unwonted smiles as he passed through the crowd, swinging in
his right hand a smaU red despatch box.

382 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
The House now quickly filled up, amongst the peers who
entered being the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge,
who sat together on the cross bench. Derby entered just before
a quarter-past five, and seated himself at the corner of the
bench below the gangway, whence he addressed the House on
the memorable night his resignation was announced. It is a
long time sinee the Plouse of Lords was so crowded by peers.
But perhaps the most remarkable feature In the assemblage was
the overflowing attendance of ladies. With the exception of a
few gaps on the more strictly reserved seats to the left of the
woolsack, appropriated to the use of the diplomatic body, the
ladles thronged the galleries, fiUing up the gangways, and stand
ing In crowds in open doorways. The galleries over the throne
entrances were also crowded ; and amid the gilt turrets of the
canopy over the throne itself glimpses were caught of half a
dozen ladles dressed in deep mourning.
In the Lords.i Punctually at a quarter-past five the Prime
Minister rose, and was received by a slight cheer
from lords behind him. He commenced, in a slow, deliberate
tone, what proved to be an elaborate and scarcely informing
review of papers which have for some time been in the hands
of Parliament and the public. His object in this review was
to establish the assertion that throughout the negotiations Her
Majesty's Government, whilst most anxious to go into a Con
gress, as offering the best means of securing peace, had con
sistently and persistently demanded that the whole of the
articles of the treaty between Russia and Turkey should be
submitted, "That," said Beaconsfield, "has been the diapason of our
diplomacy," Coming down to the date of the Treaty of San Stefano,
which, he observed, had been signed on the Srd of March, and
communicated to Her Majesty's Government only on the 23rd,
it was a negation — he would not say a violation — of the treaties
of 1856 and 1871, Completed in secrecy, encircled in mystery,
when It came Into the light of day it was found that it abrogated
and abolished Turkey in Europe, substituting for the power of
the Porte the possession and the administration of Russia. Nor
was it different in Asia, the treaty working with the result of

1878.] GALLING OUT TEE BESEBVES. 383
making the Black Sea almost as completely a Russian lake as is
the Caspian Sea. Beaconsfield read at length the last corre
spondence between the English Government and Russia, in
which the demand for the submission of the whole of the articles
of the treaty was repeated. Russia's refusal destroyed all hopes
of a Congress, and not being able to secure peace and justice by
the aid of treaties and the weight of public opinion, the Govern
ment had to consider what was their duty.
" In the East," said the. Prime Minister, solemnly, " there is
but one step between collapse and convulsion."
It was impossible to say what might not happen. Why
should not the Russian army march through Asia and " throw
Egypt and the Suez Canal into a state of trepidation ? " When
all the world was armed was England to be disarmed ? The
Government had thought not, and the result was the calling out
of the Reserves. But Beaconsfield was anxious to explain that
this was not the last, but the first, resource of England, In a state
of emergency. " You could not," he said, " put a corps d'armee in the field
without calling upon'the Reserves."
In a short time we should have an army of 70,000 men fairly
disciplined. It was double the force that Marlborough or Wel
lington ever commanded. But it was not the full measure of
the strength of the Empire. That Empire, he informed the blush
ing peers, had been established by their ancestors. No Csesar or
Charlemagne ever ruled over such an Empire. Its flag floats on
every water. Its subjects people every zone. It is no mean
heritage. But it is not only to be enjoyed ; It is to be main
tained, and it can be maintained only by the display of the
qualities which had established it, the qualities of courage, disci
pline, determination, and patience.
" In the East of Europe you will find," he continued, sink
ing his voice to its deepest and most solemn bass, " some of the
interests of the Empire are imperilled,"
Raising both voice and arms aloft he protested in peroration
that he could not believe that in such a time there would be any
Englishman found .to dissent from the unanimity with which the
Address he now had the honour of moving should be passed,
Beaconsfield sat down after a speech of about an hour and a
quarter's duration. Loud cheers followed upon his impassioned

384 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
peroration, some ladies in the galleries opposite clapping their
hands, whilst the Strangers' Gallery was shaken with subdued
but prolonged applause. Granville followed, stating at the -
outset that he did not intend to move an amendment, and pro
ceeded to criticise in detail some of the steps which had led the
Government Into their present critical position.
In the Commons. Meanwhile, In the other House, the personal roles
had been reversed as far as the two first speakers
were concerned. Stafford Northcote had acquitted himself of the
task of moving the Address in a manner so quiet and a tone so
pacific as to offer a strong contrast with the magniloquent and
occasionally defiant language and bearing of the Prime Minister.
On the other hand, whilst Granville was almost mincing In his
criticisms, Gladstone, in a speech which occupied nearly two hours
in the delivery, set forth an eloquent and impassioned denuncia
tion of the policy of the Government, a policy which began and
ended by learing them in Ill-starred isolation. Even now, he said
amid loud cheers from the Opposition benches. Instead of going to
the other Powers and inviting their concurrence in representations
to Russia, the Government had elected to open direct negotia
tions with that Power, neglecting a proposition from Germany
for a- preliminary Conference, The worse the Treaty of San
Stefano" the more the need of a Congress, Where there was a
broad and long and straight path the Government had chosen to
conduct the nation along the brink of a precipice,
" If," he cried, amid renewed cheering — " If the Government
will so far humble tbemselves as to work with Europe, and not
without Europe or against Europe, my belief is that they -will
receive the support of a united people ; they will earn the
gratitude of a nation never slow to yield it, and they wUl escape
the immeasurable guilt of a causeless war,"
Amid the loud cheers which followed the conclusion of
Gladstone's address, the House temporarily broke up, leaving
Wilfrid Lawson to move his amendment in the presence of
about a score of members. This number was presently still
further reduced, Walter Barttelot speaking to an audience of
twelve members, including himself.
But whilst the debate at this hour drooped in the Commons,
the interest in the Lords was even Increased by the participation

1878.] CALLING OUT TEE BESEBVES. 385
in the debate of the late Foreign Secretary. Derby followed
Granville and his criticisms of the policy of the Government.
Propounding these two questions — What are we going to fight
about ? and what alUes shall we have ? — he, vrith respect to the
first, arrived at the conclusion that there was no practical provo
cation to war ; and with respect to the latter, he declared that
England would find herself without allies. Germany would
maintain an attitude of neutrality that would not be benevolent
towards Great Britain, France is not inclined to repeat the
Crimean war, " Italy is complete, and Italy is content ; " and
for Austria to declare war against Russia would be an exceed
ingly bold policy, as the result of an adverse campaign would be
to break up her Empire,
The Lord ChanceUor followed, and was succeeded by
Selborne, Carnarvon, and Salisbury, who gave remarkably
unqualified expression to the feeling of Ministerial vexation
at the speech of Derby, After some words from Kimberley,
the Address was agreed to, and the House adjourned.
In the Commons, Gathorne Hardy, rising shortly after
eleven o'clock, delivered an animated speech, directed chiefly
against Gladstone, every hit at whom was enthusiastically
cheered from the Conservative benches. Hardy spoke till the
half -hour after midnight had struck, and, it being mani
festly impossible to conclude the debate, it was by common
consent adjourned.
Apriia— "Agang Since the night when Plimsoll stood on one leg
of smashers." ^^ ^j^^ jj^^^g ^f Commons and shook his fist at
the Prime Minister, everybody knows that the member for Derby
is not endowed with abnormal faculties of reverence for authority.
But few suspect him of a sarcastic vein; and yet he said a bitter
thing to-night. Some members were remarking on the difference
in the tone of Beaconsfield in the House of Lords, and of Stafford
Northcote in the Commons, on moving the Address calling out
the Reserves — ^the one so warlike and the other so pacific,
" No," said Plimsoll, " there is nothing so strange about
Stafford Northcote's amiable way of putting things, A gang of
smashers always have among them one simple, ingenuous young
man whose manner and appearance enable him to pass their bad
coin."

385 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1878.
April 11. - Mr. Not Only has Bourke not been elected Common
p,rintmlnr*^" Serjeant of the City of London, but the office has
been conferred upon Charley ! Bourke had, not
without good reason, looked forward with certainty to his
serving his country in this fresh and elevated sphere. To be
Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs in her Majesty's Govern
ment is an honour; to be Common Serjeant of the City of
London is a glory. Moreover, he has long acquired a pro
found distaste for foreign affairs. He is sick to death of the
Treaty of KInardji, and the Convention of Kulchekarichow is
a weariness to him. With an equable mind like Derby's at
the head of the Department life would be endurable, only for
its questions. But to have Salisbury over one in the morn
ing, and in the evening to have members from all sides of the
House popping up and putting inconvenient questions, is more
than can be borne.
There never was, Bourke thinks, such an assembly for
wanting to know as the House of Commons, They are always
discovering that something has gone wrong somewhere; that
some canal, with a long name which Bourke cannot find upon
the map, has been dammed in the dead of night by an iras
cible Russian general; or that the Turks have been toast
ing a Christian in a village with fourteen consonants. And
then of late there are the Greeks, who will he continually
" rising." At the outset, aud whilst he was In one of the earliest phases
of distraction, Bourke hit upon the odd expedient of hanging
out his pocket-handkerchief till it held on to his breast-pocket
by the hem. This was generally understood to represent a flag
of truce. But it was all in vain. The flag was openly fired
upon, and after it had further complicated matters by several
times falling to the floor, and been picked up by John Manners,
Bourke gave up this simple and ingenious device. Now, there
Is nothing between him and his questioners but the table, and as
Wolff occasionally fires at him from below the gangway on the
Ministerial side, and as frightfully inconvenient questions are
sometimes put from benches behind him, the table is - practically
of little use.
This morning Bourke left his bed with the conviction that
before the sun went down he would be in a position to bid

1878.] GALLING OUT THE BESEBVES. 387
farewell to the Treaty of KInardji, and would be able to observe
the continued rising of the Greeks with the imperturbability
proper to the Common Serjeant of so important a community
as the City of London. To-night his hopes are crushed, his
castle in the air is levelled with the ground, and here, pour
comble de malheur, is a member wanting to know whether it
is true that British troops have been landed on the island of
Tenedos !
April 12. -jar. What a splendid prospect there is before Goschen,
Goschen on his j£^ preparatory to making a speech, he could only
be induced to wash his hands at home, to abandon
his hat to the temporary charge of the table, and to induce the
backs of his legs to forego the satisfaction of contact with the
edge of the bench. Hartington cannot always lead the Liberal
party in the House of Commons, and when he is translated to
another place, there must needs be a vacancy. The question as
to who shall fill it is one which doubtless many right hon. and
even hon. members have settled to their own satisfaction. But
to the unimpassioned and unprejudiced onlooker there is not so
much absence of uncertainty in the problem. Lowe Is, of course,
impossible, though he is a man to whom the mind turns with
most longing. Forster is "found out." Childers would make
a useful head-clerk, but might never be trusted with supreme
direction. And — and — that is all.
These be your leaders, O Israel ! and from such choice as
is supplied, and putting out of the question any dark horses
that may be stabled below the gangway, Goschen is the only
possible successor to Hartington. But what can be done with
a man who, whilst he is addressing the House of Commons,
will wash his hands with invisible soap in imperceptible
water; or, failing this, will nervously hold his hat in front
of him as if he were about to make an omelette in it ; and
who, in either case, will hold on to the edge of the seat by
the calves of his legs ?
" What can you expect from people who wear their slippers
down at t;he heels?" Lord Palmerston long ago asked with
respect to our friends the Turks.
What can you expect from a gentleman who thus uncomfort
ably disposes of himseff in view of the House of Commons ?
z2

388 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm.
April 13. - Mr. If any historical painter would occupy himself
Gladstone .^^^^i -placinff on canvas a scene In the lffe of
mobbed in the ^ " , .^ . . , .
House of Com- one of the most illustrious British statesmen,
here is a subject : —
Scene, division lobby of the House of Commons; date,
12th April, 1878 ; time, 9.20 p.m. Gladstone is walking along
the lobby, haring recorded his vote against a hasty proposal
to conduct the business of Parliament in secret. The Con
servative majority in the other lobby observe him through the
glass door, and suddenly set up a yell of execration which
could scarcely be more -riolent if the murderer of Lord Leitrim,
flying for sanctuary to Westminster, were discovered skulking
in the lobby. The crowd increases till it reaches the propor
tions of forty or fifty English gentlemen, all well educated,
many of good birth, who, with hand held to mouth to make the
sound shriller, howl and groan, whilst some even shake their
fists, Gladstone, startled at the cry, looks up and sees the
crowd. He pauses a moment, and then, advancing close up to
the glass door, calmly surveys the yelling mob.
On the one side the slight figure drawn to its full height,
and the pale, stern face steadfastly tumed towards the crowd.
On the other the jeering, mocking, gesticulating mob. Between
them the glass door, and the infinite space that separates a
statesman from a partisan.
April 15. — Mr. The House is discussing the vital interest of the
°" ¦ dog-tax, was ten minutes ago absorbed in considerar
tion of the national importance of an addition of fourpence a
pound on the tobacco duty, and has no thought of the momentous
event which is being quietly consummated. Andrew Lusk is
" wanting to know " every ten minutes, and is received with
cries of contumely by Conservative gentlemen who cannot
understand how a man can tamely subject himself to the
domination of so vulgar a passion as curiosity. Monk, -with
an added precision in his tone and an additional pinch of
starch in his manner, is delivering a few remarks about young
hounds, which J. G. Talbot listens to with a reverential air.
Talbot, Indeed, always does listen to Monk with a pecuhar
manner that suggests a consciousness of being at church. This
Is not to be wondered at. Early family associations, and

1878.] CALLING OUT TEE BESEBVES. 389
sedulous cultivation of natural gifts, have succeeded in envelop
ing Monk with a manner wliich irresistibly recalls the pulpit.
He delivers a few remarks on the dog-tax as if he were read
ing the First Lesson of the Morning Service, and when he
has addressed a brief speech to the Financial Secretary to the
Treasury, involving a criticism on the estimate for the wages
of the officials who light the fires at the public offices, mem
bers involuntarily turn to their copy of the Orders, half
expecting to find printed in italics, "In quires and places
where they sing, here followeth the anthem."
Monk is, indeed, a bishop or a dean gone astray. There
is an aggressive primness about him which would have been
Invaluable either in a small country parish, a cathedral town,
or on the Episcopal Bench. Having missed his way, how
ever, and finding his path lead him from the church porch,
he sometimes assumes an air of boisterous gaiety which fits
him as a shooting-jacket might become a dean who has still
retained the reverend breeches and the soul-subduing stockings
of his Order. Monk likes to hear the chimes at midnight, in
company with such roisterers as Dillwyn and Rylands. By
that time good Sir Thomas Bazley has gone home, and Monk
has slipped into the corner seat, the possession of which is the
mad ambition of an otherwise equable life.
Being here, enlivened by the sight of Rylands two benches
below him, Dillwyn watchful on the comer seat of the
front bench below the gangway, and KnatchbuU-Hugessen,
in the absence of Forster, treating himself to the impression
that he is leader of the Opposition, he grows quite jovial. His
" Yaw ! yaw 1 " resounds at brief intervals throughout the
House, indicating ironical appreciation or hearty approval, after
which he turns himself in his seat and laughs audibly. Monk
laughs, as he does everything else, in a decorous manner. He
measures his cachinnations out by the drachm as it were, and
though you may listen attentively you will never find evidence
of overweight. Even in his wildest and most abandoned
moments, when, in the unbounded gaiety of his spirits, he has
gone so far beyond his usual habit as to say, " Yaw ! taw !
YAW ! " you shall never see a hair displaced in his carefully
arranged coiffure. How he gets his hat off vrithout disturb
ing his hair is ever a mystery to Forster.

S90 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
For a few weeks in the year Monk suddenly bursts on
the horizon of a startled House, attired in a suit of dust-
white clothes. Everything is of precisely the same shade —
hat, hair, coat, and trousers. On these occasions the decorous
joriality of manner occasionally noted in Committee of Supply
at midnight is intensified. There Is a policeman outside — or
there was, for he has since been dismissed — who declares that
one day last summer when Monk first assumed this familiar
suit, he heard him, as he walked along, whistle a snatch from
a secular tune. That, however, is obviously one of those
manifestations of disordered imagination which are sometimes
detected in policemen in the witness-box. But it is certain
that Monk assumes with his memorable suit an added jaunti
ness of manner which, in view of the common supposition
among the casual population of the street that he is a bishop
in mufti, might lead to scandal.
Farewell! Sir Members, occupied with the engrossing topics
Chas. Adderley. ^j ^.j^^ evening, do not observe Sff Charles
Adderley as he walks restlessly about with long strides and
downcast face. Sometimes he enters from behind the Speaker's
chair, and sits for a few minutes on the Treasury bench. He
gazes sadly round the House, taking in every feature of the
familiar aspect. After a few moments he rises and walks out
into the lobby, where he speaks with softened voice to the
attendants, and almost tearfully entreats the postmaster to
supply him -with a penny stamp. As King Henry was never
known to smile after the English Channel had engulfed his
son, so Adderley has never been known to laugh since a
factious Opposition wrecked the Merchant Shipping Bill. He
deeply felt the humiUation of that terrible session. But whilst
there was life there was hope, and he always looked forward
to the opportunity of retrieving his official character. It
is all over now. The sardonically friendly hand of Beaconsfield
has handed him the cup of hemlock in which the patent of
a peerage is hidden. He will drink, and die, and be burled in
the House of Lords,
This is a melancholy ending of a life full of conscientious, if
not always successful, labour. For nearly half a century Adder-
ley has been a member of the House of Commons. He knew

1878.] GALLING OUT TEE BESEBVES. 391
Beaconsfield when he was Mr. DisraeU, and wore ringlets. He sat
on the same bench with Gladstone when the ex-Liberal Premier
was a Tory and championed the union of Church and State, He
knew Palmerston when he was a disregarded and undervalued
Under-Secretary, He was a contemporary of the old, old man
at Pembroke Lodge, when he was Lord John Russell and the
fate of Empires brooded under his disproportionate hat. He
knew Bright when he was regarded in the House of Commons
as an evil cross between Tom Payne and Cobbett — a man who,
it was true, believed in God, but who openly doubted the divine
right of landlords. He took his seat for North Staffordshire
whilst Stafford Northcote was at Oxford being coached for his
M.A, Gathorne Hardy had been only twelve months called to
the Bar when Sir Charles entered ParUament ; and as for Har
tington, he had just been promoted to jacket and trousers, and
his ambition was bounded by the possibility of making a peg-
top spin.
And now Sir Charles is spending his last hours in the place
where so many memories are enshrined. When pleasant-faced
Mr. Hartley, the doorkeeper, to-night cries "Who goes home?"
and Adderley joins the departing throng, it vrill be -with the
consciousness that he may never more enter the House of
Commons, At most he shall sit in the gallery over the clock,
and gaze down upon the busy throng, compared with which the
place whither a too-officious friendliness has banished him is as
a mill-pond to the sea. These must needs be saddening
thoughts, even to the most hardened politician. But Sir
Charles is not hardened, and has never been a politician. He
is known in the House as a kindly, warm-hearted, high-minded,
straightforward gentleman, of the type which Englishmen are,
perhaps without authority, too prone to regard as peculiar to
their own country, A consciousness of this personal character
tempered the sometimes angry criticism on the Merchant Ship
ping Bill, and members were always unaffectedly anxious to
discriminate between their distrust of the measure and their high
appreciation of the man.
It is easy to gather from Sir Charles's troubled brow, from
the softened tone in which he speaks to passing acquaintances,
and from the longing glance with which he looks around the
House on this his last night in it, that he will ever bear with

892 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm.
him affectionate remembrances of the plaee in which are en
tombed the aspirations of his youth, and In which he has con
scientiously accomplished the work of a long and laborious life."
It is also pleasant to know that the House of Commons wfll
always think kindly of Charles Adderley,

April 16. — Lord Lord Beaconsfield's mind being now exclusively
Beaconsfleld's t^med upon military matters, there has occurred
to him a new and happy name for his old adver
sary, Lowe. He alludes to him in private conversation as
" The White-head Torpedo.*
April 17. — Sir The Admiral also has a joke, and certain rever-
Chas. Adder- bcratlons from various parts of the House which
ley retorts on . ¦*¦
Mr. PUmsoU. alarmed strangers in the gallery on Monday and
Tuesday were simply the Admiral's undimmed
enjoyment at each repetition of its recital to his many friends.
It seems (according to the Admiral) that one day last week
Plimsoll met Adderley, and said in his most friendly way —
" I hear. Sir Charles, you are going to another place."
" Yes," said the future peer, " I am going to a place where
' the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest.' "
April 23. — Mr. The othor day a street mob broke Gladstone's win-
Gladstone's ^^^g ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ of a ^g ^Oj^^t want to fight."
broken -win- . ° .
dows. The papers having stated that the damage to his
windows had been assessed at £3 10s., Gladstone
to-day received a badly written letter from a working, man,
enclosing the exact sum. The writer said' that he and his family
had felt so ashamed of the great statesman's -windows haring
been broken by any calling themselves working-men, that they
had scraped together the sum to pay for the damage.
Mays.- Astrange To-nlght comcs news that Sir Francis Goldsmid
^ °'^''' has been killed in a railway accident at Waterloo
station. This sad and sudden death removes from the House of
Commons a man who was esteemed In proportion as he was more
closely known. Of gentle disposition and unassuming manners,
* At this time " the Whitehead Torpedo " was the thgme of daily dis
cussion in Parliament and the press.

1878.] CALLING OUT THE BESEBVES. 393
he shrank from active participation in poUtics, leaving the family
name to be distinguished in this particular walk by his nephew
and heir, Julian Goldsmid, the member for Rochester. Sir
Francis very rarely troubled the House -with a speech — the
average as bet-ween two members of one family being, made up
also in this direction by his nephew. But he was a constant
attendant, and his slight, shrunken figure, his grey hair, and his
gentle, kindly face, were among the most familiar features on the
benches behind that on which the leaders of the Opposition sit.
I hear a weird stojry in connection vrith the private history of
the famUy of which the late baronet was the head. It is a
tradition in the family, and generally with the Jews settled in
England, that for nearly a hundred years a fatal spell has
overhung the Goldsmlds ; and facts show that, in a manner
. doubtless due to coincidence, but nevertheless remarkable, the
speU has not failed to work throughout several generations.
During the latter part of the eighteenth century (so is the story
told to me) there lived in London a Jewish rabbi, alleged to be
gffted with those magical powers many instances of which are to
be found recorded in the Old Testament. This seer was known as
the Rabbi de Falk. When he died he left to Aaron Goldsmid,
great-grandfather of the late baronet. Sir Francis, a sealed
packet, with strict injunctions that it should be carefully
preserved, but never opened. By way of enforcing this request,
he informed the old Dutch merchant who founded the Goldsmid
family in England that if his injunctions were obeyed he and
his descendants would bask in the sun of prosperity till the
coming of the Messiah. If his instructions were disregarded,
ill-fortune would finally overtake each successive representative
of the race.
Old Aaron Goldsmid kept the packet, holding it sacred for
some years ; but, finally, in an evil moment, curiosity overcame
his reverence for the dead kabbalist, and he opened the packet.
A few hours after he was found dead. On the floor near him
were the contents of the packet, which proved to be a small
piece of parchment covered with hieroglyphics and kabbalistic
figures. At the time of his death, Aaron Goldsmid had founded a
great fortune and a prosperous family. Amongst the latter he
divided his wealth. Two of his sons — .Benjamin and Abraham

394 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS, [i878.
— entered upon business as money brokers, and speedily estab
lished a colossal connection. They were omnipotent on the
Stock Exchange, were popular in the country; and Benjamin
enjoyed the personal friendship of the Heaven-born Minister
who flouted the great iSTapoleon, Like all his family, Benjamin
was a man of boundless generosity and judicious phUanthropy,
He founded a naval college, and was never tired of exercising
private liberality. But as he advanced In life he began to feel
the curse of the kabbalist. He grew despondent, scented ruin
from afar, and, on the 16th. of April, 1808, being fifty-five years
of age — rich, honoured, powerful, and esteemed — he died by his
own hand.
Brother Abraham was now left to represent and guide the
fortunes of the Goldsmid family. For five years he managed
with accustomed success the great business of Goldsmid Brothers.
In the year 1810 he joined the house of Baring in contract
ing for a Ministerial loan of fourteen millions. The bears came
down on the fold of the loan contractors, and succeeded in
depreciating the scrip. These were circumstances which came
in the usual way of business, and would, a few years earlier,
have been met with the skill, firmness, and infinite resource which
had already lifted Abraham to the front rank of financiers. But
the curse of the kabbalist was upon him. He shrank from an
encounter with adverse circumstances. He hesitated, blundered,
and, always losing, presently sank into a fit of despondency
from which it was impossible to arouse him. A sum of half a
million had to be forthcoming on the 28th September, 1810.
In the state of the market Abraham Goldsmid did not know
where to put his hand on the money. He shrank from the im
pending disgrace, and when the hour struck at which the cash
was due, it was discovered that Abraham Goldsmid had paid
another and still more terrible debt, for he was dead.
After this the Goldsmlds fell from their high estate in the
City; but not for long. A greater than Aaron or Benjamin
arose in the person of Isaac, a nephew of Benjamin, and grandson
of the founder of the EngUsh house. Isaac entering into
business in the City speedily amassed a fortune, and became
known as one of the greatest financiers in the world. Having
made his own fortune, he maintained the family reputation for
aiding in good works, ¦ and became largely engaged in phil-

1878] GALLING OUT TEE BESEBVES. 395
anthropic and educational undertakings. He was a friend of
Mrs. Fry's, and was one of the principal founders of University
College, London, At sixty years of age he retired from
business, having heaped up enormous wealth and secured the
honour of an English baronetcy and a Portuguese peerage.
He seems, among other good things, to have at least* staved off
the curse of the defunct De Falk, and though he sank into
childishness during the last years of his life, that is a calamity
which poor humanity Is subject to when it sees fourscore.
But with the next heir the curse showed itself with added
malignity. The late baronet. Sir Francis, was the son of Sir
Isaac, and the news runs like wildfire through the town to-night
that he is a mangled corpse,
May6.-A pana- Captain Stacpoole's general notion about the pre-
oea for the ggj^^ crisis is that if Lord Palmerston would only
Eastern Ques- i i t i c •
tion. have stretched a little further the ordinary term
of loDgerity and remained in power at the present
day, affairs on the Continent would have been differently
arranged. In fact, with this notion the gallant Captain's views
of the Eastem Question begin and end.
" WeU," he says, " what do you think of things to-day ? "
Then you state what you think of things to-day ; and the
Captain, -with the -profoundest look, whispers in your ear —
"Ah! things would not be as they are if old Pam were
ahve, eh?"
" No," you think, "they would not."
How old Pam would arrange them, or how Stacpoole thinks
he would have arranged them, are matters no one dreams of
inquiring into. It is enough to know that " if old Pam were
alive, things would be different ; " and the oftener the Captain
delivers this dictum — and he will whisper it in your ear five
times a day, if you chance to meet him so often — the more clear
it becomes that he has put his finger on the blot, and has, as it
were, settled the Eastern Question.
And this is the man whom an aristocratic Government
neglects, and of whom a slumbering country knows too little !
Through many long and anxious months negotiations on the
Eastern Question have been in progress ; a great war has taken
place ; a Treaty has been broken ; a Treaty has been signed ; a

396 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm.
new map has been drawn and coloured, and hung in the library
of the House of Commons; diplomatists have bargained and
bartered, have resigned, have withdrawn their resignations, and
have tendered them yet again. The funds have risen and
fallen; fortunes have been made and lost. All the world has
been in a state of whirl and excitement, not knowing what
would come next, and not always thoroughly informed as to
what had happened last. And here, blushing almost unseen,
wasting his wisdom on the lobby air, is a man who, with a keen
eye, sees into the heart of the business, and, with a single phrase,
describes its bearings, and suggests the remedy.
" If old Pam were here 1 " the Captain whispers, with looks
of unfathomable profundity.
Perhaps if he were, the Clare Militia would be placed on a
war footing, Stacpoole would gird on the sword he hung up
at Ballyalla on that memorable July day in 1865, and the
lines of Boulair would be forthwith occupied by a regiment
that never turned its back on man, or woman either.
So let us be thankful that " old Pam " is mot here, for we
could ill spare from the House the familiar figure which stands
about, with hands carefully thrust into trousers pockets so that
the little finger of each is displayed, and with hat well set back
on the head so as to show to the full the honest, kindly face of
a true Irish gentleman, who has many friends, and who never
thinks anything a trouble if he can only serve them.

CHAPTER XXIX,
MR. FOESTEE AS LOED CHATHAM.
Sir Wilfrid Lawson added to Mme. Tussaud's Collection — Mr. Newdegate at Bay
— Metamorphosis of Mr. Pamell— Mr. Sclater-Booth's Salary in Danger—
The new Common Serjeant — " Shorts " and " Stalks " — ^Traducing Obstruc
tionists — Strangers in the House — The indigestible Fly — Mi. Newdegate
rouses the Admiral — ^Mr. Forster as Lord Chatham.
May a— Su- WU- Wilfrid Lawson has received the last and cro-wn-
Sd d ta^^"" ^^S mark of public esteem and British popularity.
Tussaud's col- He has just been added to the coUection of
lection. Madame Tussaud,
Lo-wther says the " figger " was originally designed for
" James Dunphy, commonly known as the Spofforth Sponge," a
gentleman who illumined the early years of the century -with a
singular grace and power of dram-drinking. The story probably
arose from observation of the broken bottle which stands on the
pedestal at Sir WUfrid's foot. But the broken bottle is plainly
an allegory, and Illustrates the poetical side of Madame Tussaud's
artists in wax.
May9.— Mr.New- Newdegate, rising in Committee of Supply at
ega a ay. half-past twelve, and offering some remarks not
to the taste of the Ministerialists, was interrupted by cries for a
division. Turning towards the direction whence the noise came,
he said —
" I must remind my hon. friends that it is twenty-five years
since I filled the office of one who helps to make a House, to
keep a House, and to cheer the Minister — when he is -wrong.
That comprehends a long experience, and I claim the right now
to speak on a matter of procedure."
After this he was allowed to proceed to the conclusion of his
remarks comparatively undisturbed.
May 10 -Meta- Some consternation was crea-ted in the lobby by
Mr!piu^ii ^^^ appearance to-night of a stiange gentleman,
who demanded admittance — who, in fact, claimed
it by the simple process of walking straight in. There seemed

338 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm.
something familiar about his figure and his walk, but his face
was wholly unknown to the watchful attendants, and He was on
the point of being expelled, when a too-familiar voice explained
all. It was Parnell, who appears to have occupied the Easter
recess in carefully shaving himself from chin to crown. The
metamorphosis is singularly effective ; and if he had been con
tent to remain silent he might have sat in the House a week
without being recognised.
May 13. — Mr' Pamell has taken up the great Calf-Lymph
sciater-Bo(rth's question, and O'Donnell, passing with easy grace
ger. froin the condition of India and the local affairs
of Central Africa, is discoursing upon vacciiiar
tion with a mastery of detail and a clearness of perception
that would make Bob Sawyer blush. With a deprecatory wave
of the hand, and an amiable convulsion of the right eyelid
as he feels the eyeglass slipping out, he apologises for not
having known that "this subject was coming up." If he
had, he said, he would have prorided himself with the precise
figures, A long, low sigh of satisfaction marked this period.
O'Donnell had already been discussing lymph for half an hour
without either facts or figures, and the House felt that the
supplement was unnecessary. As for Parnell, his intimate
acquaintance with lymph, and with the whole process of vacci
nation, is simply appalling,
Sclater-Booth, who, during his tenure of office at the
Local Government Board, had acquired the general notion that
lymph was the name for the bandage put round the arm after
vaccination, listened with silent wonder. He has. Indeed, a
special Interest in the debate, for the resolution before the
House is nothing less than an amiable proposal by Parnefl
that the vote should be reduced by the amount of his
salary. Like Randolph Churchill, Parnell is not satis
fied with the President of the Local Government Board.
Particularly in this case of vaccination he falls short of the
requirements of the hon. member, who is inclined to hold him
responsible for the quality of the calf-lymph used compulsorily
upon every mdividual child in the United Kingdom. -A
picture of himself going about examining samples of calf-
lymph, investigating the condition of infants of tender years-

1378] MB. FOESTEE AS LOBD CHATHAM. 399
probably even holding them in his arms — presents itself to
Sclater-Booth's not too vivid imagination as he sits by the
Chancellor of the Exchequer a monument of misery.
If there was one thing under heaven it might be sup
posed the Obstructionists would omit to seize upon. It surely
was calf-lymph. But even if they had stumbled upon the
commodity, -why should they drag into the controversy the
person of the President ? There Is no knowing where the per
tinacity of these fellows may end, or what Devil's luck may
not attend them in the division lobby. It is evident that
Parnell means to go to a division. It is a dangerous hour,
nine o'clock not haring yet struck, and the defenders of vested
interests being as yet engaged on the supplementary dinner
estimates. Sclater-Booth looks uneasily round, mentally count
ing the numbers in the pending division. The Admiral coughs
reassuringly, intimating that there shall be at least one who
will vote " No " to the monstrous proposition. Where is
Dyke ? and where Rowland Winn ? Heaven knows. But they
are certainly not in sight, and ff Sclater-Booth were to go
out and look them up Parnell might take that opportunity of
forcing the division, and a reformed House of Commons,
Its principles undermined by the Ballot Act, might cut off
his salary.
It was a terrible moment. Beads of perspiration stood
upon his brow like contraband lymph. The vaccination mark
on his right arm, done in far-off days, before Parnell was
known at Westminster, throbbed with a strange anguish.
He was painfully conscious that a little to the right of him was
Randolph Churchill in the highest possible spirits. Gazing
furtively across the floor of the House, he took in at a glance
the tall, lean flgure of Parnell, with his shaven face, which
showed no marks of relenting; Biggar, with his arm grace
fully thrown over the back of his seat, smiling largely; and
on the seat behind, O'Donnell, intently figuring out something
on his copy of the Orders, doubtless some design to bring
out the actuarial value of "£2,000 a-year, being the salary
of the President of the Local Government Board," now in the
fifth year of his oflice.
How long it would have lasted no one can say. But, oddly
enough, in some imperceptible manner, the discussion drifted

400 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1878.
aside. A fresh quarry was scented by the keen nostrils of
the Obstructionists, and, to his inexpressible relief, Sclater-
Booth found that the House was talking of something apart
from calf-lymph, and had even forgotten that the issue before
it was to " reduce the vote by £2,000, the salary of the
President of the Local Government Board."
May u. — The " Does an alderman thirst for blood ? " It is
SerTeanr"""' Hardcastic who puts this conundrum to a
startled House. H., who had his legislative
birth with the present Parliament, does not speak often. But
there was much in his address to-night, apart from this alarming
riddle, whieh recommends him to favourable attention. I do
not know in what school of oratory he studied in riew of his
appearance in the House, It must, I fancy, have been at the
Polytechnic, or in some kindred institution, where able gentlemen
nightly give imitations of hustings and after-dinner oratory. It
is impossible to reproduce In writing the exact manner of
his oratory. It is ready in its fiow, the words being pumped
to pauses and hammered out in emphases with the pleasant
regularity of the motion of a piston. Moreover, Hardcastle
permits himself slight oscillations of the body, and certain
well-regulated upliftlngs of the face, to mark the effect of his
speech on his audience, which are exceedingly interesting, and,
Uke every other movement connected with the speech, have
their times and seasons. It must not be supposed that he
does not speak well ; indeed, his speech to-night was a capital
one, and enlivened a debate over which Henry James had cast
the pall of his funereal eloquence. The manner, too, has a flavour
of antiquity about it that pleasantly suggests the port of '34, and
the Madeira that voyaged to and from the East Indies or ever
the Suez Canal was made.
The occasion which led to Hardcastle' s eloquence was in itself
interesting. Henry James, who is always prosecuting somebody,
had been indicting the Corporation of the City of London for
asmuch as they had elected Charley to the office of Common
Serjeant. Not that Charley's name was mentioned by the ex-
Attorney- General, or that he did not effusively disclaim any
intention of calling In question the judicial capacity of that ¦
distinguished man. But everybody realised, not least vividly

1878.] MB. FOESTEE AS LOBD GHATEAM. 401
Charley himself, that he was the culprit, and that Henry James
was, as it were, leaning across the sacred body of the Lord
Mayor to stab at him.
Charley is a man who loves his kind, and cannot exist
without sympathy. Thus at brief intervals during the statement
of the case for the prosecution he has been wandering about the
House, chiefly under the galleries, where a number of Common
Councillors were seated, listening to Henry James and wondering
what they should have for dinner. It is curious how indis
solubly the liberties of the City of London are bound up with
dinner. In the course of a session the Sheriffs occasionally
come down to present a petition, on the acceptance of which rest
the inalienable rights of the Corporation. On these occasions
they always dine luxuriously, putting to shame the humble cut
from the joint which ordinary members of Parliament permit
themselves. Even on occasions of less note, when there is before
the House a Bill or a Motion more or less directly affecting the
Corporation, certain familiar faces are sure to be seen under the
gallery, and an unusual bustle is apparent in the kitchen of the
House dining-room.
At the time Hardcastle speaks dinner is over, and the gentle
men of the Common Council are enabled to concentrate their
attention upon his remarks undisturbed, save by the soothing
pleasure of retrospect. Charley bears that comparatively
beaming and hopeful look which a prisoner at the bar always
presents immediately after the speech of his own counsel,
Charley, to be precise, has no counsel, and has heard no speech
in answer to the insinuations personal to himself indulged in by
members opposite. But he has dined in the soothing company
of the Common Councillors, and now here is Hardcastle, if not
exactly defending his appointment, even while admitting that
the power of election by the Corporation is an anomaly, at least
varying the torrent of ill-disguised contempt with which the new
Common Serjeant has been overwhelmed. He is in such good
spirits that he laughs loudly at Hardcastle's conundrum,
" Ha ! ha ! " he says, " ' does an alderman thirst for
blood ? ' good ; " and he looks to the right, under the gallery,
where the aldermen are sitting, hoping to catch their approving
smiles. But his countenance falls and his face resumes its former
AA

402 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
serious look when he discovers that the aldermen are not
"taking" this as a joke, Tbey are not sure that It is not
personal. What does the member for East Lancashire mean
when he talks of "blood?" Does he mean gravy? and does he
intend any covert reference to an individual's preference for the
juice emanating from a well-cooked saddle of mutton ? Charley,
noting this, is not sure that he should not rise to order. But, on
reflection, he thinks that perhaps it would be in better taste for
him to take no prominent part in a discussion which so nearly
affects himself. Accordingly, having sat throughout the whole
of a debate from which Thomas Chambers studiously absented
himself, he merely voted against the motion, and thus stamped
with his high approval the action of a Corporation which had
elected him to the Common Serjeantcy,
May 16.— "Shorts" There is no subject that may, by accident or
an stai s. arrangement, be bro.ught up in the House of
Commons upon which there is not found some member who is
thoroughly acquainted with all that bears upon it. From the
making of door-mats to the construction of an ironclad, from the
precise value of Dr, Schliemann's discoveries at Mycenss to the
domestic arrangements of a hive of bees, the House of Commons
is ready, at a moment's notice, to discuss topics as they arise.
Some members may even be counted upon to display upon the
subject-matter an amount of intimate knowledge which, if it
succeeds in emptying the House of the frivolous, is exceedingly
valuable to the clerks at the table, whose natural rest is much
curtailed in these exciting times, and who know the advantage
of scientific discussion regarded as a soporific.
Among members who occasionally distinguish themselves by
their superhuman acquaintance with the by-lanes of science or art
is Captain Ritchie. The gaUant Captain is a model member for
a business constituency. Gentlemen Uke Rylands are too large-
minded to attend to any interest relating to a space of geo
graphical area less than that of Asia, or at least of Africa.
Ritchie, on the contrary, is of opinion that Asia is big enough to
look after itself, whereas the Tower Hamlets require constant
attendance. The Tower Hamlets are, indeed, for him, the hub
of the universe. He cherishes a secret belief that astronomy is
based upon a fundamental error, and that expeditions in search

1878.] MB. FOESTEE AS LOED CHATHAM. 403
of the North Pole will continue to meet with the ill-fortune they
deserve so long as Governments and individuals will persist in
the foohsh expenditure of fitting out expeditions to sail through
Arctic seas, whereas in the neighbourhood of the Bank they
might find a 'bus which would land them at the Tower Hamlets
in less than twenty minutes.
To-night he has been urging the claims of the Inhabitants of
the neighbourhood of the Bethnal Green Museum to have more
frequent . access to the institution. He gained a concession in
the desired direction, as he deserved to do. But he is still
smarting under the lack of consideration he met with the other
night at the hands of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when
he brought on the Cigar Question. That was a great oc
casion. Ritchie came down to the House almost bursting with
facts relating to the manufacture of cigars. It seems that his
constituents make the fragrant Havanna, and Ritchie wanted
some deference paid to their interests in the Budget arrange
ments. He undertook to demonstrate to the House the injustice
of the Chancellor of the Exchequer's plans. But as he was
working at high pressure, and poured forth volumes of figures in
a voice too rapid for the ordinary sense to follow, nobody but the
Chancellor of the Exchequer (who said he understood it all) was
much wiser when he sat down.
This freedom from the necessity of forming an opinion
on the main question left the House at liberty to admire
the marvellous amount of information he had acquired as to
the internal arrangements of the familiar cigar. There are
"stalks," for example. It is really astonishing to find how much
stalks are worth ; and Ritchie did not hesitate to lay to the^
charge of the placid Chancellor of the Exchequer the accusation
that "the element of stalks did not enter into his head,"
Nobody knows why it should. But, from the intense earnest
ness with which Ritchie made the declaration, and the guilty
look of Stafford Northcote, as his hands crept up his coat-
sleeve, it plainly appeared that there must be too much truth in
the assertion.
Then there was " moisture." A great deal depends upon
moisture. But, after all, stalks were the great thing; and,
amid much that was only dimly comprehended, it seemed quite
clear that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in drawing up his
aa2

404 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
Budget, and in considering the tax upon cigars, had. made a base
attempt to ride off upon stalks. Ritchie was too much for him,
being enabled to quote the prices-current of stalks since the time
of Sir Walter Raleigh.
" In 1867," he said, "the right hon. gentleman the member
for Greenwich took stalks in at 2s, 4.d, Why had the Chan
cellor of the Exchequer not done so ? "
Ah! why? Then there were "shorts," What did the
Chancellor of the Exchequer mean by trifling with shorts ?
What shorts were, Ritchie did not attempt to explain, evidently
being impressed with the conviction that their natural history
and ultimate destiny must be familiar to every inteUigent man.
Of course, nobody could get up and admit that he was not closely
acquainted with the characteristics of shorts ; that stalks were
not as familiar to him as the story of Gladstone's Iniquities ;
and that he was not fully cognisant of the modifying influences
of moisture. Just as Macdonald always laughs, and lustily
cries " Hear, hear ! " when a member introduces an apt Latin
quotation in his speech, so the House looked intelligently
interested. But nobody attempted to interpose in the dis
cussion, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer suspiciously
shirked the chief points in tbe brief reply he ventured to make.
Thus the glory of the debate rested exclusively with Ritchie ;
and, after the division, there was a great demand in the coffee-
room for " shorts " and " stalks," members having gathered that
these were a new brand of cigars, highly recommended by the
member for the Tower Hamlets,
May 15. — Tra- Just bcforc nine o'clock, Pamell, having got into
ducing obstruc- ^^ altercation with the Chancellorof the Ex-
tionists. chequer, attempted to solve the difficulty by
moving to report progress. A long discussion arose on this,
during which Thomas Cave, who had been an attentive but
silent listener to the wrangle, rose, and with some warmth
referred to Parnell and " his fellow-conspirators in an under
taking to obstruct the business of the House," A hubbub arose
at the sound of the word " conspirators," in the midst of which
Nolan's voice was heard calling out that "confederate was a
Parliamentary word as applied to the Obstructionists." Cave
at once adopted the suggestion, and substituted the word

1878.] MB. FOESTEE AS LOBD CEATEAM. 405
" confederates," used by Gathorne Hardy without reproof from
the Speaker during the debate on the War Estimates,
Cave, proceeding afresh, was a few seconds later brought up
by Parnell for stating that he had come there with the deliberate
intention of obstructing business, Parnell called upon the
Chairman to rule this out of order, Raikes observed that, after
what had taken place under his own observation in the Com
mittee, he did not feel obUged to rule Cave out of order for the
remark challenged. Cave accordingly started again, but had
hot gone far before a reference to " Impertinence " brought
up the Chairman to order. Cave observed that he regretted he
could not use the strongest words in the English language to
express his feeling with reference to the conduct of Parnell and
his confederates, which, he said, tended to bring humiliation
upon the House,
" He has," Cave continued, " been a curse to this House and
this country ever sinee  "
Hereupon half a dozen members jumped up, and Nolan
being selected (or rather, at once beginning a speech without
submitting to the process of selection), protested against the use of
this word, and entered into a disquisition on the numbers of the
constituency of Barnstaple, the borough which Cave represents.
The Chairman blandly observed that he was " not able to see
what connection the number of Mr, Cave's constituents had
with the question before the Committee, which was that he
should report progress, and ask leave to sit again."
Nolan said he would drop the subject, and was proceeding In
a confldential tone to inform the Committee that he had been
absent for half an hour, "ha-ring, in fact, gone to dinner," when
A, M. Sullivan suddenly sprang up to order. It was not, how
ever, Nolan whom Sullivan desired to bring under tbe notice of
the Chairman, but an anonymous member opposite, who, accord
ing to the testimony of the member for Louth, had, when Nolan
observed he had been to dinner, audibly remarked, " He looks
like it." The Chairman protested against this continual refer
ence to overheard observations, and the conversation returned to
the channel of the motion to report progress, which was sub
sequently negatived.
This outbreak on the part of the member for Barnstaple
had all the charm of a surprise. Cave is a gentleman for whose

406 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
name we search vainly in the Parliamentary reports. He is
understood to be a busy man, whose name stands high In the
City, But he manages to spend a considerable time in the
House of Commons, sitting there patient, watchful, and thought
ful, when other English members have fled at the uprising of
Parnell or Biggar, Everybody was astounded when he rose to
night. He seemed himself surprised to find himself on his feet,
and still more astonished to find himself speaking. At the out
set his words came slowly and with an effort. But their slow
ness of enunciation, the total absence of excitement on the
part of the speaker, and this sudden discovery of Mount
Vesuvius under what had hitherto been regarded as an inoffen
sive mound, quite took the House aback. When it became
clear that Cave was really running tilt at the Obstruction
ists, and was putting into plain speech the scarcely disguised
thoughts concerning them current in the House, a scene of
excitement followed on the interval of stupor, and all the
Obstructionists were on their feet at the same moment, clamour
ing for his blood.
It is really astonishing how susceptible Parnell and his con
federates are when anything, in language however bland, is
uttered to their discredit. Nightly throughout a session we
have these gentlemen outraging order. Insulting authority, and
bringing charges of the most violent character against indivi
duals. But if, as happened to-night, some long-suffering man
rises, and turns upon them the artillery of plain speech, they
flush with indignation, tremble with horror, and Instantly appeal
to that authority which at other times they studiously ignore and .
consistently outrage. If the House of Commons, as a body,
had only the courage and the straightforwardness of Cave, a
national scandal, daily growing, would be permanently put down
before the Whitsuntide recess.
May 16.— Strang- A record of the adventures of " strangers " in
ersmt e ouse. ^^^q House of Commons would make an interest
ing volume. It Is difficult for an outsider to grasp the fact of
the full sacredness of the portals of the House, and to compre
hend the paralysis which attacks everybody when those portals
are even momentarily crossed by an unauthorised person. And
yet it is so easy for accidents to happen. There Is a well-

1878.]

ME. FOBSTEE AS LOBD OH ATE AM. 407

authenticated instance of a stranger actually voting in a divi
sion, having strayed into the lobby when the House was clear.
Three sessions ago two gentlemen, fresh from the genial com
pany to be met with at the Licensed Victuallers' Annual Dinner,
walked straight into the House and took up their seats a little to
the right of the Serjeant-at-Arms, within three feet of the seat
consecrated to Wilfrid Lawson. They sat there for nearly half
an hour before they were recognised, although the House at the
time was half-empty.
To-night a " stranger " distinguished his class in a new
direction. He had secured the privilege of a seat under the
gallery on the floor of the House, where he remained for some
time listening with great attention to George Campbell's speech
on the Importation of Indian troops. He heard this very well,
but being slightly deaf he had some difficulty in gathering all
the words of wisdom distilled from the lips of Harcourt, who
followed. Without hesitation he solved the difficulty by cross
ing over on to the bench before him. He was now actually
within the sacred precincts of the House, though he had not
done anything more dreadful than occupy the seat assigned to
new members waiting to be sworn. Here he might have re
mained for a long time, for there were several new members
whose arrival was expected, and few could say he was not
one of them. But when the Chancellor of the Exchequer
followed Harcourt, and was evidently making an important
speech, the agonised constituent, after vainly endeavouring to
hear all that the right hon. baronet said, crossed over to the
_ next bench, and comfortably seated himself in the House of
Commons itseff I
Here, with hand to ear, and a highly gratified expression
suffusing his face, he sat listening to the debate. But his joy
was short-lived. His attitude attracted the attention of a
member on the Conservative benches, who, appealing to the
Serjeant-at-Arms for information as to his identity, brought
about the denouement. The intruder thought Captain Gosset,
when he approached, was about to invite him to take a seat a
little nearer the Speaker, and was quite astonished when he was
politely but sternly and promptly walked out of the House, his
exit being made through the division lobby, in order to avoid
the sensation that would otherwise have followed.

408 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm>
May 17.— The in- Charles Lewis's connection -with Ireland has been
digestible fly. ^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ one. But his ignorance of the
_habits of the natives appears singularly well developed. To
night, during a discussion in Committee of Supply, he expressed
the hope that something or other "would not prove another
fly in the ointment to spoil the digestion of hon. members
opposite." As O'Shaughnessy remarked, Irish members have many
peculiarities; but as a rule they do not eat ointment.
May 21. - Mr. " No ! "
foL'LM! Ad! It is aU very well for the Admiral to purse up
mirai. his lips, play with a folded copy of the Orders,
and generally infuse Into his countenance an ex
pression of vacancy. There Is no mistaking the sound of that
strident voice. A few minutes ago he was lying broadside-on to
the corner-seat just above him, whence Newdegate was speaking,
and was discharging a continuous volley of heavily shotted
" Noes ! " Then the Speaker interfered, and at the warning cry
of " Order ! " the Admiral put up the helm and came round,
running in his guns, closing up the portholes, and trying to
look as much as possible like a peaceful merchantman. But he
could not stand it long, and presently there rolled through the
House a sharp, short cry, immediately followed, when it seemed
it might be done with impunity, by a perfect volley of " No I-
No !-No ! " The Speaker turned his mild yet firm visage fully
upon the Admiral, and instantly the guns were run in, the
portholes closed, and the Admiral again assumed a look of stolid
indifference. The Admiral reverences all constituted authority, and, in
truth, it is because constituted authority is just now being brow
beaten that he has been moved to this demonstration ; so he
keeps his weather eye fixed on the Speaker, and when that right
hon. gentleman drops his glasses, or turns his head, the cry of
" No !-No ! " once more resounds through the House. The
Speaker quickly looks up. There is the Admiral, with his left
arm thrown over the back of the bench, his copy of the Orders
folded up to look as nearly as possible like a rope's end, and his*
lips pursed up in the propulsion of a soft whistle. It could not
be he that cried " No ! " and though he stops short of the

1878.] MB. FOESTEE AS LOED CEATEAM. 409
brazen iniquity of meeting the Speaker's reproachful glance, he
does not hesitate to throw into his attitude, and to import into
his countenance, a look of indifference and languor totally
incompatible with active hostility towards anybody, -much less
his friend Newdegate, to whose speech some one has supplied
this disorderly chorus.
Newdegate takes no notice of the Admiral, but holds on his
steady and solemn course, as an East Indiaman In full sail might
disregard the animated belligerency of a Fiji Islander's canoe.
The ground in his neighbourhood is cleared for action. Since
C, S. Read had had driven deep over his nose the new
white hat vrith a black band, assumed in honour of his re
signation of office, nobody ventures to sit in the seat just
below Newdegate when he is addressing the House, more
particularly when the topic is a constitutional one. Newde
gate wants a good deal of space to talk in, for his gestures are
as free as his voice is flexible. An intensely earnest and conscien
tious man, he loses himself in his subject, and is so profoundly
engrossed in it that he only Imperfectly regards other things.
Thus, if his eye catches a glimpse of the top of a hat just
underneath him, he hastily arrives at the conclusion that it Is a
table, and he has a habit of bringing down full upon it a clenched
fist; which of course surprises the member beneath.
To-night he is safely embarked on the wide waters of consti
tutional law. Drawn up to his full height, vrith his head
slightly held back, and his arms prone at his side, he commences
his homily in tones — " Sad-voiced as the turtle
That Anacreon used to feed."
, Presently, -without a moment's notice, he uplifts both voice and
arm, and thunders forth denunciation. or denial. Then his voice
sinks to the depths of a low, hollow whisper ; till Sclater-Booth,
who is sleeping after his dinner, starts up with the fearful idea
that Guy Fawkes is down in the cellar beneath, and is giving
orders about those barrels. Anon, with scornful gesture, he
throws dovm his notes, and through clenched teeth gives inade
quate voice to measureless contempt.
The House laughs at Newdegate. But it is a very different
sort of laughter from that with which it sometimes overwhelms

410 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
Macdonald, for example. It has known him for a generation,
and reserves for him that unalterable esteem and personal liking
which genuine merit never fails to receive. Newdegate Is hope
lessly obstinate. You may as well attempt to take Westminster
Bridge under your arm and walk off with it as move him from
his settled purpose. Sometimes, as to-night, he sears the souls
of good Ministerialists by presuming to call in question the
policy of Ministers. His apprehensions with regard to the ulti
mate designs of the Pope are occasionally inconsequential. His
manner is lugubrious, and his speeches might be shorter. But
be sure that when he speaks, on whatever subject (always
barring the Pope), you shall hear words which convey the im
pression that the speaker is a man incapabable of being moved by
mean motives, that all his Impulses are generous, and that he
rides as straight to the truth as he does to the hounds.
Good old sea-going Tories, like the Admiral, howl at him
when he ventures to differ from gentlemen on the Treasury
bench. But in the main the Conservatives are proud of him,
and would not have him altered in the slightest shade. He is a
standing answer to the taunt that Tories move in platoons, and
vote according to the regimental order of the day. He relieves
the party from absolute monotony, and, above all, does no sub
stantial harm. On the other side of the House, defection such as
he displayed to-night might be dangerous. Amongst ill-bred
Liberals there are always a few handfuls of loose powder lying
about, which a spark may explode. The Conservative party is
built on the principle of water-tight compartments. The ship
may be staved in at a particular plank, and the water may rush
In, threatening wreck and ruin. But It does not get beyond the
limit of that particular compartment, and the vessel is easily
kept afloat till the damage may be put right.
Thus, Newdegate may saw the air with indignant gesture,
and may tell unpleasant truths in a voice that sometimes soars to
the height of the Clock Tower and now sinks to the depths of
the uttermost cellars. The division will take plaee on Thursday,
and the majority for the Government will be not one unit less
than if W, H, Smith had listened to the Admiral's suggestion,
that he should tow Newdegate down to the Nore, and show
him the place where, in the good old days, mutineers were
hanged.

1878.] MB. FOESTEE AS LOBD CHATHAM. 411
May 23. — Mr. Perhaps never since Lord Chatham entered the
Lord^Ciuitham Ho^^sc of Lords, supported by crutches — it was
just a hundred years ago, onthe 7th of April — has
such a sensation been created as was effected by Forster's return
to the House that has too long mourned his absence. The effect
was profound, so far as it had range. The pity of it is, that the
range was narrow. Somehow or other, things had not turned out
as they should have done. That Forster was coming down to the
House on crutches had been -widely advertised. Even the hour
was named, and everybody knew that when nine o'clock tolled
from the high tower of St. Stephen's, the great Minister would
enter. Possibly because they were not certain of commanding
their feelings, perhaps because Synan had shouted them clear off
the premises, or, peradventure, because Marten had been jumping
up and down all night in the vain attempt to catch the Speaker's
eye — an endeavour in which he might succeed about nine o'clock
— very few members were present.
Forster entered from behind the Speaker's chair, resting
heavily on a remarkable pair of crutches, something Uke those
seen In cheap prints commemorating " The Soldier's Return."
He walked hearily past the table, and instinctively flung himself
on the seat of the Leader of the Opposition, where Hartington,
coming in later, found him, and humbly sought a seat much
lower down. Strangers in the gallery were agreeably Interested
by the spectacle, Mr. Boffin, making the acquaintance of Mr.
Silas Wegg, and discovering that he could read the ballads he
sold, was filled vrith admiration of him as being " a literary man
with a wooden leg," Thus the strangers in the gallery were in
a pleased state of delight at the spectacle of an ex- Vice-
President of the Council with two wooden crutches,
A thrill went through the thirteen gentlemen who remained
in the House, and the murmur of a cheer passed soothingly
through Forster's hair. Synan was Inclined to make the most of
his opportunities, and not having been in the House of late years,
he determined to have a prolonged shout whilst he was there.
Forster did not mind this, as the House was so bare. Nobody
cares to play before empty benches. Then Robert Montagu pre
sented himself, and Forster gracefully gave him place. There were
now only nine members. When Lord Robert had made an end
of speaking, Forster felt that the time had come, and he slowly

412 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1878.
rose, amid a murmur of sympathy, Stafford Northcote, one of
the most unaffectedly kind-hearted men who ever mistook his
vocation, suggested that he should remain seated. But he
declined the proffered courtesy. Lord Chatham had always
stood as long as he could, and he was supported on crutches
when he made that famous declaration in the debate on the
expulsion from the House of Commons of Mr. Wilkes.
" A breach is made in the Constitution ! " the old man cried ;
" the battlements are dismantled ; the citadel is open to the first
invader ; the walls totter ; the place is no longer tenable. What
then remains for us, but to stand foremost in the breach, to repair
it or to perish in It ? "
These memorable and apposite words were in Forster's mind,
and he thought that even thoiigh he might excel Lord Chatham
in eloquence and in some of the higher gifts of statesmanship,
he could not afford to give him the advantage of having stood
superior to physical weakness. So he advanced into the breach
in an upright position, and began a speech which everybody
understood was not to extend beyond a quarter of an hour.
Indeed, how could a man on crutches speak for more than a
quarter of an hour ?
For one in so serious a plight, Forster opened -with great
vigour. At the end of a quarter of an hour It was evident he
was only beginning. His shoulders shook with all their accus
tomed energy. He turned about with suspicious agility, and as
the fifteen minutes were prolonged into half an hour, and as half
an hour deepened into three-quarters, a horrible doubt seized
men's minds. Was Forster's appearance what the Attorney-
General would call a " masquerade ? " Should we presently see
him shoulder his formidable supporter, fling his big cloth boot at
the head of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and drive her
Majesty's Ministers before him with his crutch, as Lord Chatham
had contemptuously suggested a Minister of the day should
drive the revolted Americans ?
A great fear now fell upon the augmented assembly. It was
difficult to suspect that a man of Quaker parentage would prac
tise upon the House a device like this. And yet  ! Forty
minutes are passed, and the sound of Forster's voice is almost
lost amid the buzz of conversation. It is evident that, with or
without crutches, the House of Commons cannot be induced to

1878.] ME. EOEBUCK BEPULSED. 413
listen to him for more than twenty minutes at a stretch. Per
ceiving this, though not till it had been forced upon his
attention for fully a quarter of an hour, he at length brought his
remarks to a conclusion, and, to the disappointment of the
strangers in the gallery, instead of falling back Into the arms of
Harcourt, and being carried out by Henry James and Lyon
Playfair, he jauntily reseated himself, as if the crutches were a
delusion and the leg-rest a snare.

CHAPTER XXX.
ME. EOEBUCK EBPULSED.

The great Disturber — The Eoebuck-DUlwyn Dispute — Death in the House —
Vicarious Bravery — Lord Randolph Churchill and Lord Charles Beresford
— A modest Member — The Derby Day — Mr. Chaplin's new Coat — Mr.
Rylands on Foreign Policy — ^Mr. Edward Jenkins.
May 27. — The " Oh I how dreadful ! " cried an old lady, reared
great disturber, j^ ^^ atmosphere of Conservative clericalism,
when, the other day, Gladstone was pointed out to her at the
funeral of a distinguished friend. "J do trust he isn't come
to ¦make a disturbance."
This is the story going the rounds to-night, and much appre
ciated on both sides. It fairly enough illustrates the feeling
with which Gladstone is just now regarded by a large portion of
the outside public.
May 29. — The Dlllwyn sits in the corner-seat below the gang-
wyn^'dispute'^ ^^"^ ' ^'^^^ daring to make him afraid. He has,
in his time, fought a good many battles with
tyrannical assumption. But though this little tiff with Roebuck
has been of a small and personal character. It has required a
good deal of moral courage to carry it through. It is a hard
thing to appear to outrage any of those wholesome maxims
which regulate the lives of good Englishmen. One of these is
to reverence old age, and to be gentle towards physical infirmity.
Roebuck claims the fullest extension of these considerations, for

414 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
he was born when the century was two years old ; and of late
years Time has pressed hea-rily upon him. As the bent figure
of the old man slowly advances up the floor of the House, there
is an instinctive inclination on the part of every one who is
sitting to rise and offer him a seat. No one under sixty can
remain comfortably in his place and see Roebuck standing,
John Arthur, who throughout a long career has suffered many
aspersions, but has never been accused of neglect in advancing
his own interests, has made the most of this condition of affairs.
There are at least five hundred seats on the floor of the House.
But Roebuck has fancied the corner one below the gangway on
the Opposition side. It is a favourite seat, on which Macdonald
has looked with longing eye, and from which Sir Joseph
M'Kenna, when opportunity offers, is not unwilling to address
the House, But Dillwyn has established with respect to it such
claim as is admitted in these matters ; and his familiar figure
may be seen there at those dead watches of the night when soap
is being voted for the use of the bloated charwoman at the Board
of Trade, and when provision is sought to be made for the lordly
clerks at the F. O. to revel in illimitable pen-nibs.
Roebuck's insubstantial claim to this seat has been politely
and courteously acknowledged hy Dillwyn. He has come in
when he pleased, and has tumed Dillwyn adrfft, not only appro
priating the one seat, but discommoding members to the left by
insisting upon laying his stick longitudinally on the bench.
This claim also has been submitted to with more or less grace,
and Roebuck and his stick have appropriated the better part of
three seats. But, as Andrew Lusk once confidentially informed
the House of Commons, the down-trodden worm will turn at
last, and the other day Dillwyn sturdily put his foot down and
declined any longer to suffer personal inconvenience in order
that Roebuck might find a position whence he could with greater
ease and increased effect abuse the company into which he had
thrust himself. The little incident has created a good deal of
attention, and hands have been held up in horror at the spec
tacle of " the outrage upon the veteran."
Supposing this corner-seat were the only one in the House,
there might be something in this, and the comparative juvenility
of Dillwyn might stand abashed before the infirmity of the elder
whom he had condemned to stand. But that is not the case.

1878.] MB. EOEBUCK BEPULSED. 415
There are plenty of seats in other parts of the House, not except
ing the Conservative benches, where it would seem gentlemen
of the political views of Roebuck would feel more at home.
As to the assumption that, in refusing to vacate his seat at
the peremptory bidding of Roebuck, Dillwyn has done dishonour
to a man whose political reputation and personal career com
mand respect and esteem, that is more than may be passed
over in sUence, Roebuck has lived before the world for nearly
half a century, and his public Ufe has not been lacking in con
sistency. But if it comes to talk about honour and usefulness,
it suggests the inquiry whether the wasp is an honourable and
useful factor in daily lffe ? Roebuck has been a political and
Parliamentary wasp, and I never heard of the bees insisting
upon doing honour to this member of the hymenopterous family.
When one is seriously asked to do honour to Roebuck, he
would like to -know on what particular ground honour Is claimed.
Is it by reason of his wrangles in the House of Commons on
behaff of crushed Canada, for which he drew an adequate salary
as English agent for the Dominion? Is it because of his
eloquent, if acrimonious, advocacy of those great apostles of
Liberty, the Hapsburgs, an advocacy which, by a singular
coincidence, was followed by a lucrative concession of railway
monopoly within the Austrian dominions ? Is it on account of
his efforts on behalf of the extension of public works in Ireland,
in furtherance of which he was intimately connected with that
other pure patriot, the late Charles Orrell Lever ?
These are, as far as I know, the only actions of Roebuck's
political life which go outside the range of a natural impulse to
make himself disagreeable. Under this latter head comes his
motion for the Sebastopol Committee, a procedure which, it is
interesting to remember in connection with his patriotic denun
ciation of Hartington last week, he undertook at a time, not
when the countiy was on the verge of war, but when the
Ministry were actually engaged in a gigantic struggle with a
foreign power. His action on that oceasion has become his
torical, because of the magnitude of the interests with which it
dealt. But it was merely an incident in a long course of irre
sponsible aspersion. Thirty-two years ago Roebuck sat in the
House as member for Bath, and had the good or Ill-fortune to
have his portrait painted by a master and a sympathetic hand.

416 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
"I know," said Disraeli, speaking in 1846 ina debate in
which Roebuck figured In a style even then familiar — " I know
how true it is that a tree must produce its fruit, that a crab-tree
will bring forth crab-apples, and that a man of meagre or acid
mind, who writes a pamphlet or makes a speech, must make a
meagre and acid pamphlet or a poor and sour speech. But for
the member for Bath 1 for him — extraordinary purist as he is ! —
to come forward and complain, as if he had never been in the
habit of imputing improper motives to gentlemen ! Sir, I am
in the recollection of the House when I state that the hon.
gentleman by no means represents himself faithfully or consis
tently, and I think that he, though now assuming the function
of general instructor, as formerly of general accuser, would do
well to profit by his own precepts, and eschew his melodramatic
malignity and his Sadler's Wells sort of sarcasm. Sir, it Is very
easy to put on this sort of air, wagging the finger, bating the
breath, and looking daggers though using none. This is all
extremely fine, and if It comes from one who is justified in
using such language and having recourse to such gestures, I
might say It was simply ridiculous. Coming, however, from
the quarter whence it does, it is more than ridiculous — it is
offensive." Disraeli was always happy In bis appreciation and delineation
of character, and the measure he took of Roebuck In 1846 has
fitted him ever since. He has been all round the political com
pass — a Radical, a Liberal, a Conservative, a Tory; always a
wasp. Profiting by the wisdom which sometimes comes with experi
ence. Roebuck has of late hit upon an easy but effective means
of gaining increased personal importance and barbing afresh his
sting. If he took his proper place in the House, and made
Tory speeches from Tory benches, they would have just such
success as their intrinsic merit justified. But to sit on the
Opposition benches, and bitterly revile the members of the Oppo
sition, gives a zest to speech which, though the trick has grown
stale, seems never to fail, Horsman of late years lived upon
the reputation to be derived from this device, and other members
of less natural ability — Bowyer, for example — have tried it vrith
varying success. It is, however, an essentially dishonest pro
cedure, and though bringing temporary gleams of triumph,

1878.] ME. EOEBUCK BEPULSED. 417
invariably gamers up a harvest of contempt. Obviously there
are occasions when a man of independent mind may find him
self at variance -with the party -with which he is accustomed
to associate himself. Instances of this temporary defection
are common enough on the Liberal side. But this is a dis
tinctly different case from that of a man who, whilst permanently
holding and consistently advocating certain political views, sits
on the side of the House whence those -riews are persistently
opposed. Everybody would like to drop out of controversy one who
has the peculiar claims upon consideration which pertain to a
man whose strength is the weakness that comes with fourscore
years. But since Roebuck (or Roebuck's Indiscreet friends)
does not hesitate to challenge public opinion on this particular
issue, the truth must be told; and the truth about Roebuck
is that few men have so long enjoyed opportunities so large
and have used them to effect so little good. He has established
a claim upon the respect and esteem neither of persons nor
of parties. His hand has been against every one, and If a
hand has been held out to him with friendly intent he has
bitten it. He has snarled himself into notoriety, and has en
joyed the sort of consideration which one gives to an ill-
conditioned dog that follows at one's heels, and sniffs with
suspicious intent of presently snapping. Vain, self-seeking,
egotistical, unfaithful, and unloving. Roebuck has made no
friends in political lffe, and has won no esteem. That he should
now pose before the public as an injured patriarch, and should
whimper because somebody has taken the seat he abuses, is
evidence of declining mental power. Time was when he
would have been too acute to have put himself In so false a
position. May 30.— Death "The Angel of Death has passed over the
e ouse. House. You may almost hear the rustling of
his wings."What he has left after his passage is lying stretched on
two chairs in the Library — the stalwart frame of a man who
entered an hour ago, apparently in blooming health, and ready
for his usual night's work. Only last night Wykeham-Martin
made one of his few public appearances in the House. He has
BB

418 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1878.
been in Parliament over twenty years, but has, for the most
part, been content to sit silent, and vote with his party. Last
night, having a question to put about some unprincipled
person suspected of tampering with the purity of hops, he
mentioned that he had not put a question for ten years ; and
the House listened with a rare Indulgence, which it is now
pleasant to reflect upon, to the discursive and — using the word
in a Parliamentary sense — disorderly speech, with which he
prefaced his question. But he will never put a question, or
make a speech, any more, and the House has an uneasy conscious
ness that it should not be at work whilst the familiar figure is
lying covered with a table-cloth in the darkened Library.
One other has gone hence, whose step or voice will never
more be heard. This morning Russell Gurney died. Everybody
Is grieved, and feels as though he had lost a personal friend.
But Gurney was talking of retiring. He seemed to have made
up his account with life, and that he should have swiftly closed
It this morning Is sudden, but is not unexpected. More
over, he died a good many streets off. There is not the con
sciousness of all but personal contact with a dead body which
pervades the benches with the knowledge of near neighbourhood
to the Silent Member in the Library.
The House struggles on for awhile amid the gloom and the
strange silence that weigh upon It — a silence stranger because
everybody speaks in whispers, and members crossing the floor
walk softly, as though they were actually in the chamber of the
dead. Lowe attempts to discuss University Education in Ireland;
but his speech Is halting, his arguments are unwontedly confused,
and nobody seems to listen to him. Stafford Northcote sits on
the Treasury bench with hands buried in his coat sleeves, and head
held down under overhanging hat. It is evident that he would
gladly move the adjournment of the House ; but he fears lest
he should be accused of doing fresh injustice to Ireland by thus
interrupting, on so trifling a plea, a debate in which the Irish
members are interested. At length Bowyer, for once in harmony
with the general feeling, moves the adjournment, and everybody
gladly goes home, quitting hastily a scene of busy life Into
which Death, probably after having strolled around the tombs
In Westminster Abbey — has suddenly thrust his appalling
presence.

1878.] ME. EOEBUCK BEPULSED. 419
May 31.— Vica- Apropos of the despatch of Indian troops to
nous bravery. Europe, the following parody on the popular
music-hall doggerel is circulated in the House : —
" "We don't want to fight ;
But, by jingo, if we do.
We'll stay at home and sing our songs
And send the mild Hindoo." *
Juue 2. — Lord Seated respectively above and bclow the gangway,
ChuTchiu^and ^^^^^ might have been observed, one evening in
Lord Charles the Summer of 1878, two young men of noble
mien and ancient lineage. If the stranger had
been called upon to decide which of the two was the elder, he
certainly would have claimed seniority for him that sat below the
gangway. Slighter In build, not quite so straight In the
shoulders, and inclined to be sallow in complexion. Lord
Randolph Churchill lacks the physical bloom of Lord Charles
Beresford. Lord Charles has spent a useful life on the ocean
wave, and for nearly twenty years has done business on the
Great Waters. Lord Randolph has stopped ashore, has burned
the off at midnight, and has of late suffered from a consuming
fire of marvel and indignation at .the Ministerial existence of
Sclater-Booth. Lord Charles has never known what it Is to feel towards any
human being as Lord Randolph feels towards the hapless
President of the Local Government Board. Life has been to
him a pleasant yacht voyage, and the summer sky under which
he sailed has never but once been overclouded, and then it was
by a countenance of Eastern cast. Innocent, confiding, artless,
but changing, as he steadfastly gazed, into an aspect of appal
ling duplicity, and of an infinite capacity for unlawfully cashing
cheques. For a moment, perhaps for a day. Lord Charles's
views of life and his fellow-men were coloured by the dis
covery of Tom Fat's iniquity. But the effect was temporary,
* " We don't want to fight ;
But, by jingo, if we do,
We've got the men, we've got the ships,
And we've got the money too."
This is the original of the refrain which has historic value as gi-\fing a name to a
temporarily predominant party in the State,
BB 2

420 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [i87 ,
the ever-welling fount of good-humour washing away the
gangrene.* With Lord Randolph it is different, Sclater-Booth never
betrayed his trust, nor is Lord Randolph poorer by a ten-pound
note because the President of the Local Government Board has
learned to write. And yet the fact of the existence of the right
hon. gentleman is ever present in his mind, weighing him down
with a load that is never eased, poisoning his joys and crippling
his energies. The spectacle of Sclater-Booth comfortably dis
posed on the Treasury bench -with his hands folded across his
chest, bis head thro-wn back, his nose in the air, and his counte
nance indicating a struggle between a natural tendency to go to
sleep and a consciousness that the President of the Local
Govemment Board ought to keep awake, Is madness to his soul.
When the right hon. gentleman rises to answer a question or
make a statement. Lord Randolph, after a violent struggle to
retain his self-possession, is fain hastily to quit the House.
This Is a sad blow to a young man just entering upon a
career. One of weaker mind would have sunk under the
infliction. Lord Randolph, finding It impossible to shake off
the depressing influence, seeks relief in the exercise of the
faculties of a legislator. Just as some men, who have been
smitten by a great calamity, or whose rigour Is sapped by a fell
disease, studiously divert their thoughts into new and strange
channels, so Lord Randolph searches in the deep pools of the
Irish Education question for relief from the ever-present con
sciousness of the existence of Sclater-Booth. On Tuesday night
he brought on a resolution dealing with this intricate question,
and gave fresh evidence that In Lord Randolph Churchill the
Conservative Party (if they can keep him) have the promise of
unusually high talents.
That he should step forward to deal with a question which
has distracted statesmen and destroyed ministries is not of Itself
surprising. But the interlude had a special attraction when It
was found that Lord Charles Beresford was prepared with an
amendment on the resolution of his noble friend. Lord Charles,
* Tom Fat, a Chinese boy, whom Lord Charles Beresford brought home and
installed as his personal ser-vant, made himself proficient in imitation of his
master's signature, gained possession of his cheque-book, and over a period of
some years robbed him of many thousand pounds.

1878.] ME. EOEBUCK BEPULSED. 421
as far as his special views could be gathered, is in favour of
denominational education. But the grounds upon which he
supported his plea would, perhaps, be scarcely acceptable to
Cardinal Manning. In brief. Lord Charles thinks that forms of
religion are in the extremest degree immaterial.
" Religion," he frankly conflded to the Speaker, " is all a
matter of birth," and as a good many people in Ireland are born
in the Roman Catholic faith. Lord Charles thinks they may as
well be educated in schools where Roman CathoUc formula; are
observed. This frank and sailor-like method of severing with a cutlass
the Gordian knot of the religious difficulty was particularly-
charming to Lowther. He forgot for a moment that be was
Chief Secretary for Ireland, and positively chortled with delight
as the youthful Lord Charles delivered from the moral elevation
of his white neckcloth these views about religious denominations.
" If a Buddhist or a Mahomedan runs straight, he has as
much chance of going to heaven as I have," Lord Charles sang
out on the starboard side of Lowther, whose unrestrained enjoy
ment of these heterodox views had drawn upon him the mild
and almost reproachful glance of the Chancellor of the Ex
chequer, If, at that moment, It had fallen to the lot of the Chief
Secretary for Ireland to rise and state the views of her Majesty's
Government on the subject, there is too much reason to fear
that he would at once have declared his acquiescence in " the
remarks of his noble friend behind him," and might even have
promised to bring in a Bill based upon them. Fortunately a
number of speakers interposed ; and Lowther, having an oppor
tunity of remembering his responsible position, contented himself
with privately conveying to Lord Charles Beresford the simple
but earnest inquiry —
" What about Tom Fat ? "
" Fat," said Lord Charles, in an audible whisper, " will cer
tainly be in the Fire." A constitutional deference for Parlia
mentary usage prevented his particularising the flames.
This all happened on Tuesday.; and to-night, with the ardour
of debate toned down, the two young men of noble mien and
high lineage (as mentioned at the beginning of this record) sit,
one above and one below the gangway, furtively regarding each

422 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1878.
other. John Manners, standing in a graceful attitude, with one
hand on the arm of the Speaker's chair, looks upon them with
l^aternal fondness. Generations have lived and laughed at the
immortal couplet in which Lord John pleaded for the preserva
tion of " our old Nobility," even at the expense of Laws and
Learning, Arts and Commerce. Let those laugh who win; and
Lord John may be forgiven the pleased smile which curls his
expressive features. For surely his Muse is justified when Lord
Randolph Churchill thus takes charge of Education in Ireland,
and Lord Charles Beresford is acknowledged by James Lowther
to be an authority on essential points of religion.
June 3.— A mo- Everybody Is sorry to hear that when the new
mem er. Parliament meets, the place which has known Sir
Frederick Perkins will know him no more. The senior member
for Southampton came in with the Parliament of 1874, and he
will go out with it. Why he should have taken this decision I
do not know, Southampton cannot be tired of him, having
shown its partiality by five times electing him chief magistrate.
The House of Commons Is not weary of him, for the best possible
reason. He belongs to a class of politicians which too lightly
leavens our latest Parliament, He is understood to be sound on
all 230sslble points where a Liberal politician might tap him.
Adam can always depend upon him when it is desirable to
marshal the serried ranks of the Opposition ; and if need be he
can make a decent speech, I remember well how gallantly he
stood up for Southampton, when on a summer evening long past
the late Ward Hunt was bombarded with recommendations of
towns which man and nature had combined to make eminently
and exceptionally suitable for the site of a naval college. Every
town on the south coast, from Dartmouth to Dover, had its
representative and its recommendation. But Perkins was able
to show that If there was a town in the three kingdoms in which
naval cadets might not only thrive but might be expected to
spring up spontaneously, Southampton was the place. Later, he
skilfully conducted a campaign against the singular determina
tion to adopt a site which was condemned by the report of the
Committee itself. I forget whether he won the day for South
ampton. But he certainly dashed the hopes of Dartmouth, and
if he did not succeed In having the college erected on the best

1878.] MB. EOEBUCK BEPULSED. 423
possible site, he averted the national calamity of having It built
on the worst.
But, save on this particular subject, with an occasional speech
in Committee, and a not infrequent question on a practical sub
ject addressed to a member of the Ministry, Sir Frederick has
been content to leave the weariness of talk to others. The
historian of his Parliamentary career will never be able to de
scribe how, when half a dozen members had determined to make
a night of it. Sir Frederick wrapped his martial cloak around
him and laid himself down in the library to sleep, with instruc
tions to the attendant to call him as often as the division bell
rang. He has never stood on one leg and shaken his fist at the
Prime Minister. He has never defied Raikes, nor given occasion
to Captain Gosset to loosen his sword in its truculent-looking
scabbard. He has never been called to order by the Speaker,
He has not even, like Sir Thomas Bazley, associated his name
and his presence with a particular seat. Natural modesty has
driven him to the uttermost end of the House, and when he has
risen to address the Speaker it has been from a seat as near as
possible to the door, thus affording means of strategic retreat
should his modesty be overcome by the concentrated attention
of the House, or the enthusiastic applause of an excited
assembly. Sir Frederick is, in brief, a fair model of the class of men
who form the backbone of the House of Commons, A prac
tical business man, he avoids much speaking, and is content
to assist in the performance of work. The House is sorry
that he must go, for it could better spare a more voluble
man. The people of Southampton may induce him to recon
sider his determination. If not, pray Heaven or Southampton
to send us an equally good man.
June 5. — The Henry Lennox is back to-day after a prolonged
Derby Day. absence, and haring carefully turned up his
trousers a couple of inches, so as to leave his ankles free from
impediment, is skipping about the House like a young fawn.
Like many other members. Lord Henry has been drawn down
to the House at this unprecedented hour by an unwonted attack
on the British Constitution, the better to resist which, Henry
Thynne is sternly on guard in the lobby. It is proposed that

424 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm.
the House, departing from its usage, shall sit on the Derby
Day, and a thrUl of horror has passed through the assembly,
Mr. Chaplin's The choscu champion on behalf of the time-
new coat. honoured adjournment is, naturally, Chaplin.
Perhaps a better man might have been found, since it appears
necessary that the topic should be treated lightly, and Chaplin's
forte does not lie in banter. He has, nevertheless, a few jokes,
and as the House of Commons is never so grateful to any as
to him who will make it laugh, or who even takes some pains
In that direction, Chaplin would have got on very well but
for his coat. This, it would appear, was a new one, and
Chaplin having apparently hurried down from his tailor's,
after having had the garment tried on, was hopelessly smitten
with imitative craze. Before he got to the third sentence he
had, with both hands, taken his coat by the collar, and, with
singular deftness, lifted it up, and lightly shaken it on his
shoulders, as a tailor does when It Is hinted to him that a
coat does not fit so well as it might. Then he turned his
attention to the fit about the chest, and spent some minutes
in carefully smoothing the coat in that direction, A laugh
behind appeared to suggest that perhaps the coat was not
such an admirable fit in the back as it should be ; so, whilst
he made mild little jokes about horse-racing, Chaplin earnestly
pressed his coat down at the back, pulled it, twitched it, and
smoothed it with laborious care.
It was very awkward that he should have worn this par
ticular coat upon an occasion like this. The Admiral, who
had been watching the performance with great concern, now
turned round in his seat, convinced that all was well. But,
after a few more increasingly mild jokes, the supposed mal-
adroitness of fit again pressed itself upon Chaplin's attention;
and, before the assembled Commons of Great Britain, he once
more went through the familiar process of " trying on," begin
ning at the collar, and going by easy stages to the back. Of
course this was an accident, but it rather distracted attention ;
and Chaplin's speech was not so successful as, for example,
that in which he once managed to rouse Gladstone,
But the untoward incident did not affect the division;
and when, in due course, Henry Lennox tripped forward to

1878.] MB. EOEBUCK BEPULSED. 425
assist in " telling," the majority was so large, and the cheers
so enthusiastic, that the demonstration quite overcame Lord
Henry, who simpered like a schoolgirl, and blushed with con
scious pride at the part he had prominently taken in defend
ing the British Constitution.
Jnne 13. — Mr. Housc resumes to-night after the Whitsun recess,
Fore^^^Poiioy'' ^^^ promptiy takes up the Ulimitable thread of
the debate on affairs In the East. Standing at
his too-familiar corner seat below the gangway, with a sheaf of
notes In his hand, a pair of pince-nez deftly fixed on the utter
most tip of his nose, so that he may look over them at his
audience or through them at his notes, the head well thrown
back, the lofty brow raised to catch the rays of sympathetic
light, the venerable grey beard spread out in sight of thoughtless
young men opposite, the restless body and the long arms which
can do anything but repose — this is Peter Rylands. " Any one
that studies 'istory," Peter says, dropping the "h" with his
spectacles. Peter has studied 'Istory, " au fond," as he would
say If he dare trust himself with the pronunciation. Fie is
full of 'istory, so full that he has not room for the initial
" h." He has taken 'istory in at the pores, and ff the House
will only listen he will demonstrate to it how "short-sighted
is the diplomacy of the Foreign Office."
But, alas ! the House will not listen. There are not many
here, and such as there are talk to each other of the weather,
of the Congress, of the past holiday, of the coming work, of
the pending dissolution, of anything that will distract their
attention from 'Istory and Peter. Hartington has not come
back yet, and Forster has missed an opportunity of figuring
in the seat of the Leader of the Opposition. Gladstone is
there, eager. Intense, and conversational. He talks without
pause to Dodson, doubtless inciting him to enlist In the jovial
company of the Shepherds, of which ancient mysterious order
he has just become a neophyte. Dodson listens quietly, and
from time to time sadly shakes his head. He seems to be
saying that he is getting too old for these little relaxations.
But Gladstone is not to be rebuffed, and talks away at him,
enforcing his arguments with incessant gesture.
On the Treasury bench there is a full muster of Ministers,

426 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
a united and a happy famUy, Cross, who has undertaken the
temporary charge of the Foreign Office, as he would undertake
to review the troops at Aldershot If Invited, Is persistently
and remorselessly pursuing the last remnant of finger-nail
an unrestrained appetite has left him. The Chancellor of
tbe Exchequer looks positively rosy, and has evidently been
sporting among the early haycocks down in Devonshire.
Bourke, whose courage enabled him to meet with a ghastly
smile the information that Charley had been preferred as
Common Serjeant of the City of London, has had the smile
stereotyped. He smiles, now, a wearied, mechanical smile, as
with arms folded and head hung down he " makes believe "
to listen to Peter, The Admiral Is there, of course ; but there
are not beyond him a dozen members on that side. Opposite
are three gentlemen on the front bench, four scattered about
the benches behind, and nine below the gangway.
Next to the orator, solemn, silent, brooding upon fate,
sits Edward Jenkins. Lower down, on the same bench, is
Plimsoll, who has come back to the House this session, and
is always deeply engaged in studying a paper, understood
among the irreverent to be Charles Adderley's patent of peer
age. Just behind the orator is that other great authority on
foreign affairs, Jacob Bright, and below him looms the portly,
pleased presence of Thomas Bayley Potter — " Old Bayley " as
Lowther calls him — the sturdy, simple-minded Radical, who
was not to be lured from his principles by the offer of the
monarchy of Malta, or the suzerainty of Ceylon.
These, some thirty in all, make up the audience before
whom Peter pours out the treasures of a mind which, for
comprehensiveness and grasp, has few equals and no rivals.
If they would only listen it would be some satisfaction.
Once he arrests attention as his voice is heard above the buzz
of conversation hurling a challenge at the Treasury bench.
" I Challenge the Home Secretary — where Is the Home
Secretary ? " Peter adds, obseiwing that Cross has left the
House. The voice thrUls through the audience, as thrilled through
Jack the Giant Killer the voice of the gentleman who " smelt
the blood of an Englishman," and would fain have drunk it.
"Then I ChaUenge the Chancellor of the Exchequer,"

1878.] MB. EOEBUCK BEPULSED. 427
Peter cried, changing, with great presence of mind, the address
of the cartel.
The House was suddenly attracted by this suggestion of
bellicose Peter and the mild Sir Stafford having a meeting
in the early morning. But it turned out that what Peter
" challenged " was only the production of some precedents,
and once more the House resolved itself into Committee of
Conversation, and amid the persistent hum of voices was heard
in fitful gusts Peter's voice reciting lessons In -"istory.
Mr. Edward After Peter came Edward Jenkins. When Jenkins
Jenkins. -^ Pj-^jj^g Minister he means to make Peter Chan
cellor of the Exchequer. In the meantime he seconded his reso
lution, and took the opportunity of abusing our great patriot-
statesman. Lord Beaconsfield. Jenkins has not succeeded in
making himself popular or attractive in the House of Commons.
But It cannot be denied that he is possessed of considerable pluck.
It requires no inconsiderable courage to stand up in Parlia
ment just now and say aloud of our illustrious Premier those
things which are current in daily conversation, and are written
in the political controversy of the last thirty years. It may
be further observed that, regarded in his public character, tact
seems absolutely absent from the constitution of the member
for Dundee. It cannot be said that he delights in running
his head against the stone wall of common usage in respect
of good manners and good taste. He does not know when he
does it. He has, in truth, only one standard of measure
ment : Does a particular course of action agree with his indi
vidual views? If so, good; if not, very much worse than
bad. Jenkins Is like the Man of Taste described by Bramstone,
Underneath every sentence of his many speeches you hear the
refrain — ¦ " This is true taste, and whoso likes it not
Is blockhead, coxcomb, puppy, fool, and sot."
His vituperation is worked on the principle of the swivel
gun. Some men are content to abuse their opponents. The
catholicity of Jenkins's contempt renders invisible the lines of
demarcation, either of private friendship or of party fealty. He
Is as ready to instruct or denounce Hartington as he is to

428 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [i87s.
impeach Lord Beaconsfield, and will gird at Gladstone with as
much satisfaction as he will knock on the head Stafford North
cote, Brought to the test of his own perfectibility, all men are
convicted of error, and if the pleasure had not worn off with
undue repetition, there would be no spectacle more pleasing than
that of Edward Jenkins standing below the gangway, and from
the altitude of his own superiority beating together the heads
of Ministerialists and gentlemen of the Opposition,
This habit of impartial condemnation has resulted in minim
ising his personal popularity. Not to put too fine a point on It,
he is perhaps one of the least-liked men In the House, The dif
ference of the attitude of the House towards him and Peter, for
example, is strongly marked. Both are regarded as bores, and
each is accused of a pretentiousness to a superiority of intelli
gence, information, and statesmanlike ability wholly unjustified
by their acquirements. But whilst Peter is gently jeered and
good-humouredly chaffed, Jenkins is howled at with undisguised
animosity. It is recognised that Peter has no eril intention.
He really believes that he knows more about all poUtical ques
tions, especially questions of foreign politics, than any authority,
ancient or modern, and he talks in obedience to irresistible
natural impulses. He would not hurt a fiy, and though he has
shown himself very bellicose of late, and has with outstretched
hand fiercely denounced Turkey and all Its works, it Is probable
that if a Bashi-Bazouk were to stray within the paddock of
Massey Hall, Peter would take him in and feed him, provide
him with a short pipe, and do nothing worse to him than explain
how he saved fourteen-pence on the Ciril Service Estimates, and
hint that if Bashi-Bazoukery ever wants a financial regenerator,
a la Goschen In Egypt, a letter addressed to Massey Hall,
Cheshire, would reach the proper hands,
Jenkins, on the contrary, selects with deliberation, and
ostentatiously parades, the worst things he can say about those
who differ from him. He turns over In his mind a few phrases
modelled on the style of the late Mr. Disraeli, brings them
down to the House, and delivers them in a passionless manner,
cunningly designed to add to their effect. He lays himself
out to stroke the House of Commons the wrong way, and the
measure of his success Is bounded only by the, absence of im
portance attached to his remarks.

1378.] "PEACE WITH HONOUE." 429
But withal Jenkins is a man of courage, and courage is
always admirable. It may be in this case that his disregard of
the opinion of the House arises from an incapacity to
understand the impulses and general notions on which that
opinion is formed. However that be, the fact remains,
that if there is anything that should be said, and from
saying which men of more sensitive natures shrink, here is a
man that will say it. Moreover, Jenkins will say what he has
at heart in a very presentable manner. He is, as a speaker, at
least up to the average of the House of Commons. His
addresses are not lacking in literary finish. He has a good
voice, and a manner of delivery which, though carefully studied,
and in the course of a long speech apt to grow monotonous,
has in it the making of a good style. If he were only more
doubtful with respect to himself, and more deferential in the
presence of others, his political career would speedily become
more profitable to the country and less unpleasant to his
friends.

CHAPTER XXXI.
PEACE WITH HONOUE.'

Loud Voices — Some Scotch Members — Mr. Dimcan McLaren — Mr. Dalrymple —
Mr. Ramsay — Mr. Yeaman — Sir Edward Colebrooke — An impressive Orator
—The Brothers Harcourt — The Country Gentleman — The Politician — A
new Method of Strangulation — An exciting Scene — Lord Beaconsfield's
Speech on his Return from the Berlin Congress — Lord Derby's little Joke.
Jmie 19.— Loud There are several members of the House who
voices. j^^^g ^ j^^^ voice. Marten, Robert Montagu,
and George CampbeU, for example, speak above a whisper.
But Synan, whose recent unexpected return created such a
sensation in the House, positively and literally shouts at the
top of his voice. This carried through a speech of an hour's
duration, becomes, it is easy to understand, slightly deafening to
those within hail. It is curious to observe the benches around
where Synan sits empty as he proceeds. When he was shouting
his sentiments to-night on the question of University Education

430 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm.
in Ireland, Lowther was observed walking hastily along the
lobby leading from the House.
" Halloa ! where are you going ? " said a member, sur
prised that the Chief Secretary for Ireland should absent him
self from an important discussion with which his department
was chiefly concerned,
" I am going on to the Terrace to hear Synan," said James,
hurrying off.
June 20.— Some Strangers to-night, and any who may survive
Scotch mem- ^-^^ experience of Tuesday, -wiU ever connect the
House of Commons with the dreariest, deadest
level of human assemblages. It Is difficult to say which has
proved the more depressing topic, the Scotch Church question or
the mystery of Scotch Roads and Bridges. The only Intelligent
notion an outsider could be expected to bear away with him
would be that there are as many sects in Scotland as there are
roads and bridges. Another idea he would gather-is one of marvel
at Duncan McLaren's intimate acquaintance alike with churches,
roads, and bridges. The senior member for Edinburgh has an
Insatiable appetite for details and flgures, and the only mistake
he makes is his belief that other men are equally avid.
Mr. Duncan To-nlght McLaren's world Is bounded by Scotch
c aren. Roads and Bridges, and he has come down pre
pared with blue books and extracts, with the amiable Intention
of making the House fully acquainted with the business.
Standing in the corner seat, with hands clasped and sad entreaty
stamped upon his face, he tells a story which would doubtless
be agonising if It were audible. But — timorously to repeat
what Sir George Campbell has been flouted for openly saying —
there are times when McLaren's voice sinks below the key at
which it Is audible throughout the House. The inconvenience
is Increased by a habit he has contracted of confidentially
addressing the blue book or report he holds in his hand.
Members turn restlessly in their seats, and ery " Agreed ! " as
McLaren, having deliberately strolled down one side of a Road
ten miles long, crosses the Bridge, and proceeds to walk up the
other side. The Admiral snorts Impatience and coughs depre
cation. McLaren takes no notice till the sounds begin to drown

1878.] "PEACE WITH HONOUE." 431
his voice, and then he announces that " if hon. members do not
care to hear what he has to say, they can go away, but he
means to say it."
Amongst the most impatient auditors Is Lord Elcho, who
cannot understand why any man should want to make a speech
after he (Elcho) has set forth his opinion. It Is a peculiarity
about the noble lord's Parliamentary oratory, that he rarely
begins a speech without the remark, " I should not have risen,
but  " In the course of a session "huts" are never lacking,
and Elcho rises often enough, having first folded the orders of
the day In the form of a baton, with which he enforces his
arguments. The Lord Advocate has attempted to add an adventitious air
of lightness to the debate by assuming a white hat, and,
generally, a jaunty appearance. He lays aside the former from
time to time, and, approaching the table, offers a few observa
tions in that intonation peculiar to the trained reciter of blank
verse. Half a dozen of the rare Scotchmen whom constituencies
north of the Tweed return to ParUament to sit on the Conserva
tive benches, are in their places, prepared to back Ministers In
any assertion they may make.
Mr. Dalrymple. Dalrymple has astonished everybody by making
a speech in which he disclosed quite unexpected
powers of sarcasm. This was on Tuesday night, when W.
Holms's amendment was under consideration. Dalrymple speaks
again to-night, but does not renew the effect, though he pre
serves the Identical manner. Differing from Goschen, Dal
rymple derives sustenance for his oratorical powers by rubbing
his shins against the bench before him. Goschen, It will be
remembered, is stricken dumb If by any accident his calves miss
the companionship of the sharp edge of the bench behind him.
With Dalrymple the effect is the same, though from a different
application. He presses his right leg against the bench before
him, and ff In the course of his remarks he accidentally removes
it from the point of contact, his voice suddenly dies away,
rising again when, noting the accident, he leans once more
against the bench.
When this is satisfactorily arranged, he can make some
good points. Nature has gifted him with a curiously blase

432 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
aspect. You might expect him at any moment to declare
that " man does not please me, nor woman either," He
seems to have gone through everything, and wearied of all.
For McLaren to throw himself thus enthusiastically Into
such a question as that of Roads and Bridges is attributable
to youthful enthusiasm, Dalrymple has run through the
Roads and Bridges stage, and has found all vanity. He
says as much to-night In a brief speech brought to a sudden
conclusion by his having inadvertently withdra-wn his right
leg from contact with the bench. His speech closed there
naturally, as It might have closed at any other stage of the
opening sentences. Happening just here, Dalrymple did nnt
care to set the machinery in motion again, and abruptly sat
down. Mr. Ramsay. Ramsay is a model Scotchman of the type which,
perhaps, exists rather in the vulgar imagination
than to any extent in real life. Heaven has been bountiful to
him in many things, but has utterly denied him the sense of
humour. Life is to him — as it was to Rab, that memorable
Scotch dog — " a serious thing." In the course of a long and
useful life he has observed people, even in the House of Com
mons, open their mouths wide, roll their bodies about, and emit
curious sounds, something between a shout and a shriek. He
knows that this is called "laughter." But how laughter is
made, whether it is a temporary indisposition like whooping-
cough, or whether it is an hereditary disease like the gout,
liable to break out at any time, he is not sure. All he knows
is, that it is rather unpleasant, and, on the whole, a waste of
time. Not that he is himself a morose man. He is pleasant
and affable in manner, and has a remarkable acquaintance with
all that relates to public affairs in Scotland. But he Is notable
for this, that while a sense of humour is, with most men, a
matter of degree, he is absolutely devoid of It. To-night,
having placed on the paper an amendment that would take
Raikes at least a quarter of an hour to read, he gravely in
terposed with the remark that perhaps the amendment might
be taken as read. He was alarmed by the sudden outbreak of
one of those uproarious manifestations he has heard alluded to as
" laughter ; " but he felt quite sure that he had not been guilty

1878.] "PEACE WITH HONOUE." 433
of making a joke, and vrith much evident self -communing
arrived at the conclusion that the " Comm-tee," as he calls it,
had gone a little daft.
Mr. Yeaman. Yeaman, sitting on a back seat, is content with
turning the Bill over and over, and looking won
drous wise. The only thing that Yeaman professes to under
stand Is the Eastern Question, and with respect to that he has
an infaUible guide. His process is to the following effect : In
private conversation, ff any phase of the Eastern Question
is discussed, he wUl say, " Ah ! well, yes," varied by " Ah !
well, no." Should the matter become subject for debate in
the House, he sits all through the discussion looking increas
ingly wise as the debate proceeds, and when the division is
announced, he just follows the Marquis of Lome into which
ever lobby he may go. This, he finds, saves a deal of trouble,
and is, on the whole, satisfactory. Lome is in his place to
night as becomes a Scotch member, and sits through as much
of the debate as he can. George Balfour, having made a
passionate appeal to the Secretary of State, has left the House.
\ ToUemache Sinclair has taken to sit below the gangway since
that night when Gladstone conversed with, a friend whilst he
(Sir ToUemache) was making a speech on the Eastern Question.
Edward Colebrooke is on his feet again, and I am falling into
that troubled sleep in which most members are wrapt.
Sir Edward The light fades ; the figures on the floor of the
oiebrooke. House intermingle ; the canopy of the Speaker's
chair gently leans forward and extinguishes Raikes; a thick
Scotch mist envelops the familiar scene ; and through It all I
can hear, mellowed as ff by distance, the rasping voice of Cole
brooke with its curious lapses into inartlcularity :
" Mr. Raikes, the hon. member below me, has — naar — naar
— naar — attempted to show that the inhabitants of Glasgow pay
— naar — ^naar — naar — more than they ought to — naar — naar —
naar — ^naar  "
Jime 27.— An im- The dIscussion of the regulations with respect to
pressive orator, ^^^^j^ naturally brings Barttelot to the fore. Sir
Walter occupies a unique position in the House, and he feels the
cc

434 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn'
responsibility. He delivers his opinions with a deliberation, an
emphasis, and a vigour of gesture which create the profoundest
impression in the Strangers' Gallery. It is impossible to pre
cisely describe In words the manner of the baronet's speech. But
I have taken down, " verbattim," as Biggar says, a few remarks
made by him just now, when opposing Forster's resolution on
Cattle Plague Orders. If the intelligent reader will, whilst he
recites aloud this passage, fill up with brief pauses the spaces
indicated, will raise bis voice In accusatory tone where he finds
words in italics, and will threaten with denunciatory gesture
anybody who may be in his immediate neighbourhood, he -will
afford himself and his family some notion of what we hear in the
House of Commons when Sir Walter Barttelot is speaking : —
"Yet he knows — and — knows fall well — in the — position he
occupies — making a proposal of this kind — must be one — which
— must be — fatal — to — the Bill. No one knows better than the
right hon. gentleman — no one — knows so well — as the right
hon. gentleman — that when — he — raises a great question of this
^«'»(i— upon a Bill of this sort, — namely upon the second reading
— of — this Bill — that that proposal — that he makes — is abso
lutely against the principle — of — the Bill. Now, I — ^de — ny —
that the principle — of — this Bill — Is confined — and is to be found
— in the 5th schedule — of — the Bill."
Here is another sample taken a few minutes later : —
" Now Denmark — it is a remark — able country is Den —
mark — for — we have little — or no — dis — ease from Den — mark.
The importation — from Den — mark^Is something like fifty-six
— thousand — cattle — and the curious part of it Is this that nine
teen — thousand — of these — were — cows — and these cows came
— to — this country — and — had been allowed to go — all over —
this country — and — I have never yet heard — that these cows
— that — have so — gone over this country — have spread any
disease — in this country — ,"
The effect of this impressive speech upon the House, more
particularly upon the country gentry, is highly gratifying.
'They plume themselves upon the heaven-born oratory of one of
their o^vn number, and whilst Sir Walter is speaking, Greene,
who sits on the other side of the gangway (and is freed
from those anxieties with respect to his hat which flutter the
soul of Walpole (who sits just below the energetic baronet),

1878.] "PEACE WITE EONOUB." 435
looks proudly and confidently at gentlemen opposite as one who
should say :
" You talk ab'out your Gladstones and your Brights ; what
do you think of this ? "

June 28. — The It Is a trite expression that history repeats itself,
TOT^r't^'"' ^^'^' ^'1* *^® triteness implies a foundation of truth,
and nowhere is this more apparent than in the
ease of the brothers Moses and Aaron, and that of the brothers
who represent the city of Oxford and the county of Oxford,
"I am not eloquent," Moses pleaded when he was selected for
his great work : " I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue."
And the answer came back, " Is not Aaron the Levite thy
brother ? I know that he can speak well."
Thus might Colonel Harcourt have answered when Invited
by the electors of Oxfordshire to go forth and save the State
at a time when it was menaced by the haters of the lowly Turk.
" I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue," said the Colonel
to the deputation that waited upon him,
" Is not Vernon the Liberal thy brother ? " quickly asked
the spokesman of the deputation, " We know too truly that he
can speak not' only well but much,"
And so the Colonel's scruples were overcome, and now he
sits dumb but watchful on the Conservative benches, the spare
form of the Admiral just In front of him brought out in relief
by the bountfful expanse of his white waistcoat.
Apart from this mark of modern civilisation there is much
about Colonel Harcourt that reminds one of the historic Moses.
Had Moses been returned to the ninth Parliament of Queen
Victoria he certainly would have sat on the Conservative
-benches, A man of few words, inclined for action rather than
rhetoric, he would never have felt comfortable on the same
benches as Fawcett, Joseph M'Kenna, Rylands, and Parnell.
He would have taken kindly to Hartington, but I much doubt
whether he would have made a bosom friend of Gladstone.
As for Biggar, he certainly would have been playing tricks
with him, and the progress of an Irish debate would have been
startlingly interrupted by the attention of the Speaker being
called to the fact that the Member for Cavan had been trans
formed into a brazen serpent.
cc 2

436 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1878.
The country The expression on the Colonel's face varies in
gentleman. ^^ appreciable degree. Even when his gifted
brother is addressing the House only the acute observer may
discern that his countenance is sicklied o'er with a pale cast
of disgust. That people like O'Donnell, Rylands, and Camp
bell should deliberately rise from a sitting posture and talk,
without interval, for a space of from thirty to one hundred
and twenty minutes is to him a matter for pure wonder.
But when one's own brother gives way to this weakness the
matter grows past bearing. The Colonel never removes his
glance from his brother as he stands at the table and beats
the box and goes through a gymnastic exercise imitated, like
his other oratorical accomplishments, from the great man who
is now Lord Beaconsfield. Aaron knows that the quiet glance
of Moses is upon him, and although, with characteristic auda
city, he attempts to disguise the conviction, it works upon
him with undiminished effect. His gestures grow -wilder, his
voice is louder, and his manner betrays a restlessness that
causes Hartington to edge a little further from the neigh
bourhood of the box. But the empty show cannot long be
maintained. The steady glance, in which wonder, contempt,
and sorrow rather than anger mingle, acts upon Aaron with
slow but Irresistible effect, and having braved it for a space
of time that speaks wonders for his courage and determination,
he abruptly sits down.
The pohtician. This is probably the secret of Sir WiUiam
Harcourt's desertion of the assembly in which
he was formerly so prominent a personage. When the new
Parliament met, the ex-SolIcItor-General was pretty constant
in his attendance, and, largely exercising his new-born privi
lege of speaking from the front bench, caused much uneasi
ness to Forster, who " cannot abear these young men " aping
the leadership. Very early in the history of the new Parlia
ment he distinguished himself by turning upon the man who
had bestowed upon him his title, attacking him with a
violence of which Chaplin's performances are a poor copy.
When the leadership was settled by the steady advance of
Hartington in the confidence of the party and the favour of
Parliament, the commanding figure of Sir William Harcourt

1878.] "PEACE WITE EONOUB." 437
grew less familiar. A year later he had brought to the highest
degree of perfection the art of turning up promiscuously in a
debate and settling the matter at Issue off-hand in a few
cheery remarks. Between eleven and twelve o'clock at night,
arrayed in evening dress and with a crush hat lightly but
firmly held under his elbow, he would steal softly up the floor
of the House and throw himself upon the front Opposition
bench. Probably the debate in progress was one which had
occupied members throughout the sultry watches of the night.
They may have sat all through it in the honest endeavour to
master the argument on either side, and were now desirous
of setting forth the conclusion at which they had arrived.
To these commonplace people it was unspeakably exasperating
presently to flnd Sir William Harcourt on his legs, with an
after-dinner glow upon his manly features, summing up the
whole case, delivering judgment, and sentencing somebody — a
friend as often as a foe — to instant and ignominious execution.
It has, naturally, sometimes happened that he has betrayed
his absolute ignorance of the course of the debate. Something
may have been said about nine o'clock which altered the issue
as set forth on the Orders of the Day, This was awkward,
but not fatal ; and as for the sneers and cutting remarks of
members who dwelt upon the inaccuracy, that was the spice
of the whole entertainment. The debate, hitherto dull, would
take a sudden turn. Possibly the particular interest dealt
with would have Its importance obscured amid the clash of
personal attack and defence. But at least matters had been
made lively, and Sir William, with folded arms and pleased
countenance, surveyed the erewhile tranquil scene now dis
turbed beyond hope of subsidence.
Moreover, it looked well in the raorning papers next day
to find Sir William Harcourt among the list of speakers.
Appearing at the tail end of the debate, it would be evident
to the reader, at Oxford or elsewhere, that Sir William, scorn
ing the delights of society, and anxious chiefly to do his duty
to his constituency and his country, had spent the whole of
the evening listening to this dull debate, and had finally inter
posed to infuse into it the life and light born of culture and
an accurate and exhaustive knowledge of law.
But the Colonel has changed all that. The versatile and

438 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1878.
volatile man of learning, who claims kinship with the sove
reign through the house of Argyle, and who has been known
(though this happened a long time ago) to shake hands vrith
Macdonald, has faced without flinching the laughter of the
House of Commons, the rapier thrusts of Disraeli, and the
sledge-hammer blows of Gladstone, But the cold, steady stare
of the member for Oxfordshire freezes him. With this familiar
figure directly opposite him he cannot sing the old songs and
dare not invent the new. So he has forsaken the House, and
Hartington, having no one to edge him up on the right, is
beginning to drift farther and farther away from the box on
the table which marks the place of the Leader of the Opposition,
and Forster, with his legs more than ever all over the place, is
sunning himself in the warmth of unexampled prosperity,
July 1.— A new A remarkable simile was put forward thls-after-
stranau?atioi°' noon In the uncongenial atmosphere of a Com
mittee-room in the House of Commons, ¦ The
subject under consideration was the East ' London Railway
Company's Bill, and among the witnesses was KnatchbuU-
Hugessen. In the course of his evidence he compared the
Company to a man struggling In deep water with two heavy
weights attached to his legs, who, unless a rope were thrown
to him, would be strangled !
This comes of writing fairy tales. It is only in Wonder
land that men are strangled by means of heavy weights
attached to their legs,
July 16.— An ex- Mr. Giles, newly-elected member for Southamp-
citmg scene. ^^.^^ .^-^^ made his maiden speech in opposition to
the Government under whose banner he had won bis election,
to-night further distinguished himself by engrossing, for a few
throbbing seconds, the anxious attention of tbe House of Com
mons, It happened during the debate on the Cattle Diseases
Bill. The Government, abjured on all sides, had just received a
fresh stroke from Sir Frederick Perkins, who, speaking on behalf
of the important constituency of Southampton, urged its claims
to compensation under the Bill. Whilst the cheers at this new
opposition were rising up from the Liberal benches, a figure was
observed suddenly to dart forward down tbe gangway between

1878.] "PEACE WITE EONOUB." 439
the Ministerial benches. At first it was thought it was George
Balfour gone astray and grown suddenly white. But, upon
closer inspection, the figure was recognised as that of Giles, who
bears a striking resemblance to what Sir George Is likely to be
when he has dwelt another ten years in this vale of tears, where
a man is not allowed to make long speeches, and where existence
Is preserved to Secretaries of State, It is one of the funda
mental principles of tbe British Constitution that no man may
address the House of Commons whilst standing in the gangway.
Giles happened to be sitting on the top bench. Immediately
facing the gangway ; and, in the innocence of his heart and the
excitement of the moment, he dashed from under the shadow of
the gallery, and stood in the gangway with hand uplifted, like
an elderly Ajax defying the sheet lightning.
A roar of painful astonishment went up to the glass roof of
the House, and Erskine May, seated at the table, folded his
hands and dropped his head as if Parliamentary life had at
last grown unbearable. There is nothing moves the House of
Commons so swiftly and suddenly as a breach of any of those
little rules of debate which serve to preserve decorum. When
on a memorable occasion Plimsoll stood on one leg and shook
his fist at the Prime Minister, it was not the imperfect means of
support thus selected, or even the forcible recognition of the pre
sence of Disraeli, that shocked the House and raised the roar of
execration. It was the fact that the member for Derby had
crossed the red line marked upon the matting — that "thin
streak of red " that gave as much trouble to Lord Eslington as
did the Une of the British Guards at Alma to the Russians —
and was speaking midway on the floor.
Poor Giles had not the slightest notion why the House was
shouting at him. He stood there endeavouring to lift his in
dividual voice above the roar, trembling in undisguised alarm at
this manifestation of discourtesy from an assembly from which
he had still the right to expect the consideration always paid to
a new member. Nor was his perturbation lessened by the fact
that Newdegate had hold of his right coat-tail and was hauling
him in as a "ship Is warped into dock, whilst Barttelot was
strenuously seconding the motion by shouldering him in on the
left. Giles, however, felt that the honour of Southampton was
at stake. That he should be thus set upon in the face of the

440 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm.
House of Commons by two ordinarily quiet gentlemen, with
whom he was at least on speaking terms, was wholly incom
prehensible to him. But the calls of duty were firmer than the
grip of the baronet's hand on his shoulder, and the ties of his
constituency stronger than the thread that bound to his garment
the coat-tail which Newdegate clung to.
Nor was Giles a man to be put do-wn by clamour. So he
stood for several seconds, planted firmly In the gangway, amid a
scene of growing excitement. At length numbers prevailed over
individual courage, and Giles being hauled into dock, discharged.
his cargo of observation In disproof of what his colleague had
said. When he had finished he was allowed to back out, and
retumed to his seat on the top bench facing the gangway.
But all was not yet over. When he resumed his seat Dilke
rose, and In a few words showed that Perkins was right and that
Giles, in his renewed fidelity to the Government, was wrong.
As soon as Dilke had made an end of speaking, a thrill went
through the House, A thickly-set figure, wearing a coronet
of scanty white hair and abundant whiskers of the same hue,
flashed for a moment from under the gallery, and lo ! here was
Giles once more flrmly set in the middle of the gangway, with
uplifted hand and an evident desire to make a speech, A simul
taneous roar burst forth from both sides of the House. With
great presence of mind Newdegate once more seized his friend
by the coat-tall, and Barttelot bringing up the reserves on his
flank, Giles was by a simultaneous movement again hauled into
dock, and the gates, as it were, shut upon him. Haring said
what he freshly had at heart, Giles — who was now growing
accustomed to this process of debate, which he mentally com
pared, to its disadvantage, with that in vogue in the Southampton
Town Council — left the dock and steamed back to his anchorage
under the gallery, where he remained in a semi-dazed condition
till the adjournment.
July 18. — Lord It was charming to see how Lord Beaconsfield,
fpTeXon^ his ^^'^^ ^^'°™ Berlin, bringing "Peace with Honour,"
return from entered just now, as if nothing particular were
CongrSr^'" the matter, and as ff the last thing in the world
he expected was to find the House of Lords
crowded from the floor to the roof of the canopy over the

^ik

1878.] "PEACE WITE EONOUB." 441
Throne. In the same unpretentious and unexpected manner he
had, a few minutes earlier, quitted the dull-looking house at the
bottom of Downing Street. Whilst the thoughts of all the
world were centred at Westminster, and whilst some thousands
of hero-worshippers were thronging the gates of Palace Yard,
the hero of the day was quietly walking down Parliament Street
bent upon recommencing his Parliamentary duties interrupted by
a trip to Berlin. He had not even done the day the honour of
specially dressing for it. When Gladstone is about to make a
great speech in the House of Commons, somebody — surely not
himself — brushes him up, "tidies" him, and puts a fiower in a
button-hole of his coat. Beaconsfield did not do all his dressing
in the far-off days when he wore ringlets and twirled a gold-
headed cane, dexterously attached to his wrist by a silken tassel.
Even now strangers may occasionally meet In the neighbourhood
of Parliament Street a notable figure making Its way through
the throng. They note how frail and weary the body seems,
how bent the shoulders, how sunken the cheeks, how leaden-
hued the lineaments. But they also note the dauntless spirit
which still affects a jaunty carriage, and makes-believe that
progress is slowly made only because there is no hurry. They
further observe with admiration the careful newness of the
accessories of the figure — the shapely coat of the lightest
material, the negligent but elegant neckcloth, the pearl-grey
gloves guiltless of wrinkle, and the glossy hat.
These things are, however, only for commonplace occasions.
To-day, which marks a crowning stage in a memorable career,
let us put on the old coat, the second-best hat, and the dingy-
brown trousers of long ago. Let us, also, walk down Parliament
Street instead of driving in a coach and four, and let us take by
surprise the crowd which has its back turned to us, and is
eagerly scanning the interior of the stately equipages which
drive into the Yard in quick succession.
A crowd in Palace Yard ! A surging multitude by the
railings ! Beaconsfield was never more surprised in his lffe.
What could be the matter ? Had some one in authority been
pulling up park railings, and was this ovation intended for the
champions of the popular right ? Had Gladstone been reducing
some taxes, or freeing the Church, or emancipating the land, and
was this the grateful throng come to sing pseans in his honour ?

442 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
Beaconsfield could not Imagine; but he walked slowly on. un
noticed, and crossing on the right-hand side, as if he were
making for the quietness and peace of the cloisters of West
minster Abbey, he turned sharply off to the left when he neared
the gates of Old Palace Yard. Then with a sudden rush and
a ringing cheer the surprised crowd closed round him, and
threatened to carry him off his feet.
And so they bore him Into the Houses of Parliament, whither
his colleagues of the Commons had already arrived, breathless
after the rush across tbe lobby. Here another surprise awaited
him. Instead of the empty benches over which the sound of
Big Ben chiming five o'clock usually booms, here was the
chamber thronged in every part. At the far end, piled head
over head, were the strangers in the gallery, and on either side,
packed equally close, were many familiar faces, often turned
upon him Iu " another place." This he saw, entering from
behind the Throne, and while making his way through a multi
tude of Privy Councillors in whom there was the wisdom to be
early in their places in the space before the Throne. Except one
kept vacant for him, a hurried glance round the benches showed
not a single empty seat, whilst from the galleries that run round
the chamber bright eyes looked down and rained influence upon
a Premier who is not only a politician but a courtier.
It is a summer day, and all the hues of a flower-garden are
blended In the soft lights of the rainbow which the beauty and
rank of the Empire form, and through which, after the storm
of the Congress, the sun shines down on the Prime Minister.
Royalty is not lacking to the stateliness of the historic scene.
If the Premier were to look up he would see In the gallery
straight before him the Princess of Wales, fairest among the
fair. But he does not look up. He has got over the surprise
that awaited him outside, and is satisfied with the glance around
which he took when first seating himself on the Ministerial
bench. Thereafter he relapsed Into his immobile manner, with
arms crossed and head held down, the observed of all observers,
himself observing none.
A profound silence, broken only by the rustling of fans in
the gallery, fell upon the assembly. The Premier had fortu
nately timed his entry so that all the private business was
disposed of, and no consideration of such topics as Vivisection

1878.] "PEACE WITH HONOUE." 443
or the Scotch Roads and Bridges Bill lowered the dignity of the
occasion. There was nothing to do but to listen to the eagerly
anticipated statement. At this moment an unseen hand flung
back one of the painted vrindows hear the roof, and a great beam
of white light flashed across the solemn gloom of the chamber,
bringing into sudden brilliancy the white lawn of the Bishops,
and falling upon the rainbow hues of the group at the lower end
of the gallery, just below the Princess of Wales. Salisbury
entered, and was greeted with cheers from his friends. As
if Beaconsfield were only waiting for the arrival of his companion
in the journey to Berlin, he now rose, and, advancing to the
table, was received with renewed cheers.
He commenced his speech with a measured cadence. But he
maintained this tone only for the first ten minutes, and happily
fell into a more natural and effective manner. Beginning by a
reference to the Treaty of San Stefano — " our impeachment of
which is detailed in the circular of Lord Salisbury" — he pro
ceeded to epitomise the results of the Treaty of Berlin, and to
compare them with the earlier instrument. This, as conveying
no new Information to the House, proved somewhat unentertain
ing, and was llS'tened to In undisturbed silence. He described in
detail the situation of Eastern Roumelia, and next discussed
Bosnia, with respect to whieh he made a statement, perhaps
generally new, that it was the Marquis of Salisbury who had
proposed to the Congress that Austria should occupy Bosnia and
that he was warmly seconded by his fellow-Plenipotentiary,
Passing on to argue against the supposition that Turkey had
been partitioned — " A country," he said, " may lose a pro-rince
and not be partitioned" — and having devoted nearly an hour to
these considerations, he reached Greece, He spoke rather In
sorrow than in anger of the expectations of that country, which -
he described as being that Congress had met to partition Turkey,
and that Greece was to have her share. But he was not without
a word of commendation for the Hellenic people.
" Greece," he said, " has a future," and he would say to her,
as he would say to an individual under the same circumstances,
" Learn to be patient."
The Prime Minister had approached the table without
eridence of the possession of notes of the important speech he
was about to deliver, and he spoke for the first quarter of

444. A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [187.
an hour without the assistance of memoranda. Commencing
his discussion of the Treaty of BerUn, he produced from the
breast-pocket of his coat a small piece of paper, to which he
occasionally referred. When, having spoken for an hour and a
quarter, his voice began to show signs of huskiness, Redesdale,
who was sitting at the table, handed him a glass of water,
which he drank. Thus refreshed, and quoting with satisfaction a
remark made by Bismarck when the Congress had concluded
the re-arrangement of European territory — "Turkey In Europe
once more exists " — he invited the House to "go with him
to Asia." As he had studiously and with insistence magnified the gains
of Turkey in Europe, so he now minimised the concessions made
to Russia In Asia. Kars he dismissed with the remark that it
had been thrice taken, and that In the " event of any fresh mis
understanding between Russia and Turkey it would be taken
again." As to Batoum, he laughed it to scorn. There was, he
said. In the world and in society, a general notion that Batoum
was a sort of Portsmouth,
" The fact is," he affirmed In the only passage of his speech
where he appealed for laughter, " that the port of Batoum will
hold exactly three ships. If they were packed, as closely as
vessels In the London Docks it might hold six ; but with the
wind in a certain direction the peril of these ships would be
excessive," These, he added, amidst cheers from the Ministerialists, were
not conquests we should grudge to Russia, He next touched on
what he called " The Convention of Constantinople," and ex
pressed his surprise to have heard that it had created any feeling
of alarm on the part of France — a Power for which, on behalf
of England, he professed the profoundest sympathy and regard.
The opinion of her Majesty's Ministers was, that the course they
had taken would arrest the destruction of Asia Minor, Failing
the Convention of Constantinople, Turkey In Asia must yield
to anarchy or to Russia, In yielding to Russia in Armenia,
England had said to her, " Thus far and no farther," Asia is
large enough for both of us. But the room we require we must
secure, and the Government, not shrinking from responsibilities
(" a Minister who shrinks from responsibility is not a prudent
Minister " he had said in an earlier part of his speech), had signed

1878.] ME. GLADSTONE AND TEE PEEMIEE. 445
the Convention of Constantinople and were prepared to carry out
its stipulations. Traces of recent study and of special association were discerni
ble in the Premier's bold use of the words gendarmerie and tapis,
and the deliberate, almost truculent manner in which he pro
nounced these words suggested that he regarded the occasion as
convenient to meet once for all the libel that he was not familiar
-with the French language. For the rest we were welcoming
back a familiar and unchanged acquaintance, whose ordinary
manner was ruffled only by a feeling of genuine surprise that
people should have thought he had done anything extraordinary,
and should gather in multitudes to cry " God bless him." Like
the late Mr. DisraeU, Lord Beaconsfield Is a plain man, who
honestly and unostentatiously performs the duties that lie to
his hand, and marvels that men should be greatly moved to
recompense him with plaudits,
July 19. — Lord Lord Derby, it is said, intends to move that. In
j^ke"^^ ^^^^^ recognition of a recent incident in the House of
Lords, a famihar proverb shall henceforth be
quoted. Cum grano Salis-hary,*

CHAPTER XXXII.
ME. GLADSTONE AND THE PEEMIEE,
The Great Grand-Nephew of his Great Grand-Uncle — A promising young
Member — Mr. Gladstone's Pomatum-Pot.
July 23. — The Smollett, member for Cambridge, as he Is careful
nephew oThis *» inform the public in Dod and elsewhere, "is
great grand- the great grand-nephew of the celebrated historian
and novelist." This is a pity, for had the con
nection not been established, Smollett might have passed through
hfe without giving offence. Heaven was not bountiful to him in
* The "recent incident" was Lord Salisbury's flat denial of the authenticity
of the version pf what is known as the Secret Treaty or the Salisbury-Schouva-
loff Agreement, the terms of which, were prematurely published in the Globe,
through the agency of Mr. Charles Marvin, a temporary clerk in the Foreign
Office.

446 A DIAEY QF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
the bestowal of those qualities which make men great. His
mind is, however, of the full average of intelligence, and though
he gained no honours at college, he at least had the advantage
of a sound education. What he lacks in superior mental acquire
ments is compensated for by an exceedingly gentle disposition.
Kind to a fault, and tender almost to weakness, he would stand
aside to let a worm safely cross his path. But the shadow of his
great grand-uncle has darkened his life. He has made an
admiring study of all that pertains to " the celebrated historian
and novelist," and though he himself can neither compile
histories nor construct novels, he has found it not Impossible by
diligent study to Imitate what he supposes was the manner of a
surgeon's mate of the last century.
The world does not lack information about Tobias Smollett.
It was written of him that " his conversation was a string of
epigrammatic sarcasms against one or other of the company."
As a writer he was what in these days Is called "personal,''
and was before Disraeli in the art of introducing into fiction
living personages under thin disguises. Dr. Moore, a eon-
temporary who tells what he knew of the great grand-uncle in
the preface to an edition of his works published at the close
of the last century, writes : —
" The person of Dr. Smollett was stout and well-proportioned,
his countenance engaging, his manner reserved, with a certain
air of dignity that seemed to indicate that he was not unconscious
of his own powers. He could not conceal his contempt of folly,
his detestation of fraud, nor refrain from proclaiming his indig
nation against every instance of oppression. He was of an
intrepid, independent, imprudent disposition, equally incapable
of deceit or adulation,"
A consideration of this sketch will explain much In the con
duct and character of the member for Cambridge, These are
not exactly tbe terms in which a dispassionate observer would
describe him, but they are, it may reasonably be supposed, pre
cisely the terms in which he would have himself described. The
result is not altogether successful. The great grand-nephew
follows the lines on which the great grand-uncle walked. But
somehow or other they do not recommend him to. his contem
poraries, whatever may be their effect upon posterity. Smollett
celebrated his return to Parliament in 187-1- by a speech in which

1878.] MB. GLADSTONE AND TEE PEEMIEE. 447
he coarsely attacked Gladstone. At that epoch this way of seek
ing notoriety was not so common as it is now. The merit of
the discovery belongs to Harcourt, who was the first to turn
upon his old chief. But Smollett, as became the great grand-
nephew, went farther than the gentleman whom Gladstone had
called up from below the gangway to bestow upon him rank
and office.
Smollett's close imitation of the great original has endowed
him with a curious Parliamentary manner. By way of showing
his disregard for forms, he addresses the House of Commons with
one hand in his trousers pockets, while with the other he enforces
an occasional objurgation or an excessive rudeness. He holds
his head down, and further shows his contempt for his audience
by speaking between his half -closed teeth. Thus he flung out
his abuse at Gladstone, to the uproarious delight of the Con
servatives, who had been long accustomed to the domination
of the statesman who now sat in the obscurity of the front
Opposition bench.
That speech was a success, and the great grand-nephew began
to dream of ecUpsing the great grand-uncle. He took an early
opportunity of repeating the experiment, selecting Lowe as the
next suitable object of attack. But the House did not care for
any more, and has cared less and less for Smollett's appearances,
till to-night he speaks in the hearing of six members. But it
does not become the great grand-nephew to display any vexation
at this untoward circumstance, so he stands in his familiar
attitude jerking out impertinences and delivering through his
teeth commonplaces poorly disguised in strong language.
The " certain air of dignity " which is recorded of the great
grand-uncle is absent from the great grand-nephew. But there
are not lacking indications that he also " is not unconscious of
his own powers." In truth, Smollett's contempt for the capacity
of everybody else is equalled only by the strength of his belief
in his own omniscience. His egotism would be ludicrous If it
were not Irritating.
" I had occasion," he said just now, " to take the Governor
of Madras to task In March last. I charged him with disloyalty,
and I asked for an explanation from the Secretary for India, and
as he gave me none I suppose he admits the charge."
Nd verbatim report will convey a just impression of the

448 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1878.
sublime air vrith which this sentence is delivered. Smollett is
quite grave, and absolutely in eamest, as, -with a harsh voice and
most truculent manner, he reminds the House of Commons that
he " had occasion to take the Govemor of Madras to task " 
he remembers the very month I — " in March last." After he
has said this there is an impression that nothing has been left
unsaid — except, perhaps, an expression of regret on the part of
the audience that an expeditionary force was not at once sent out,
with that celerity and completeness which distinguish British
military movements in the present day, and that the Duke of
Buckingham was not immediately seized and deposited in the
lowest dungeon beneath the castle moat. Barry Sullivan's
" Off with his head ; so much for Buckingham," is a mild ex
pression, alike in respect of sentiment, voice, and manner, as com
pared vrith SmoUett's " I had occasion to take the Governor of
Madras to task,"
Since nothing came of that warning, Smollett feels it his
duty to repeat It, Accordingly he " takes to task" the Duke of
Buckingham and his colleagues in the Government of Madras
in the following remark : — " These gentlemen ff they are not
imbeciles write very much as if they were imbeciles." Here,
again, one is conscious of lamentable inability to convey an Im
pression of the voice and manner -with which these atrociously
offensive words were uttered. Nor was comparison lacking to
complete the discomflture of the Duke of Buckingham. It
appears that a Mr. Jones had put forth, in writing on the
Vernacular Press controversy, a view contrary to that held by
the Duke of Buckingham, and in consonance with Smollett's
opinion, Happy Mr, Jones ! If he could have only heard to
night the new emphasis with which his not-unfamiliar name was
endowed, he would have died content,
"Me. Jones is eight," said Smollett: and then, after a
pause sufficiently prolonged for the House to master all that the
affirmation meant, he added —
'¦' I AGEEE WITH Me. JoNES."
The six gentlemen present did not laugh at this. They were
each waiting for an opening to make a speech, and were chiefly
concemed with the chance of being the first to catch the
Speaker's eye. But once a thrill went through them. Stan
hope looked up startled, and the Speaker moved uneasily iu his

1878.] ME. GLADSTONE AND TEE PEEMIEE. 449
chair. It happened anent George Balfour. That gentleman
had just sent forth one of those plaintive cries of " Hear !
hear ! " with which he is accustomed to intersperse speeches of
gentlemen who discuss India.
" The gallant gentleman cheers," said Smollett, " and I vrill
admit to the fool — "
The appositeness of this remark struck the House, and
though it was not strictly Parliamentary, that circumstance
would certainly not preclude its utterance from the mouth of
Smollett. Balfour looked round to see who was moving in his
defence and in vindication of Parliamentary debate. M'Kenna
did rise to his feet, but it was only a preliminary to taking his
hat and learing the House. Before anybody interposed, Smollett
had time to conclude his sentence, which ran thus: — "I vrill
admit to the fool all that has been said about these unjustifiable
annexations." Then it was perceived that the misapprehension
was due to Smollett's pronunciation of the word " full," and so
the storm blew over, and the member for Cambridge, having
exhausted his vocabulary of personal abuse, and ha-ring settled
the affairs of India, concluded his speech and left the House.
He had spoken, and if any other members, including the
Under-Secretary for India, were so foolish as to suppose that
after that event they could add anything in the way of infor
mation, instruction, or counsel, Smollett for one would not
encourage them, or waste his time by tarrying to listen.
July 25.-A pro- The Committee is dull this afternoon. The
mmifer.''"™^ Treasury bench is almost deserted, and Stanhope
has the opportunity of lying at full length if he
choose, and so sleeping the sleep of satisfied youth. But the
Under-Secretary observes decorum and the perpendicular position,
and sleeps and dreams vrith arms folded and chin resting on his
chest. He is dreaming that he may some day be Prime
Minister, and, surveying the prospect, it must be admitted that
the dream is not an idle one. Stanhope had the good fortune
to be born the son of an Earl, and of a family that has always
sought and found its career amid the clash of politics and affairs.
This accidental circumstance started him well in the race. But
he has already shown that there is a good deal of running in
him. He has made his mark deeper with every speech delivered
D D

450 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS, mn.
in the House of Commons, and most of all by the speech of
Tuesday on the Vemacular Press Bill. It is a long time since I
heard a speech so rich in promise.
The position was one full of peculiar difficulty. Gladstone
had brought forward a real grievance affecting critical issues,
and had urged his case in a speech of rare acceptability to the
House of Commons. Stanhope was only the other day appointed
to the India Office, and his acquaintance with the subject-
matter must necessarily have been hastUy acquired. He was
speaking at the conclusion of a tiresome debate which had
occupied several hours of a sultry night. Yet, as Stafford
Northcote generously said when he came to wind up the debate,
his speech left little for any other Minister to say. It was full
of debating power; its language was felicitous, and its manner
— a consideration scarcely less important than matter in an
assembly like the House of Commons — was unimpeachable.
Stanhope has neither the fussiness of self-conceit nor the
awkwardness of diffidence. He takes care to know what he is
talking about, and having the information, he retails it in an easy,
pleasant, and unembarrassed manner. The only fault that might
be suggested (and when perfection is so nearly attained it is
worth while to pay attention to anything that mars the whole)
is that he is apt to fall into a sing-song tone suggestive of
recitation. Apart from this, his Parliamentary manner leaves
nothing to be desired except, perhaps, a lightness of touch which
may come with added experience. Many young men try to be
smart at the outset. Stanhope, avoiding this unpardonable
offence, errs slightly on the side of sobriety. But for this and
much else he is to be commended. At an unusally early age he
has made his mark in the House of Commons, not in that brU
liant style in which young men sometimes fiash forth and then
disappear in everlasting darkness, but in a quiet, masterly manner
which justifies the hope of a distinguished future. He may sit
and dream on the lower end of the Treasury, bench. He wfll
move higher up before many years have passed over his head,
July 31. — Mr. Ncvcr during the existence of the present Par-
Gladstone's po- liament has Gladstone been able to observe In
matum-pot. , j. i •
the use ot his pomatum-pot a measure of de
liberation equal to that displayed to-night. This mysterious

1878.] MB. GLADSTONE AND TEE PEEMIEE. 451
vessel, which exercises a modest but important Influence upon
our principal Parliamentary debates, is brought into the House
only upon great occasions. It is of glass, oval in shape, two
and a half inches high, and closed with a cork with a wooden
top. These details may appear minute. But I dwell upon
them for the sufficient reason that I cannot further describe
the contents than to say they resemble a preparation for
the hair as it might look in sultry weather. Members who
aspire to oratorical success have wasted much valuable time in the
endeavour to ascertain the precise qualities of the substance
with which Gladstone lubricates his vocal organs during the
delivery of his orations. There are some conscientious Conser
vatives who believe it is obtained by boiling down a healthy
infant selected from the bosom of the family of a Conserva
tive elector. But this is evidently the outcome of prejudice,
and of an inclination to believe anything bad of Gladstone.
Whatever the bottle contains, it is carefully brought into the
House and cautiously deposited on a corner of the table -where it
is likely to be free from the sweep of the orator's arm. Thence
at convenient intervals it is produced, and Imperial ParUament
looks on in wonder as Gladstone, putting the stout neck of the un
gainly bottle to his lips, draws in the nourishment, and starts again
like a giant refreshed ; but not before he has carefully corked np
the bottle and replaced it in a situation of security on the table.
It is evident that, for the due and comfortable enjoyment of
this process, an appreciable interval in the toil of speaking is re
quired. There was a time, though not in the memory of members
of the present Parliament, when Gladstone might not only have
found time during the delivery of his speeches to absorb this
pomatumic substance, but might, if he pleased, have carved the
wing of a chicken to eat with it. In the last ParUament the
flow of his eloquence was wont to be interrupted by whirlwinds
of applause, during which he might gain -temporary rest or take
temporary refreshment. All that has changed -with the new Par
liament, and time after time Gladstone has poured his eloquence
into dull ears, and has made a long speech unbroken by a cheer.
The last time we had the pomatum-pot with us the subject
of debate was the everlasting Eastem Question. But the cir
cumstances Were different. At that epoch Russia and Turkey
held each other by the throat, and the other nations of Europe
DD 2

452 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm.
were standing with their hands on the hilts of their swords.
Many in the House of Commons, without going the full length
of attachment to Turkey and hatred of Russia, were fearful
lest the appearance of divided counsels in- England might en
courage Russia to proceed to extremities, and so finally drag
us into war. It seemed if not nobler, at least safer, to be
silent, and Gladstone, with his inconvenient Impulses, and his
unrestrained advocacy of what he held to be. right, seemed to
peril peace. So whilst the Conservatives hooted him, the
Opposition refrained from cheering him, and his recourse to the
pomatum-pot was a hastily-snatched joy, chilled by the silence
and embarrassed by the curious scrutiny of the House.
To-night all this was changed. Peace has been signed; the
Eastern Question is temporarily, at least, settled, and nothing
that Gladstone says or does can reopen the controversy. Mem
bers might give themselves up to the untrammelled pleasure
of listening to matchless eloquence, and to arguments subtly
conceived and vigorously enforced. No man by cheering could
help in the slightest degree to precipitate war. Gladstone was
saying now what he had said months ago, when only Mundella
and a few faithful members below the gangway cheered him.
He was unaltered, but circumstances had changed, and so had
the attitude of the Opposition. Accordingly the speaker was
sustained and cheered by a constant cannonade of applause,
and frequent irruptions of approving laughter. It seemed
that the hand of Time had put back the clock, and that the
Gladstone of 1870 was once more swaying the passions and
moulding the convictions of a subdued House of Commons. Of
an oration that lasted two hours and thirty-five minutes it is
probable that Gladstone was speaking for only two hours and
fifteen minutes. The Opposition, in a voice of unwonted unison,
filled up the other twenty minutes with cheering, an arrange
ment which gave Gladstone so much time for application to
the pomatum-pot that his sustenance was exhausted before his
speech was concluded. It was in Berlin, within the precincts
of the Radziwill Palace, that he first found the opportunity of
refreshing himself. He had a good drink in Bulgaria; he
supped heartily in Greece ; he nearly finished the bottle in
Cyprus ; and when he found himself in Asia Minor the most
determined suction failed in adequate result.

1878.] ME. GLADSTONE AND TEE PEEMIEE. 453
His speech of to-night will rank as one of the four greatest
delivered by him within the walls of the House of Com
mons. To many, still resting under the spell of its elo
quence, and amazed at the firm yet light grasp of detail, and
the surpassing method in which details were arranged and
displayed, it seems impossible that even Gladstone could ever
have excelled this feat. The speech was dangerously long,
and I am not sure whether it would not have been better if
the odd thirty-five minutes had been dispensed with. Yet, in
reviewing it, it is difficult to say what particular passages
might have been left out. He had provided himself with
voluminous notes, but a fatal economy in stationery led to
what might have proved a disastrous result. His memoranda
were made on the backs of letters of all sizes and shapes. To
keep them in consecutive order was an undertaking which
required absorbing attention, and more than once he had to
shuffle his notes as ff he were playing a card trick and had
lost the clue.
The result of this was that at one time, just upon the
close of the speech, he had shuffled to the top a page he
had already used. The catch-line of the note was the sen
tence, "But ff foreign Govemments have to complain of
this policy, how much greater cause has Parliament?" This
had reference to the secret agreement with Russia, and had
been dealt with in its proper place. Conling up again,
Gladstone had pronounced the sentence before he discovered
his error, and recognising at a glance the hopelessness of the
endeavour to find the proper sequence of the notes, he made
the best of the matter. But for some moments it paralysed
him, and he floundered as a vessel halts and staggers before
she stands away on a fresh tack.
This was near the end, and many who had not observed
the accident naturally concluded that Gladstone was growing
physically tired. The task was one that might well have
wearied a younger man. But the fact is Gladstone was to
all appearances as fresh when he had finished as when he
began. Throughout the whole space of time he was almost
gymnastieally vigorous. He has of late acquired — or, rather,
has developed — an evil habit of driving home his arguments
by smiting with his hand any resonant substance that may

454 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1878.
be near. Sometimes he stands a pace backward from the
table, and with all his might beats one hand upon the other
through a succession of several moments. More often he,
with resounding blows, assaults some particular book on the
table, a Blue Book by preference, as affording a substance
which combines a certain degree of flexibility with a full
capacity of resonance.
For higher fiights, and for clenching Important arguments,
he carefully reserves a large black box that stands in the
middle of the table. To reach this requires a considerable
effort, a stretching of the body across the table. But Gladstone
is not to be denied from time to time the rapturous delight of
beating that box. With concentrated rage, with flashing eyes,
with dilated frame that trembles in every nerve, and with an
absolute disregard of personal pain, he leans across and brings
down his hand with tremendous force on the lid of the in
offensive and astounded box. The effect is essentially ridi
culous and distinctly unpleasant. It distracts the attention
from the arguments to which the orator particularly desires
to draw attention, and breaks with discordant sounds the
melody of a rich, full voice. No one more quickly than
Gladstone would recognise these facts, and their not unim
portant bearing upon the object he has at heart. But it
would be idle to hope for reformation. He might at the out
set of a speech forswear the box and abjure the Blue Books.
But his eloquence reaches the rare heights of passion. In the
moments of his frenzy he loses all sight of material things,
and though to-night his hand. cannot fail to be wounded, he
would be honestly surprised if he were told how the un
comfortable feeUng had been brought about.
Incidentally he referred to the Premier's personal attack
upon him at the great Conservative meeting held on Satur
day in the Duke of Wellington's riding-school. Beaconsfield
then denounced him as "a sophistical rhetorician, inebriated
-with the exuberance of his own verbosity," and went on to
describe him as one "^^ gifted with an egotistical imagination
that can at all tirnes command an interminable and in
consistent series of arguments to malign his opponents and
glorify himself." Twenty-four hours ago, Gladstone said,
he had no intention of alluding "to this repulsive subject."

1878.1 A HOLLOW SESSION. 465
But reference having been made to it by Plunket, and it
haring formed the subject of discussion in the House of Lords
on the previous night, he had felt bound to write a letter to
Lord Beaconsfield, which he read amid profound silence, broken
by an isolated laugh from the Conservative side at the terms
in which he addressed his rival.
The letter, which began " Dear Lord Beaconsfield," called
the Prime Minister's attention to the fact that he was re
ported to have stated that Gladstone, in his speech at Oxford,
had described him as "a dangerous and even devilish
character." Further, that he had "indulged in criticisms
replete with the most offensive epithets as to Lord Beaconsfield's
conduct and In description of- his character." He asked the
noble lord to have the goodness to supply him with a list or
selection of the offensive epithets, and he remained, " my dear
lord, faithfully yours, W, E. Gladstone."
Gladstone said he had not yet received an answer to his
letter, but if when it came it furnished him with the informa
tion he required, there would remain nothing for him but to
apologise.*

CHAPTER XXXIII,
A HOLLOW SESSION.

The Major once more — Quite a new Subject — The Major backslides — Last Hours
of the Session — Prorogation.
Aug. 7. — The The scenc last night was not wanting in dramatic
more"^ °^°^ accessories. The House had spent a most prosaic
evening, discussing Ways and Means. Only a
few members had been able to outlive the exercise, and these
were men inured to war, old campaigners, who settled down
before the Army Estimates with that fierce and insatiable
delight with which My Uncle Toby was accustomed to seat him-
* Lord Beaconsfield repUed to the effect that he had instructed one of his
secretaries to hunt up the references. Apparently the hunt proved unsuccess-
ful, for nothing more was heard of the matter.

456 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm.
self at the table on which he might show how Namur was
besieged. The Chancellor of the Exchequer had retired in
favour of the Minister of War ; the Colonels were thrown out
in skirmishing order ; everything was ready for the good old-
fashioned military parade. When suddenly, from the right
flank of the Secretary for War, fire was opened from an un
expected though not unfamiliar quarter.
The Major's " Hear, hear," on ordinary occasions, is hke the
discharge of an Armstrong gun. Heard amidst a burst of
cheering, it dominates all other sounds. Trumpeted forth by
itself at untimely seasons, it fills the House with a noise equal
to the cheering of an average Continental crowd. That some
thing was the matter with the- Major was evident; what it
might be few knew, though many guessed — erroneously, I am
told. It was not whisky. It was outraged family pride, A
scion of the O'Gorman family had been unjustly passed over
when the Horse Guards were dealing out promotions, and it
accordingly occurred to the mind of the Major that the best
way of showing his displeasure vrith the Horse Guards would be
to sit in his place in the House of Commons and thunder forth
untimely " hear, hears I " when the Secretary for War was
making a statement with respect to the cost of the Reserves
and of the Expeditionary Force to Cyprus.
This programme he carried out with much vigour and un
qualified success. Stanley bore up bravely against the Inter
ruption. But at length the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who
is always being goaded by untoward circumstances into some
unwelcome exhibition of energy, arose and called the Speaker's
attention to the interruptions. Then followed a scene in
which the Major stormed, the House grew excited, the Chan
cellor of the Exchequer grew pale, and John Manners discreetly
quitted the premises, probably going in search of that weapon of
war — that decorated brand of steel — which he flashed In the eyes
of Europe just before the Congress, Finally, after some bustle,
that a-wfuUy mysterious process known as " naming " a member
was carried out, a process which the Major submitted to silently,
and with no other show of emotion than a volcanic heaving of
his stupendous frame, and the ferocious snapping at imaginary
flies that seemed to him to hive in his moustache. But when
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, rising next, alluded to this

1878.] . A EOLLOW SESSION. 457
" naming " as " a solemn duty," the Major indicated what he
thought of it by the monosyllable " Bah ! "
A resolution declaring the Major's conduct to be disorderly
and disrespectful being before the House, evidently the next
thing to do was to get rid of the Major. How that was to be
accomplished was a matter of serious embarrassment. It is a
long-established custom that the member whose conduct Is under
discussion shall leave the House. Would the Major leave ?
and, if not, how was he to be got out ? The Serjeant-at-Arms
would be called upon to do bis duty ; but though Captain Gosset
Is a powerful and determined man, what would he be among so
many square feet of humanity ? AU eyes were turned towards
the Major in anxious expectation. Nobody liked to propound
the question. But it was in everybody's mind. Would he walk
out, or would he have to be carried out, and ff so, who was to
carry him ? Harcourt looked on with a grim smile, pleased for
once in his life that he was not in office. Whoever might have
to carry out the Major, it certainly would not be Her Majesty's
Opposition. Her Majesty's Postmaster-General had solved the difficulty
as far as he was concerned, not yet having returned -with the
sword. At the end of an exhausting Session it seemed too much
that tbe Chancellor of the Exchequer should be called upon to
assist at an athletic performance of this magnitude, Lowther,
who would have regarded the task as a pleasant Interlude in the
sameness of official duties, was unfortunately absent. Colonel
Stanley might be depended upon for at least a leg, and Selwin-
Ibbetson, though he has made a little flesh lately and shows the
results of close a-ttention to Parliamentary duties, buttoned his
coat tightly across his chest, and was evidently prepared to
answer for an arm. The Admiral also, though getting on in
years, might be counted upon to assist Her Majesty's Govern
ment in this predicament, and with volunteers from other parts
of the House it might be done if the Major remained In his
plaee. But what if he lay down on the floor and, as from his
appearance at the moment he appeared quite capable of doing,
refused to budge ?
These thoughts occupied men's minds, and under the tone
of authority with which the Chancellor of the Exchequer and
others spoke, there too evidently lurked this fear of the Major

458 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
resorting to extremities. Whilst hon. and right hon. gentlemen
watched and trembled, the gigantic form below the gangway
slowly rose, and, facing the Speaker, marched up the gangway.
A new terror possessed the House, Where was the Major
goIng3 and what was he going to do ? The Mace lay on the
table. Supposing he were to walk down and, taking that
dread instrument between his finger and thumb, whirl It
round his head shillelagh-wise, or even whisk it about the ears
of Her Majesty's Minister for War ! Stout hearts quailed ;
ruddy cheeks blanched; brave men held their breath as the
Major, tuming at the comer of the seat, walked with slow,
majestic step down the gangway. Arrived on the floor, he
turned towards the Speaker, and, with a low bow, faced about
and sailed . towards the door, presenting an expanse of back
which, to the disordered imagination, seemed to fill up the
space bridging the Conservative and Liberal benches. A sigh
of relief that sounded half like a cheer broke forth, and, the
principal difficulty got rid of, the House, with a vivacity that
appeared almost truculent compared with its former tone,
formally passed a resolution declaring the conduct of the Major
both disorderly and disrespectful.
This scene was not lacking in dramatic Incident. But for
breathless interest, deep solemnity, and true pathos, it must
yield the palm to the scene this afternoon. The House, haring
met as usual, proceeded to the consideration of the ordinary
business on the paper. Hon. members talked about tithes, the
Permissive Bill, the Russians, Afghanistan, or prison discipline ;
but it was evident their thoughts were elsewhere. The Major
was to come up to-day, and every one was thinking of what
he might say, and how he would say it. Would he raise his
arm and defy the House, or would he bow his neck and seek
Its forgiveness ?
The first order of the day was thus worded : — " Major
O'Gorman — Consideration of his conduct towards the Chair,"
The second order of the day was : — " Major O'Gorman — To
attend in his place." Never before had a member two whole
orders of the day assigned to him, and a flush of pride suffused
the countenance of O'Sullivan as he thought of this, and
pleaded that before the conduct of his great countryman was
considered, he should be allowed an opportunity of explaining it.

1878.] A HOLLOW SESSION, 459
It being settled that the Major should be brought in, the
Serjeant-at-Arms was despatched to fetch him. A dead silence
reigned in the House. All eyes were fixed upon the closed
doors. Presently they were flung back, and momentarily
framed between them was seen the gigantic figure of the Major.
With hat in hand, and for the defiant air of the previous night
a downcast look of penitence that almost brought tears into the
eyes of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Major walked in.
Solemn silence reigned as, bo-wing with stately grace tb the
Chair, he took his seat.
"Major O'Gorman," said the Speaker.
The Major rose, and, fixing his glasses, read in a voice
tremulous with emotion the expression of his deep regret for
the outburst of the previous night, and his apology- for his
conduct on that occasion. It was an affecting scene^ — -a truly
touching episode. The Major reading with difficulty through
his dimmed glasses ; the Chancellor of the Exchequer resisting
with evident difficulty the impulse to go and throw himself on
the retumed prodigal's neck ; and the House, generally,-sitting
with solemn aspect, as if it were attending a funeral service.
But the apology tendered and accepted, and all the forpiallties
gone through, no further bounds were laid upon emotion. The
Major was cheered as If he had saved the State instead of
haring buUied the House of Commons. Everybody, more par
ticularly the Chancellor of the Exchequer, felt personaUy grate
ful to him for having relieved the House from an awkward
predicament. Friends and members were invited to rejoice,
because the prodigal had returned. The fatted calf was killed,
and there was more joy In the House over the Major's return
than at the presence of the ninety-and-nine well-conducted
gentlemen, who would rather have bitten their tongue out than
have permitted it to utter the monosyllable " Bah 1 " when the
Chancellor of the Exchequer spoke respectfully of the solemn
action of the Speaker.
Aug. 8.— Quite a Nobody but Fawcett — unless it were Edward
new subject. Jenkins— would think of serving up the Eastern
Question to-night. Seven long months we have had the'Eastern
Question -with us, morning, noon, and night. We have break
fasted off it, lunched off it, had five o'clock tea off it, dined off

430 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1878.
it, gone to bed with it, and waked up in the moming with it,
and a headache. It might have been thought that at last we
were done with it. But here is Fawcett, with provoking tireless-
ness, describing the subject ab ovo — discoursing on the matter
as if it were a new planet, a new sauce, or a new continent,
just discovered, and with respect to which everybody was eager
to know all that might he told. The House is almost empty,
and altogether wearied. Not a single man, not e-ven Roebuck,
is sitting on the front Opposition bench. There are broad
gaps in the benches above and below the gangway. Save
Bourke — whose high-water mark of desperation Is Indicated
by the lavish display of his handkerchief — none of the Chan
cellor of the Exchequer's colleagues bear him company In this
last infliction.
The only man in the House, except Fawcett, who shows
any signs of animation is Edward Jenkins, who, having dis
posed himself in an easy position In the seat consecrated
to the convenience of Rylands, Is listening with a judicial
air, and encouraging his friend by an occasional cry of " Hear !
hear ! " Jenkins was not, at the outset, able to view Fawcett's
action with full satisfaction. He has himself, as is known
throughout all the continents, given notice of his intention on
the second reading of the Appropriation Bill to " review the
policy of Her Majesty's Government." Whether Fawcett was
not trenching on his particular ground was for the moment a
matter of grave consideration. But great minds are always
generous, and if Fawcett would venture in the turgid waters
in which Jenkins had announced liis intention presently to
swim, his temerity was to be regretted. Still, common humanity
demanded that a helping hand should be stretched out to him.
So Jenkins stretches out the hand, and when Fawcett has made
an end of speaking, he rises and says a few words demons
trating the hopeless incapacity of the Government In the
presence of the one man who could civilise Cyprus and ame
liorate Asia Minor,
It Is hard lines for Stafford Northcote that he must needs,
in an empty House, discuss the Eastern Question with Edward
Jenkins, But the end is not far off. There are within sight,
and almost within reach, the umbrageous trees, the fern-ffiled
lanes, the broad cool river, and the quietness of the home in

1878.] A HOLLOW SESSION. 461
Devonshire. The weary Minister thinks of these as he gallantly
puts his shoulders once more to the well-worn wheel, and says
over again all the nothingnesses about Russia, Turkey, the
Mediterranean, my Noble Friend, and our Indian Empire. So
the subject drops, and Henry Thynne, who In a provoking
manner preserves his freshness in this weary time, stands on
guard at the lobby door, and waylays Ministerialists who affect
to think that the business of the night is over, and that they
may now go home. On this head the Whip suavely but flrmly
undeceives them ; and, with a mild look of surpriscj they hear
that all this talk is but the preliminary to real business, which
will begin about one o'clock in the morning, when, with eyes
half-closed and ears dulled -with the strain of an unnaturally
prolonged Session, we shall vote money by the million for the
use of Her Majesty's Ministers.
Aug. 9.— The Ma- The Major's penitence did not last much over
jor backslides. twenty-four hours. About three o'clock this
morning he unexpectedly turned up, and, taking his seat, lost
no time in making his presence known. The immediate business
before the House was the Report on Supply, and as the successive
votes were put the Major negatived them. As he persisted in
his opposition, the Speaker was of course bound to clear the
House for a di-rision. But when this was done it was discovered
that the Major had no one to "tell" with him. When
challenged on this point he named Dr. O'Leary, But he dared
the Major's displeasure by declining to work with him. When
the next vote was put the Major again roared " No ! " and,
asked for a co-teUer, was unable to name him. This he did four
times, causing some considerable delay in what is usually purely
formal business. At length the Speaker, with some asperity in
his tone, pointed out the inconvenience of the procedure, and the
Major went to sleep.
Aug. 15. —Last It was thought that by meeting at three o'clock
Ses^u°* ^^ ^^^^ afternoon, the business on the paper, which
was purely formal, might be got through by five.
But the bad quarters of an hour have slipped on, it is now a
quarter to eight, and Courtney is still wearisomely traversing the
Transvaal. Stafford Northcote has gone away, having taken his

462 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS mn.
share in the earlier part of the afternoon. To him succeeded W,
H, Smith, kept on duty by the fact that Lord Charles Beresford
had a notice on the paper with respect to the Uurydice. But
this also is over, and Courtney is trudging through the Transvaal
with a courage worthy of a more interesting cause, and -with an
erudition that merits a larger audience. Hicks-Beach has the
Treasury bench all to himself, and is meditating on the
mysterious ways of Pro-ridence which at first led him to do
battle with the Irish members, and have now landed him in the
toils of the peculiar and distinct class of legislators who take the
colonies under their protecting wing. On the bench behind —
the fullest of the House — sit four members. At the corner is
Marten, who has not had such a successful Session as he had
hoped, and whose frequent offers to assist the Government in
dilemmas have been snubbed by peremptory William Dyke.
Next to him is Wheelhouse, sitting in the seat of the strangely-
absent Admiral.
The third is breezy Charles Beresford, who has just been
having a little chat with the House, and thinks he has made
clear to Its comprehension the difference between a hawser and a
harbour. But he is disturbed by doubts as to whether the First
Lord of the Admiralty quite understood his explanation of the
elaborate process of jib-booming your mainstay, and hauUng on
your bow-line, when you approach on the weather-bow a vessel
whose headlines are athwart the keelson on the maindeck. Next
to the youthful lord, and also in profound meditation, is
Alderman Cotton, late Lord Mayor of London, who has, truly,
something to think about in consideration of the slights to
which he has been inexplicably and capriciously subjected by
a Govemment not niggardly in the distribution of honours. On
the front bench below the gangway is Colonel Arbuthnot, and the
back bench in the same part of the House is peopled by Melior.
This is the full tale of the Conservative Party who turn a
deaf ear to Courtney^s Interesting essay. The Opposition
benches are by comparison crowded. It is true the leaders
have fled. But their concentrated talking power is adequately
represented by George Balfour, who has taken Hartington's
place, and is diligently studying a volume of Hansard. At
the corner bench behind is Muntz, a man who rarely opens his
mouth in the House, but who, when he speaks, has always

1878.] A HOLLOW SESSION. 463
something sensible to say. On his right is Henry Havelock,
and beyond him Kenealy, who has just furnished the House
with a contrast between the frank, sailor-like manner of
Beresford, and the happily unique way of looking at things
possible to the member for Stoke. On the bench behind is
Arthur Moore, one of the few cheerful men in the House.
Moore has long had on hand (or rather in manuscript) a speech
about Irish paupers. Opportunity after opportunity has slipped
by, and he has not found the desired opening. But this after
noon he had the House on the hip. Speaking on the question
of the adjournment he was sure, if not of a hearing, at least of
time for reading his speech. Till that turn came he sat with
manuscript in hand in a condition of almost pitiable nervousness.
Under ordinary circumstances he was quite safe. But who could
say what might not happen ? The glass roof might fall in ; the
main sewers might burst; the Speaker, worn to the point of
death by the long Session, might declare that he could not
remain another moment; the Major might return and do
something desperate — all sorts of things might happen, and
the cherished speech (probably already in type in the Dublin
joumals) might miss fire. It was a dreadful time. But it
ended happily, and Moore now feels that he has illumined the
last hours of the dying Session -vrith the graces of native, though
unaccustomed, oratory.
Below the gangway Dillwyn sits in the celebrated corner-
seat, vrith legs crossed and body luxuriously reclining, drinking
in to the full the joys that next week wUl be impossible. Below
him is Locke, who pathetically sits out these last hours, not
certain that Lord Beaconsfield has not another sm-prise in store,
and that this may not be his last appeamnce in an assembly in
which for so many years he has been a familiar figure. In the
corner-seat is Fawcett, whom Hicks-Beach uneasily watches,
fearful lest he should follow Courtney, and wander through any
of the by-paths of the Transvaal which that indomitable gentle
man shall have left unexplored. In the corner-seat behind him
Whitwell sweetly though feebly smiles into the familiar depths
of nothingness. Below Courtney sits Delahunty, with his hat
rakishly set on one side, and his faithful black bag, containing
the mysteries of a month's wardrobe, within reach of his hand.
Monk is making the most of the absence of Sir Thomas

464 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
Bazley, and gently purrs in the corner-seat, the reversion of
which Is among his most cherished hopes. Far away, under the
shadow of the Serjeant-at-Arms' chair, sits O'Leary, who in the
perspective takes strange proportions, and to the disordered
Imagination looks like a Member of Parliament seen through the
broad end of a telescope. These comprise the audience to which
Courtney unfolds all the wrongs of the Transvaal, and, regardless
of the obvious inattention and the growing impatience, spares
not a sentence of his essay and diminishes not a page of the
quotations he intended to read.
Behind Parliament Is Posterity, and men of great minds
having a message to deliver can afford to disregard the petty
impatience of a score of gentlemen who want their dinner.
Aug. 16 —Proro- " In quIres and places where they sing, here fol-
ga ion. loweth the anthem." Lotus sing the Te Deum;
for the longest, if not the weariest. Session Parliament has known
for many years Is over, I stop short of saying the weariest, be
cause all Sessions seem weary when looked back upon from the
middle of August, and we are always inclined to exaggerate our
most recent tribulation. But surely the Session has been more
than usually wearisome, for a reason which may be stated, and
will be readily understood. There has been no reality about the
contests that have from time to time arisen. There have been a
succession of sham-fights, but there has been lacking the ab
sorbing interest of real warfare. Drums have been beaten,
forces have been marshalled, banners have been unfurled, and
the Duke of York having marched his men up the hill, bas
marched them back again. The Opposition, tom by dissension,
disheartened by the certainty of defeat, cautiously led in one
direction by Hartington, and passionately entreated by Glad
stone to follow In another, has played the Pantaloon's part in the
comic business, and has stood up only to be knocked down.
The best debate of the Session was on the preliminary stages
of the Cattle Bill, and that pre-eminence was maintained to the
last stage. The case was one with which neither Party nor
leaders of Party had anything to do. Practical men, thoroughly
acquainted with the subject, and taking diverse views of it
according to the interest they represented, fought stoutly for or
against the Bill ; and in the end the best men won. But, apart

1878.J A HOLLOW SESSION. 465
from this, there has been no fighting worthy the fame of the
House and the abiUty of its members. There is no assembly in
the world more quick to detect and more ready to resent shams
than the House of Commons. All our big fights have been shams
in the sense indicated, and there has consequently been lacking
throughout successive months the fervour of real warfare. The
assertion that an assembly takes its tone from its leader has
been abundantly proved. With exceptional orations from Glad
stone, the debates of the House of Commons have risen just to
the level of Stafford Northcote — that is to say, they have
been painstaking, well-informed, exhaustive, and exhausting.
But it is all over now ; and a fitting conclusion was arrived
at in the House of Lords this afternoon, where five estimable
Peers masqueraded in red cloaks and cocked hats, and the
monotonous voice of the clerk repeated the fifty-fold "La reyne
le veult."

E E

SESSION 1879.

CHAPTER XXXIV.
ME. GLADSTONE ON THE OFFENSIVE.
The County Franchise — Mr. Lowe's Forebodiag — Jenkins at Bay — A Vote of
Censure in the Lords — Mr. Lowe's Breakdown — Sir William Harcourt
"fustigates" Mr. Dodson — ^Mr. Gladstone indicts the Financial Policy of
the Govemment.
Mar. I. — The At five o'clock Trevelyan rose to move the first
chise*'' ^'^^^ °^ ^^® resolutions on the county franchise, which
affirms the desirability of establishing through
out the United Kingdom a household franchise similar to that
now existing in the English boroughs. Trevelyan referred
at some length to the procedure in connection with the
creation of faggot votes in Midlothian, and caused some
merriment by reading the names of the newly-created electors,
two of whom are sons of the Duke of Abercorn. Of one
voter, " Mr, Edward Stanley Hope, barrister-at-law," Trevelyan
observed that it was a curious coincidence that this gentle
man's investment of £150 on a faggot vote in Midlothian
was immediately followed by his appointment to a Charity
Commissionership of the value of £1,200 a year. This remark
being hailed with ironical cheers from the other side, Trevelyan
said the longer he was in public life the more he was astonished
at the different views different people entertained of what
was becoming. This being again .cheered by Conservatives,
Trevelyan said he accepted those cheers as an expression
of the view that there were very few barristers-at-law who
would like to see their names in the same paper as having
become the possessors of a faggot vote and a lucrative situa
tion. A member opposite audibly and irregularly observed
that he thought there were a good many who would Uke it.
Quoting from a speech by the Premier, Trevelyan said he
agreed in the axiom that ParUament should be the ultimate

1879.] MB. GLADSTONE ON THE OFFENSIVE. 467
resort of appeal on questions of peace or war. But it was a
sih and a shame that decisions on such points should be given
in a Parliament in the election of which two-fifths of the house
holders of Great Britain had taken no part.
Dilke seconded the motion, and Claud Hamilton, in a lively
speech, moved an amendment, to the effect that it is in
expedient to reopen the question of Parliamentary reform at
the present time. It was, he declared, a monstrous libel
upon the county members to say that the labourers were not
represented in the House — an assertion emphatically made, and
received with loud laughter from the other side. The laughter
was renewed when Lord Claud, referring to the fact charged
by Trevelyan that two of his brothers had been created faggot
voters in Midlothian, stated that his father possessed consider
able property in the county, and being a peer could not vote
on elections for that House.
"Are the three thousand a year to go unrepresented?-"
he asked In a loud voice, and was answered in the negative
by uproarious cheers from the Conservative benches.
" Why, sir," he added, " such a question is perfectly ridicu
lous," whereat, and at the indignant manner of the protesta
tion, the Opposition laughed again.
But the laughter became general when Lord Claud, " going
into the question of faggot voting," as he said, unearthed a
speech of Cobden's, in which he contended that that gentle
man had approved and recommended faggot voting in connec
tion with the Com Law agitation. In conclusion, Lord Claud
declared that the true object of these resolutions was to " upset
and subvert the whole fabric of our Constitution, and to trample
under foot the glorious traditions of the House of Commons."
When he resumed his seat, Lowe rose from the opposite
side, and at the same time Sir Charles Legard presented him
self to second the amendment. There were loud cries for
Lowe, but Legard refused to give way, and it appearing that
Lowe's speech would be postponed till after dinner, the House
quickly emptied. Sorne lingered in expectation that he might
yet follow Legard. As he showed no sign, the exodus was
completed, and Osborne Morgan addressed a House consisting
of eight members. Of these General Shute sat for the rank
and file of the Conservative party, whilst Ministers were repre-
E s 2

468 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm.
sented by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Postmaster -
General. The only gentleman on the front Opposition bench
was Bright, who had just come in, and behind were five other
members, including Osborne Morgan. In this condition, with
slight variation, the House remained till nearly ten o'clock.
Haff an hour later the benches had filled again, among the
first arrivals being Gladstone.
Mr. Lowe's Fore- Lowe's rising, at twenty minutes to eleven,
° '^^' was the signal for the crowding of all the
benches, and the filling up of the gallery to the right
of the Speaker. He was unusually brief, concluding his
speech within the space of twenty minutes. He was
also unusually serious, and if the audience had assem
bled in the expectation of being amused by flashes of wit or
sallies of humour they were disappointed. Lowe was evidently
impressed with the singularity of his position when rising
from a seat between Bright and Gladstone to ask the House
of Corhmons to declare that the question of Parliamentary
reform was for ever closed. In earnest tones, and with a
persuasive manner quite foreign to his Parliamentary habit,
he asked the House to consider that what they had to think
of was, not what would be pleasant to a section of the popu
lace, but what was for the good of the nation throughout
ages to come. The step they were now invited to take
must inevitably lead to a further lowering of the franchise
and of the standard by which members of that House were
elected. In former times the Sovereign had been an active power
in the Constitution; within his own recollection the House
of Lords had claimed at least equal power with the House of
Commons. To-day the Constitution had been reduced to a
state of tremendous simplicity. All power was centred in the
House of Commons, and the question was, what effect would
a further lowering of the franchise have upon the House of
Commons? At best, the advantage could not be great; at
worst — Lowe did not set forth the antithesis in detail.
Blennerhasset urged at some length the right of the repre
sentation of minorities, and Courtney opposed the motion as
strongly as Lowe, though on other grounds. He held that
if the franchise were extended in the direction suggested by

1879.] MB. GLADSTONE ON THE OFFENSIVE. 469
the resolution it would be inoperative in the way of securing
the representation of the agricultural labourer; and inciden
tally showed how on various occasions since the session
of 1877 — notably in respect of the annexation of the Trans
vaal — the House of Commons had erred, whilst only a single
individual (unnamed from motives of modesty) had raised his
voice to indicate the right way, and he had been disregarded.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer followed (it being now
half -past twelve), and, accepting "the grave, the solemn, the
statesmanlike warning" of Lowe, opposed the resolution.
Hartington haring briefly spoken in support of the resolution,
the House divided, and the amendment was carried by 291
votes against 226,
Mar. 11.— Jenkins Parliament was to-day •disturbed from the level
* ^^' flow of its proceedings by a storrny scene. It
had reference to affairs in Zululand, and in some degree both
Houses shared in the unwonted excitement. In the Lords there
was a little passage of arms between Thurlow — who made an
inquiry into the constitution of the court-martial -appoint-ed by
Chelmsford with respect to the affair at Isandula — and one or
two lords, who saw in the question a covert attack on. the
character of British officers. This, however, was speedily dis
posed of, and their lordships adjourned after something less than
an hour's sitting.
It was in the Commons that the storm burst with over
powering and prolonged violence. The subject of the -Zulu
war was first broached in a question from A, M, SulUvan, who
wanted to know whether an attempt might not be made to
settle the quarrel with Cetewayo by peaceful means. Hicks-
Beach, amid loud cheers from the Ministerialists, said it was,
among other reasons, necessary for the safety of the white races
of the colony that the military disaster should be retrieved.
Then the scene was quietly led up to by Jenkins asking a
question designed to ascertain whether it was the intention of
the Government to recall Chelmsford,
" No, sir," said the Chancellor of the Exchequer, " As at
present advised, we have no such intention,"
Amid the loud cheers with which this reply was greeted
from the Ministerial benches, Jenkins rose and announced that

470 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm.
he " had to ask the indulgence of the House whilst he made a
few remarks ; " and that, with a view to putting himself in
order, he should move the adjoumment. This intention was
deprecated with angry cries from the opposite side, but Jenkins
nevertheless proceeded to offer his "few remarks." What their
purport might be it was impossible to gather. Each time he
raised his voice to commence a sentence the sound was drowned
iu a roar of cries for a division. The Speaker, being appealed
to on a point of order, said Jenkins was vrithin his right in
moving the adjournment, but at the same time he thought It
his duty to point out that the course he was taking was highly
inconvenient. If he desired to debate the subject of Lord
Chelmsford's command, the proper way to bring it forward
would be as an amendment on going into Committee of Supply.
Jenkins, again rising, was met with cries of " Withdraw,"
which came from both sides of the House. In a moment of
calm he was heard to address those in his immediate neigh
bourhood to the effect that as he had not asked their advice
he begged that they would not favour him with it. He was
then understood to resume the thread of his discourse, as before,
accompanied by persistent shouting, through which might now
and then be heard the shrill cry of " Hear, hear ! " with which
Biggar encouraged the hon. member.
After this had gone on for some time, Colonel Mure rose
and asked whether it was respectful to the Speaker, after the
expression of opinion given by him, that Jenkins should continue.
Jenkins made the most of the pause of expectation which fol
lowed to articulate a connected sentence, in which he depre
cated Mure's interference. As the Speaker did not rise, the
shouting for the division continued. It was changed to a howl
of despair when from the ledge of the bench before him Jenkins
produced a blue-book and a bundle of notes,
A little later, Jenkins's apparently mute gesticulations and
the cry of " 'Vide, 'ride, 'vide " having meanwhile proceeded
without intermission. Sir John Hay rose to order, and asked
whether, after the intimation of the Colonial Secretary, Jenkins
was in order in discussing affairs in South Africa, The
Speaker said no doubt it would be more convenient if Jenkins
would defer his remarks, whereat the House cheered. " At
the same time," he added, "ff he thinks it right, after the

1879.1 MB. GLADSTONE ON THE OFFENSIVE. 471
observation I have made, to proceed, he is within his right in
doing so," a ruling much cheered by Biggar. Jenkins again
rose, and proceeded as before, amid cries of "Withdraw.''
These suddenly changed to a loud shout of laughter when
Biggar was discovered standing up signalling with extended
hat to Jenkins to sit down, whilst he addiressed the Speaker.
What Biggar wanted to know was, whether it was in order that
members opposite should persist in crying " Divide, divide."
The Speaker ruled generally that all interruption was out of
order, and once more Jenkins appeared, and was understood to
go on where he had stopped.
The habitual deference of the majority of the House to the
ruling of the Speaker led to an intermission of the cries of
" Divide ! " And now there arose up from the crowded Minis
terial benches a wailing sound, rising and falling like the winter
wind rushing through the bare boughs of forest tiees. This
was not less effective in preventing Jenkins from being heard be
yond a few interjectional remarks* Once he tumed towards the
benches above the gangway on the Opposition side, and made
a complaint to the Speaker that he was being " interrupted by
the hon. Member for Hastings," The idea of Sir U. Kay-
Shuttleworth being held up for reproval as a disorderly member
seemed greatly to tickle the fancy of the House, and there fol
lowed a roar of laughter which lasted for several moments.
Jenkins continuing — always with the thundrous chorus from
the Ministerial benches — was next called to order by Joseph
Cowen, who asked the Speaker whether it was competent for
a inember under cover of a motion for adjournment to discuss
a question with respect to whieh a resolution was already on the
paper. The Speaker excused himself from giring a definite
ruling, on the ground that the observations of the hon, member
had not reached him,
" I perfectly understand the rules of debate," said Jenkins,
" and with respect to the remarks of the hon, member I can
only say  ,"
What he said was lost iu the roar that again broke forth.
But it was evident from Jenkins's gestures, as he turned and
addressed Cowen, that he was severely rebuking that gentler
man for his interference. Once more the performance con
tinued, Jenkins showing signs of speaking and the roar of

472 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn.
two hundred voices drowning his voice. Again Biggar came
to the rescue, and complained that a member opposite was
making a noise.
" I beg just to name him — the hon. bar'net the Member for
Scarboro' ! "
" All interruptions are out of order," said the Speaker, thus
called upon, "not excepting those of the hon. member for
Cavan," Loud laughter and prolonged cheering followed this rebuke,
which had the effect of reducing Bigger to silence during the
remainder of the scene. Relieved by the rest afforded by these
brief interludes, Jenkins started off again, and for still a quarter
of an hour the scene lasted without any variation, except that
of two further interruptions on points of order, one from Mure,
and the second from Beresford Hope,
At twenty minutes to six Jenkins resumed his seat, having
been in -conflict with the House for forty minutes. Then from
the other side Sir Robert Peel rose and supported the motion for
the adjournment, on the ground that the answers received from
the Ministry were " very unsatisfactory." Sir Robert, lapsing
into a discussion of the policy which led to the war In Zululand,
was called to order by the Speaker, and resumed his seat.
Chaplin briefly but sharply lectured the right hon, baronet for
perilling his Parliamentary reputation by appearing under the
leadership of Jenkins. After a few words from Mure, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer expressed his deep regret at what
had taken plaee, and his opinion that it was neither for the dig
nity of the House nor the convenience of public business that
matters such as these should be brought forward irregularly.
There was no desire on the part of the Govemment to evade any
portion of their responsibility, and they were quite prepared when
the proper time came to discuss the whole affair,
Hartington agreed in the opinion that the scene just wit
nessed was to be regretted, thpugh he doubted whether the House
had consulted its dignity in the course of the Interruption pur
sued. If members were to exercise the right of control over
individual members, they ought to be impartial, and Hartington
could not help noticing that when Peel had followed up Jenkins,
he was permitted to speak almost without interruption. But the
noble lord could not offer any defence of Jenkins's procedure. He

1879. MB. GLADSTONE ON THE OFFENSIVE. 473
had never made any attempt to get a hearing, but came down and
vrithout notice attacked Lord Chelmsford, and attempted to drag
the House into a serious debate, for which It was not prepared.
When Hartington sat down Jenkins withdrew his motion for
the adjournment, and the scene terminated, after occupying an
hour and a quarter.

Mar. 25.— A vote Not since the winter session, when the last war
the Lords* ^^ ^"* °^® ^^^ dlscusscd, has the House of Lords
been so crowded. In anticipation of a division,
the Conservative peers had mustered in strong force, and left
scarcely a bench unoccupied. On the benches behind that on
which Earl Granville sat, with a carriage rug wrapped about his
legs, there were many blank spaces, forecasting the result of a
division in an assembly where the Conservative element is
numerically overpowering. Noble lords who desired to be near
the orator for the better convenience of hearing sat In clusters
on the bench at the table. On the cross benches were the
Prince of Wales, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Duke of
Connaught, the Duke of Cambridge, and the Earl of Derby.
The side galleries were thronged by ladies; but owing to the
prevalence of Court mourning the chamber lacked the wealth
of colour vrith which it is usually endowed on similar occasions.
With one remarkable exception-r-a lady clad from bonnet to
shoes In brUliant scarlet — all the ladies were in mourning of
more or less completeness. The Duchess of Teck was in deepest
black. The Duchess of Connaught had conceded something to
her bridal estate, and was not wholly funereal in her dress.
Nor was the Duchess of Edinburgh, who sat at her side. In
unmitigated mourning. But the prevailing colour was black,
both on the floor of the House and In the galleries that sur
rounded it. The crown' of a black bonnet was visible through
the turrets of the canopy over the throne, the wearer herself
being. hidden from view.
The ralled-off space before the throne was crowded with
Privy Councillors. The King of the Belgians was an early
arrival, and due honour had been paid to hira by placing a chair
for him in the centre of the space at the foot of the throne. The
Pri-vy Councillors were inclined, however, to stand on their
privUeges, and, thronging In front of the Monarch, made It

..i^i

474 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [1879.
necessary, if he would see as well as hear, that he should stand
up. Accordingly he remained standing during the earlier period
of the debate, and for some time had on his right hand Cross,
and on his left " Sir Peel."
At a quarter past five the Marquis of Lansdowne rose, amid
cheers from the Opposition benches, to move a resolution
declaring "That the House, while willing to support her
Majesty's Government in all necessary measures for defending
the possessions of her Majesty in South Africa, regrets that an
ultimatum calculated to produce immediate war should have been
presented to the Zulu King without authority from the re-
ponsible advisers of the Crown, and that an offensive war should
have been commenced without imperative and pressing necessity
or adequate preparation ; and the House further regrets that after
the censure passed upon the HlghCommlssIonerby her Majesty's
Govemment, in a despatch of the 19th March, the conduct of
affairs in South Africa should be retained in his hands."
Lansdowne, in a speech of moderate duration — ^he had con
cluded by six o'clock — succeeded In making a very telling case
in support of his resolution. Discussing the portion of the
published correspondence in which Chelmsford, with the ap
proval of Bartle Frere, asks for reinforcements, and Is answered
with hesitation, he observed that reinforcements were not sent
because the Government were afraid of the purpose to whieh
Bartle Frere would put them. The High Commissioner had a
policy, her Majesty's Govemment had none ; and, pending the
evolution of one, tbey were not inclined to put a knife into Bartle
Frere's hands, lest he should cut his fingers. In demanding the
recall of Bartle Frere, he observed that if such conduct as his
were to be overlooked, if Parliament showed any indifference to
it, the whole system of colonial government must undergo a
change. It had been said that the British flag waved over an
empire on which the sun never set ; but If such a policy as that
which had resulted in the Zulu war was to be tolerated, the time
would come when it would be said that the sun never ceased to
shine on the strife and suffering occasioned by the spread of that
empire. Cranbrook was equally brief, if scarcely so pointed. In a
single sentence he indicated the line of defence which the
Government had taken up.

1879.] MB. GLADSTONE ON THE OFFENSIVE. 475
" It is not," he said, " upon the character of Sir Bartle Frere
that we have passed censure, nor upon his Intelligence, nor his
faithfulness to the Government. It is because he was too
presumptuous ; that he took responsibilities upon himself which
it was not necessary for him to take at the period ; and that
after he had received such distinct impressions from the Govern
ment of their desire to avoid war, however great the pressure,
it was his duty, or, at all events, it would have been far
better, if he had consulted the Govemment before embarking
on war." Up to this point the brilliant audience had kept well together,
and there was evidently a disposition to hear Blachford, who next
rose. But it soon became evident that his lordship was not able
to make himself heard, and after a patient attempt at over
coming the difficulty, the audience began to disperse, and in the
space of half an hour the House presented much of its ordinary
appearance. Carnarvon followed Blachford, and undertook the
defence of Bartle Frere, calling to witness " a long unblemished
career of public trust and public service," in proof that the High
Commissioner had not acted lightly or recklessly, but after the
fullest consideration of circumstances of which Carnarvon claimed
he was an exceptionally capable judge.
The debate was continued through the prolonged dinner hour
by Stanley of Alderley (who, like Blachford, was almost in
audible), Cadogan, and Kimberley. After a brief speech from
Salisbury, to which Somerset replied, the Premier rose, and was
welcomed by a subdued cheer from the Conservative side. It
was eleven o'clock, and the House had filled up again by the
returning tide of members and spectators. Many of the ladies
were now in evening dress, and added by so much to the variety
of the scene. The space before the throne was again crowded,
and Beaconsfield had among his audience many of his colleagues
from the other House, including the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
the Home Secretary, the Postmaster-General, and her Majesty's
Judge- Advocate-General ,
Following the example of all the other principal speakers,
the Premier did not speak at great length. He was careful to
affirm, and even to attempt to demonstrate, that nothing was
further from the views and intentions of the Ministry than a
policy of annexation. But his principal object was to Insist

476 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm.
that the issue upon which their lordships were about to divide
had no relation to the policy pursued in South Africa. That he
was ready to discuss when properly challenged. The question
now raised was whether the Government were justified in
retaining Bartle Frere in office. The Premier urged not only
that the Government were right in the course they had adopted,
but he took credit for it. If Bartle Frere had been recalled In
deference to the thoughtless panic of the hour, no doubt a certain
degree of odium would have been averted from the Government,
and the world would have been delighted, as it always is, to find
a victim. That, however, was a course which Beaconsfield was
certain gentlemen sitting on his side of the House would not
have approved. He even went so far as to doubt whether
gentlemen opposite were capable of approving it. The Govern
ment had retained Bartle Frere in office, not only because he was
qualified to fulfil its duties, but because his suitability was
superior to that of any other possible personage. They had
taken that course in the belief that it was best calculated to
secure the public welfare, and he confidently appealed to the
House of Lords to approve it.
The Premier spoke with great animation, and displayed a
physical vigour by comparison with which Granville's measured
address seemed tame. The Leader of the Opposition, disregard
ing the injunction of the Premier, ventured on a wider field than
that bounded by the question of Bartle Frere's continuance In
office. When England had been at peace with the Zulus for a
space of forty years, and when that peace was suddenly broken
by English policy, it behoved the nation of superior intelligence
to justify the course it had taken. This, Granville submitted,
had not yet been done. Just on the strike of midnight, the
House divided, and the resolution was negatived by 156 votes
against 61,
Mar. 31. — Mr. In the Commous a vote of censure similar In
down^ ^^^^^' terms to that moved by Lord Lansdowne was
brought forward by Sir Charles Dilke in a con
spicuously able speech. The debate lasted three days, and
concluded to-night with a division in which censure was re
jected by a significantly reduced majority. On the second night-
Lowe interposed with a speech evidently carefully prepared.

1879.1 ME. GLADSTONE ON TEE OFFENSIVE. 477
For twenty minutes he spoke vrith his usual felicity and
command over the House, It now became necessary, for the
purpose of his argument, that he should cite extracts from the
Blue Books, Taking up a bundle of notes he had placed on
the table, he began searching for a particular memorandum.
Failing to find it he attempted to quote its substance. A few
minutes later reference to the notes again became necessary.
He nervously searched among the hopeless conglomeration of
memoranda, but without success, and after a painful pause
abruptly abandoned the task and resumed his seat, apparently
only on the threshold of his speech.
The House generously cheered him on to further attempts,
and Gladstone appeared to make a personal attempt in that direc
tion. But Lowe evidently felt tbe impossibility of successfully
proceeding, and Peel seized the opportunity to make his
speech.
Apr. 25.— Sir WU- To-night Cross moved a resolution embodying
liam Harcourt ^be report of the Select Committee on the Clare
fustigates" _. ¦'^ . .
Mr. Dodson.j County writ, which declared that Sir Bryan
O'Loghlen, who had accepted office as Attorney-
General for the Colony of Victoria, a place of profit under the
Crown within the meaning of the statute, had thereby vacated
his seat for County Clare. The- discussion was necessarily of
a dry and not generally interesting charactcF, a charge from
which it was temporarily relieved by a passage of arms between
Harcourt and Dodson. Dodson, who supported the resolu
tion, made sorae remarks upon the irregular- attendance of raem
bers of the Committee, and pointedly alluded to Harcourt (who,
it appears, had not attended any of the meetings), suggest
ing that he would nevertheless presently rise up "and with
portentous manner" deliver- his judgment on evidence he had
not heard.
Harcourt, with quite unusual warmth, resented this remark.
He felt bound, he said, to defend the Committee against this
extremely violent, uncalled-for, and- unprecedented attack. Re
turning a little later to the theme, he protested against the
" right of an ex-chairman of Committees to. fustigate a Com
mittee of the House of Commons in this violent, uncalled-for,
and, he was going to say, offensive manner." If such practices

478 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm.
were to continue, it would become increasingly difficult to
induce members to sit on Committees.
"No, thank you," they would say when invited to sit,
" there is the right hon. gentleman the member for the city
of Chester, who, after we have done our best, will hold us up
to contempt and scorn."
Apr. 28. — Mr. Amid prolonged cheering Gladstone rose to con-
actthTfinln: ti^^e the debate on the Budget. He com-
cial policy of meuccd with the remark that he had not for
ment. many years troubled the House at any length
with criticisms on financial policy, but a period
had now been reached at which it was of -rital importance that
the financial policy of the Govemment should be brought
under close review. Alluding to a remark made by the Chan
cellor of the Exchequer at Hogg's dinner on Saturday, he
denied that the charge under which the Govemment rested
was one of not Imposing taxes. The charge was written in
the resolution before the House, and was that the Ministry
had indulged in excessive expenditure. What proportion that
expenditure assumed he Indicated In a couple of sentences.
When the Liberal Government came Into office at the end of
1868 they received from their predecessors the beneficent be
quest of a debt of £14,300,000. The heritage into which the
Conservatives entered when they took office in 1874 was an
unencumbered legacy of £6,000,000 sterling.
Gladstone proposed to divide his discourse into three heads,
first considering the expenditure, its quantity and quality;
then the fallacious mode adopted of striking the balances; and,
lastly, the doctrine upon which these practices are supported,
and which, to his mind, was even more objectionable than the
practices themselves. He took, for the purpose of Illustration,
the expenditure on the Forces, and showed that whilst the
average expenditure under this head during the five years of
the Liberal Administration had been £25,299,000, it had been
augmented, in the year ending 1878-9, by £6,000,000, an
augmentation due to the free action of the present Govern
ment, and especially to the policy they had thought fit de
liberately to adopt with respect to foreign affairs. He showed
how this expenditure had increased from year to year up to

1879.] MB. GLADSTONE ON TEE OFFENSIVE. 479
the current year, when a sudden reduction was established, and
the estimates appeared at the modest, unassuming — nay, be
witching—figures of £27,332,000.
" We have had a reduction in the Estimates this year," he
said. " But, sir, a reduction of the Estimates in the sixth
year of Parliament bears an .unwholesome resemblance to what
is known as a death-bed repentance."
Passing in rapid review the growth of the spirited foreign
policy beginning vrith " the silly business of the purchase of the
Suez Canal," he in slow and solemn voice counted up the gains.
" You have," he said, addressing the Ministers, who sat
silent, " you have increased the territory of the eountry, it is
true. We own the Fiji Islands, which were not ours previous
to 1874 ; you have got what you call an occupation of Cyprus ;
you have completed some annexations in Afghanistan ; you
have made a disastrous accession of territory in South Africa.
You have truly enlarged the empire; but it may be said. In
the simple words of Scripture, ' You have multiplied the nation,
but not increased its joy.' "
W. H, Smith had claimed that the result of the increased
expenditure is bearing fruit, inasmuch as the policy of the
Government has made our relations with foreign powers more
satisfactory. " What," cried Gladstone, amid loud cheers, " is the nation
or the race on earth with which you have improved your rela
tions ? Is It with the natives of South Africa ? or with the
hill tribes of Afghanistan? or with the oppressed races of
the Turkish Empire? or with the eighty million who people
Russia ? "
Proposing to quote an extract from a speech delivered by
Derby on the 19th March, 1874, the mention of the ex-Foreign
Secretary's name was received with a contemptuous cry from
below the gangway on the Ministerial side.
" The present Lord Derby," Gladstone repeated, " was a
man who, when he was your Foreign Secretary, it was your
daily custom to extol."
What Lord Derby said on this occasion was : " At the
present moment the position of the country with regard to
our foreign relations is most satisfactory. There is no State
whatever with which our relations are not most cordial."

480 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm.
Turning next to the question of accounts, Gladstone took
up the figures in the last Budget and read out the allegation
as to the surplus of £1,904,000. " In the first place," he said,
" there is no surplus at all. There is a debt." Going on to
show that the provisions for the war in Zululand had not been
met, he was Interrupted by the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
who wished to recall to his attention that he had explained
further on that this surplus might be absorbed by the charges
of the Zulu war.
" Yes," Gladstone retorted, " but of the excellent speeches
we all make in this House, and which go forth to the public,
there is not one in a thousand of the readers who reads
all the speech or who goes beyond the half-dozen lines of
summary," He denounced in trenchant sentences the departure from
all precedent in the Chancellor of the Exchequer's method of
dealing with the Zulu war. The Chancellor had come down
to the House, and said that after consultation with the Secretary
for War or the First Lord of the Admiralty he was not able
to make a definite and particular estimate, and that there
fore the charges would be postponed. He quoted the prece
dents of the Crimean War and of the Chinese War to show
how different had been the practice of former Chancellors of
the Exchequer, Beyond these particular laches there was the
regular practice of the Government of exceeding in their final
appropriation the estimates of the April Budget, In 1874
the excess of the final appropriation over the Budget was
£1,016,000; in 1875 it had been £1,209,000; in 1876,
£1,127,000; in 1877, £6,875,000; and last year, £3,622,000,
The effect of all this was that the House lost its control, the
Government lost its responsibility, and the fundamental prin
ciple of keeping the income up to the amount of the expendi
ture was lost sight of.
Whilst professing the warmest personal regard for Stafford
Northcote, Gladstone declared that he had reversed all the
precepts of Sir Robert Peel, and had turned upside down all
the principles which had guided English Chancellors of the
Exchequer during the last half century. With animated ges
tures and in impassioned voice he declaimed his peroration : —
" If the country approves this financial revolution that.

1879.] MB. GLADSTONE ON THE OFFENSIVE. 481
as I have shown you by hard facts and figures, is in progress,
the eountry is its own master to return again a Parliament
like-minded with the present, and to perpetuate the Adminis
tration under which we enjoy such a bounteous supply of
financial as well as other blessings. From my point of view
matters seem very different, I do not undertake to predict
either what this Parliament will do, or what the nation will
do in considering its own interests and in making provision
for its own fortunes ; but, unless I am mistaken, the doctrines
that are now promulgated on the part of the Government are
financial delusions, and, if they be so, I can only say I am
convinced of this — ^that the longer they last, the more com
plete sway they obtain for a time under the administration
and the influence of the party opposite, the sharper wiU be
the reaction when it comes, the more complete the reversal
of your momentary triumph, and the more severe the retribu
tion poUtleally infficted upon the party that has invented these
erroneous doctrines, and that has too fataUy carried them out,"
Gladstone concluded at a quarter-past eight, and had thus
spoken well into the dangerous limits of the dinner-hour.
But the crowded House which had. awaited his uprising re
mained to the end, and loud and repeated cheering broke from
the Opposition benches as he resumed his seat. While he
spoke, every seat on the floor of the House had been occupied,
and a double row of members filled the gallery opposite the
orator. The Strangers' Gallery was packed to its utmost limits,
and among other Peers in the portion of the gallery allotted to
their convenience were Carlingford, Rosebery, O'Hagan, Airlie,
Dudley, and Ravensworth, Dudley, coming do-wn from the
gaUery, waited . at the entrance to the House till Gladstone
passed out, to offer his warm congratulations on his speech — a
magnificent oration, which, however, did not prevent the resolu
tion upon which it was founded being defeated by 303 votes
against 230,

1' iT

CHAPTER XXXV.
THE SPBAKEE AEEAIGNED.
Lord John Manners — Mr. Justin McCarthy's maiden Speech — Father and Son
¦ — The Speaker arraigned— The Speaker acquitted — A Prisoner at the Bar.
May 1. — Lord Poor John Manners ! What a gay and gallant
0 n anners. gpi^ii; (Jvvells in that Spare, gaunt frame, which,
as it is swayed to and fro with gusts of eloquence, suggests a
fir-tree the winter has stripped of foliage, and for a crown
of green leaves has given a coronet of snow. Lord John is now
thumping the desk with juvenile energy, and wagging his
ancient pow with an emphasis that ought to have considerable
effect. Ever so many years ago, when his poetic soul consented
to be bound by the chains of verse, he wrote a poem, of which
he still affectionately preserves the title in those brief bio
graphical memoirs which he authorises in " Dod " and similar
compilations. "England's Trust, and other Poems," is the
name of the little work, modestly, yet hopefully, put forth at a
time when a (Quarterly Review bore testimony to the facts that
" Lord John Manners is a young nobleman, aged 27, hope
ful, generous, benevolent, and well-disposed."
In those days Lord John's chivalry went forth to pay alle
giance to the great, but misunderstood and finally decapitated,
monarch, Charles I. Kneeling beside the tomb of "the Monarch
Martyr," his emotion occasionally getting the better of his
syntax. Lord John sings : — " Fain would I
In meet expression own
Thy boundless sovereignty.
Thou captive on a throne,
O'er my soul's pulses ; but in vain
The attempt, too grand, I make :
My feeble-hearted strain
Trembles to undertake
A theme so sacred."
His " strain " to-day still suggests feebleness. But there is
no trembling about the grand old gentleman. He is, in fact, as

1879.] TEE 8PEAKEE AEEAIGNED. 483
bellicose as Bombastes Furioso or Lord Cranbrook. He lashes
the Opposition in easy satire, delivered in a mellifluous tone.
He has a tear for those who love him and a smile for those who
hate. Sometimes he points a long lean arm at Gladstone, a
personage who Is, perhaps, the incarnation of all principles that
are to him distasteful — a man who, he does not doubt, would
even let our old nobility die, if the sacrifice should preserve to
us Commerce, Laws, and Learning. George Balfour, tempted
into interpolating a remark, is rolled over in the dust with a
light, graceful, but muscular movement. Withal, Lord John
preserves a grace and ease of manner that sometimes succeed in
absolutely masking his strength. He literally ambles round
his arguments, and addresses guilty gentlemen opposite vrith
graceful curvatures of the body that would have excited the
enthusiasm of Mr. Turveydrop. He looks as if he were about to
give the Opposition a dancing-lesson, and nobody would be sur
prised if presently Harcourt were to offer his arm to Gladstone,
and the two were to step it down the floor of the House, while
Lord John critically surveyed them through his rakish eye-glass.
Lord John is really making a good debating speech. When
it comes to be printed, if it ever be printed, it will doubtless
appear that there is not much in it. But in the give-and-take
of Parliamentary debate manner counts for much. A lame jest,
which, seen in print, would not raise the ghost of a smile, will,
aptly spoken, send a crowded House into convulsions of laughter.
Lord John looks as if he were saying something good, and
evidently enjoys it himself. Moreover, he, the son of a dlike, is
Postmaster-General, and has been a familiar figure in Parlia
mentary life vrithin the memory of most men who sit and hear
him. These various reasons combine to make a little wit go a
long way ; and so, whilst he dances, his friends behind pipe to
him the Inspiriting music of laughter and cheers.
Yet it must be confessed that his influence upon debate is
absolutely nothing. With an interval of three sessions, he has sat
in Parliament for thirty-seven years, and it is not too much to
say that if, during that period, Newark, Colchester, and North
Leicestershire had successively retumed a Maypole as their re
presentative, political life and political thought would not have
varied in the slightest degree. Lord John has always looked tall
and graceful, and even picturesque. But so would a Maypole.
Jj' F 2

484 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm.
May 2.— Mr. Jus- In debate to-day, on the Purchase Clauses of the
mawSfslp'eeoh^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^t, JustIn Mc Carthy rose and made a
singularly successful maiden speech. He found
something ominous in the unanimity of opinion as to the desira
bility of accepting the resolution. It had been too sudden, and
was a condition of affairs arrived at after the resolution had been
too brief a time under discussion. Going directly to the heart of
the question, McCarthy said it was evident the Government
were about to accept the resolution. But there were two ways
in which that might be done. They might accept it with the
intent to deal with it In an honest spirit ; or they might permit
it to pass with the object of shelving the question. He was
afraid there was some reason to anticipate the worse conclusion.
He did not like to suggest any unpleasant similitude for hon,
and right hon. gentlemen on the Treasury bench. But he was
reminded that there was in classical history a person named
Phorcys, whose daughters had amongst them only one eye, and
this .they used in turn. Her Majesty's Ministers were some
thing in this position. They saw only with the eyes of Lord
Beaconsfield, and the Prime Minister had never shown himself
disposed to extend any large measure of land reform to Ireland.
Still, he hoped that better counsels would prevail, and as the
latest messenger to that House from the Irish people, he ven
tured to urge upon the Government that they should be prompt
and resolute in settling this question.
Speaking an hour later. Bright observed that he " welcomed
to the House with sincere pleasure the hon. member for Long
ford." This marked compliment to a new member was well
deserved by a speech which displayed a thorough grasp of the
question, was marked by great felicity of style, and was deUvered
with an easy grace that hit the medium (rare under the peculiar
circumstances of a maiden speech) between deference to his
audience and confidence in himself.
June 12.— Father The Gathorne Hardys pass and resemble each
and son. ^^j^^^.^ rpj^g scsslou whIch saw the father re
moved to another place beheld the son enter, and thus, by an
especial manifestation of Providence, the House of Commons
still has its Gathorne Hardy, The resemblance between father
and son is really marvellous. If one were to have sat with

1879.1 TEE SPEAKEB AEEAIGNED. 485
closed eyes just now, he might have thought that the translation
of the late Minister for War to the House of Lords was a
dream, and that he was still among us, ready to go on the
rampage on the slightest provocation. The same voice, with the
same measure of huskiness; the same breathless speech; the
same lines of thought; and the same style of expression in father
and son. This youth, -with the nervous body and flushed face,
with chin aggressively thrust forward towards the enemy, might
weU be the young member who sat for Leominster twenty-two
years ago. We catch his words and sentences in the debate,
and perceive that the subject under discussion is India. It
must, theii, be the Indian Mutiny that is before the House, and
the gentleman with the grey beard and spectacles, who sits in
the place of the Leader, must be Lord Palmerston — though
I do not remember seeing Lord Palmerston with spectacles,
and he certainly had not a long grey beard. Then the Chan
cellor of the Exchequer must be Sir George Cornewall Levris,
and the Home Secretary is Sir George Grey. Mr. Cardwell
answers for India ; Mr, Horsman has not yet discovered that
the office of Chief Secretary for Ireland does not give a man
enough to do; whilst Mr. Disraeli sits on the opposite
benches, patriotically preparing amendments for the hampering
of Ministers. Roebuck, sitting to-night on the front bench below the
gangway, though as far as possible parted from the terrible
Dillwyn, dreams of this with half-closed eyes. Looking up, he
perceives that the speaker Is much younger than was the
Gathorne Hardy who represented Leominster at the time of the
Indian Mutiny, and upon closer attention discovers that he Is
talking about India under very different circumstances, A
great deal has happened since then; among other things, the
advancement of Mr, Disraeli to the dignity of Lord Beacons
field, and Mr, Roebuck's acceptance at his hands of the title
of Right Honourable,

July 10. - The To-day's proceedings in the House of Commons
ra^^^ed*'^ ^^' ^^^^ Varied by a scene which, amid a somewhat
continuous series of outbursts, presents a dis
tinctive feature, inasmuch as the authority of the Speaker was
directly impugned. The House resumed Committee pn the

486 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm.
Army Bill at an early hour and under promising circumstances.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, in conversation on the course
of business, took an opportunity of expressing the hope that fair
progress might be made, and at the same time disclaimed
cognisance of the reported existence of arrangements whereby,
if necessary, the House might be kept sitting continuously.
For something over an hour nothing had happened to disturb
the fruition of the Chancellor's hopes. It is true that within
the first hour Parnell, displeased at the absence of the Colonial
Secretary and the Home Secretary (who, having nothing to do
-with the Bill, had taken the liberty of temporarily leaving the
House), moved to report progress. But he did not persist in
this playful threat, and the consideration of the clause proceeded.
Just before seven o'clock, whilst an amendinent of Chamberlain's
to clause 166 was under discussion, A. M. Sullivan suddenly rose
and moved to report progress, on the ground that there was in a
side gallery a gentleman, not a member bf the House, engaged in
taking notes. This, pending explanation, Sullivan held to be a
breach of privilege, and he claimed that the question might be
considered with the Speaker in the chair. The Chancellor of the
Exchequer, on the understanding that business would forthwith
be resumed after the attention of the Speaker had been called to
the matter, consented to progress being reported. This was
done, and the Speaker sent for.
When he took his seat, Sullivan called his attention to the
presence of the stranger in a portion of the House reserved for the
use of members, and asked by whose authority he was there;
and if by authority, with what intention such a report was taken.
Callan, who claimed the subject as one he had intended to deal
with, said that officials of the House had been instructed to spy
upon the acts of members. Two Committee clerks, whose
names he gave, had been told off to take notes of the number of
times Irish members spoke during the progress of the Army Bill.
This Callan characterised as " a dishonourable act," a remark
which brought Dodson up on a point of order. Callan explained
that he had not the slightest intention of imputing dishonour
able actions to officials of the House, but in his opinion the action
itself was dishonourable.
The Speaker said, amid loud cheers, that as the act was done
by his authority, it was time he interposed. He proceeded to

.1879.] THE SPEAKEB AEEAIGNED. 487
explain that, desiring that minutes of the proceedings should be
taken in a more detailed manner than they were supplied in the
papers deUvered to members, he had instructed the clerks to
take an extended report. This had nothing to do with individual
members of the House, and was a perfectly fair and impartial
report of the proceedings.
The right hon. gentleman was then subjected to a somewhat
sharp cross-examination by Pamell. Were the reports verbatim?
and if not, of what description were they ? The Speaker said
the reports were not verbatim, and he could only describe them
as minutes more enlarged than those supplied to members, and
containing an account of all the speeches.
" All? " said Parnell, stiU doubtful.
"All," answered the Speaker, emphatically; and here the
episode seemed to end.
But it was only to break out in an increasingly violent
manner. O'Connor Po-wer, addressing the Speaker, observed
that the proceedings he had been pleased to order were unpre
cedented in the history of the House of Commons. He was con
tinuing in the same strain, when the Speaker pointed out that
the question which had arisen in Committee had been answered.
If O'Connor Power desired to raise the question in a more
detailed form, it was open for him to do so. The Speaker
slowly making preparations to leave the chair, O'Connor Power
hastUy rose, and was greeted with shouts of " Order ! " from
the opposite benches. Remaining on his feet, and leaning
excitedly across in the direction of the chair, holding out his
hands as if to clutch the departing Speaker, he shouted —
"I protest  "
His protest, whatever it might have been, was lost amid a
roar of contumely from the Ministerialists, during which the
Speaker, gathering his robes about him, turned and left the
chair, O'Connor Power, with passionate gesticulations, protest
ing in dumb show. It seemed that if he had been able to reach
the chair there would have been a repetition of an historical
scene, and Speaker Brand, like Speaker Lenthall, would have
been forcibly kept down in his seat. As it was, the length of
the table and the space of half the floor intervening, the Speaker
escaped, and disappeared from the scene.
Raikes, quickly resuming his place at the table, began with

488 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm.
adroit promptitude to take up business where it had been in
terrupted : —
" Clause 166, page 92, leave out all words after  "
But before he could get any further, O'Connor Power was
again on his feet, and, speaking now in a slower and more
deliberate manner, he moved to report progress, on the ground
that he was "still dissatisfied" vrith the explanation of the
Speaker, and that by the Speaker's too quickly lea-ring the
chair the House had been deprived of its jurisdiction. The
Chancellor of the Exchequer attempted to bring matters back to
conventional grooves by obserring that he " presumed we were
not thinking of disputing the ruling of the Speaker," a surmise
which Parnell answered by loudly crying " Yes, yes." Since
this was the case, the Chancellor trusted the question would be
taken in its proper place and time, in which hope he was
supported by Hartington.
This concurrence of authority from the two front benches
suggested to Parnell the certainty that the ad-rice so tendered
must be wrong. The question, he said, was " one of breach of
privilege by the Speaker of this House." The Chancellor of
the Exchequer asked whether these words were in order.
Raikes, while pointing out the extreme undesirability of pur
suing this sort of discussion, ruled that the remark was not
absolutely out of order. Pamell, continuing, repeated that he
impugned the conduct of the Speaker, whereupon Dodson, rising
to a point of order, asked whether it was competent to consider
the conduct of the Speaker, except in a fully-constituted House ?
Parnell had resumed his seat when Dodson rose, but rising
just as that gentleman sat down, he was confronted by the
Chairman, who had risen to answer the question put to him
on a point of order. As Parnell showed no indication of an
intention to yield to the authority of the Chairman, a deafening
cry of " Order 1 " arose from the Ministerial benches. Pamell,
momentarily yielding to the storm, resumed his seat, but was up
again in an instant, shouting at the top of his voice, whilst
members on the crowded benches opposite raised a cry, the like
of which Is not often heard in the House of Commons. In a
condition of the intensest excitement, Parnell continued rising
and sitting do-wn, tbe Chairman all the while standing waiting
for an opportunity to give his judgment on the point of order

1879.] THE SPEAKEB AEEAIGNED. 489
raised. At length it occurred to Parnell that he would gain some
advantage if he resumed his seat, and continued his remarks
from that position. So seated, and with his hat on, he main
tained his rivalry with the two hundred angry gentlemen
opposite. " We -wish  " he cried, and then came the angry, almost
savage, roar.
When it ceased, Parnell commenced again. "We wish  "
This was followed by the roar, sharp, short, and in perfect
unison. Thrice Pamell tried, but got no further than the in-
defhiite expression of desire. Eventually Raikes succeeded in
making his voice heard, and gave his judgment on the point of
order submitted to him. When he had finished Parnell con
cluded the sentence he had Ineffectually tried to speak.
" We vrish,'-* he said, " to impugn the conduct of the Speaker
of this House, before the House, with the Speaker in the chair."
He went on to say that he -wished the Committee to report
on the one-sided report prepared by direction of the Speaker.
John Manners now rose and submitted whether it was not out of
order to characterise the report as one-sided, when the Speaker
had declared it was a full and impartial report. The Chairman
could not say that it was out of order, being the expression of
Parnell's individual opinion. PameU, continuing, took a fresh
turn by demanding that the official taking notes — " this unpre
cedented reporter in the side gallery," as O'Donnell subsequently
called him — should withdraw. As a matter of fact, this had
already for some time been accomplished, which presently
coming to the knowledge of O'Connor Power, he withdrew his
motion; not, as he was careful to put it, on the point of order,
but for the convenience of the Committee, and because the
official had withdrawn.
The Committee at once resumed business, but it had not pro
ceeded many minutes when Gray moved to report progress, on
the ground that the official had returned. This appeared to be
the case, and for some time total collapse of the business of the
evening was threatened. A. M. Sullivan threatened to settle
the matter by spying strangers, " and continuing to spy them "
as long as the official remained. After some further heated talk,
it was decided, with the concurrence of the Chancellor of tbe
Exchequer, that the matter should be formally brought up as a

490 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm.
question of privilege. Then at nine o'clock, the scene having
lasted vrithout interruption for over two hours, the Committee
once more resumed, and took up the Army Bill on the propo
sition, put with unchanged intonation by Raikes, that on
" Clause 1 66, page 92, leave out all words after  "
July 11. — The To-day the House of Commons was crowded to a
qStred^'^ *°" degree not often vritnessed at the first hour of a
morning sitting. The Treasury bench was so
thronged that the Judge Advocate General (Cavendish Bentinck),
a statesman to whom many references have been made in the
course of the debate which culminated in the proceedings of
yesterday, was obliged to find a seat on a back bench. The
front Opposition bench was scarcely less crowded. The
Strangers' gallery was of course full, and a number of peers
early occupied the seats allotted to their convenience. Prince
Christian, not a frequent visitor to the House of late, sat over
the clock. Later in the afternoon, the seat to his right was
occupied by the Marquis Tseng, Envoy Extraordinary and
Minister Plenipotentiary of the Emperor of China, whose dress,
a glory of golden silk, stood out in charming relief from the
monotony of the black coats of Western civilisation. Another
distinguished stranger, who modestly occupied a seat under
the gaUery, was Mr. Thomas Collins, a gentleman whose con
nection with the particular Parliamentary proceedings of late
elaborated by Parnell is historical.
The prelirainary proceedings occupied half an hour, and at
half-past two the Speaker and Parnell rose together. The
latter giving way, the Speaker observed that a great deal of
misapprehension appeared to exist with respect to the nature
of the reports he had authorised to be made, and he would
only say that, if any member pleased to move for them, It
would be an unopposed return. Parnell, without taking any
note of this remark, proceeded to observe, "in reference to a
matter that occurred yesterday," that the duty devolved upon
him to submit to the House a statement of the circumstances,
and to ask it to agree to a declaration, that the conduct of the
Speaker had been a breach of " privilege. Pamell proposed to
prove two statements — first, that the Speaker has no original
jurisdiction ; and, second, that the House has always disapproved

1879.] THE SPEAKEB AEEAIGNED. 4S<^
of the making of any minutes except those taken by the clerk
at the table, or the assistant clerk. This position he fortified
by extracts from " Mr. Hatsell's Precedents." Some of these
appeared to the House to have a bearing on the case not con
templated by ParneU, and he was interrupted by loud cheers
when he read out how Mr. Hatsell had laid down the regula
tion that "when Mr. Speaker desired to speak, he should be
heard without interruption," and that " Mr. Speaker should
on all occasions be treated with the greatest respect."
Having argued that the Speaker had exceeded his duty,
and acted contrary to rules in the course he had taken, Parnell
concluded by reading a resolution in the foUovring terms : —
" Resolved : that any report or record of the proceedings of this
House, or a Committee of the whole House, made, taken, or
kept by officials of this House as an official aet or otherwise,
without the previous order or sanction or knowledge of the
House, and for purposes not previously revealed to the House,
other than the notes or minutes of the Orders and Proceedings
of the House, or of a Committee of the whole House, taken
at the table by the clerk or the assistant- clerk, is without prece
dent in the customs and usages of Parliament."
The Speaker pointed out that the written resolution pre-
riously placed in his hands by Parnell had contained, in addition
to the above, the words " is a breach of the privilege of Parlia
ment, and is a danger to the liberty and independence of de
bate." He asked whether Parnell desired to drop those words, to
which Parnell assented by nodding hls~head. O'Connor Power
seconded the motion in a speech which, like that of Parnell,
was exceedingly moderate in tone, though after the manner of
the member for Mayo, it was a little warm in language.
These two speeches were commendably brief, and at ten
minutes past three the Chancellor of the Exchequer rose. He
coinmenced by paying a tribute to the impartiality, dignity,
and courtesy of the Speaker, a tribute approved by cheers from
all parts of the House. The Speaker had never failed in the
fulfilment of his duty to the House, and it was not too much
to hope that the House would fulfil its duty towards the
Speaker, alike as a matter of fairness to him and for the main
tenance of the position of the House itself. The first duty
owed to the Speaker was respect, and the ChanceUor added.

^2 A DIAEY OF TWO PARLIAMENTS. nm.
amid loud cheers, that the respect must not be of the lips only.
As to the resolution submitted by Parnell, it was impossible
to consider it disconnected from surrounding circumstances.
He submitted that, bearing this in mind, the Speaker had been
fully justified in taking the course he had adopted. He pro
duced a book dating back to 1850, and showing that since that
time it had been the regular custom of the Speaker and his
predecessors to enter the name of each member who spoke in
debate, and the hour at which he commenced and finished. He
concluded by moring an amendment in the folio-wing terms : —
"That notice having been taken while the House was in Com
mittee of the presence in one of the side galleries of a gentleman
engaged in taking notes of the proceedings of the Committee,
and Mr. Speaker having informed the House that the official
in question was so employed under his direction, and that the
notes taken were for the confidential information of the Speaker,
this House is of opinion that Mr. Speaker was justified in the
directions given by him, and is entitled to the support and
confidence of this House."
Hartington, who was received with loud and general cheer
ing, seconded the amendment, and joined in the tribute which
had been paid to the conduct of the Speaker, Alluding to the tac
tics which had prevaUed, to the delaying of business, he observed
that it was a state of things that the House, patient though
it was, would not permanently endure. The Speaker had been
at the trouble to obtain data on which he might form an opinion
as to the question of the delay, and it was not the censure but
the thanks of the House that were due to him.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer spoke for a quarter of an
hour, Hartington was still more brief, and when at half -past
three he resumed his seat, a strong disposition was shown on
the part of the House forthwith to take the division, Julian
Goldsmid, rising to continue the debate, was met -with many
evidences of disinclination to hear him. A storm of cries for
the division stopped him at the outset, and for some minutes
his sentences progressed laboriously through a chorus of
" Divide I " When at length he sat down, Gladstone rose,
with an apology for continuing a debate which the House evi
dently wished closed. He spoke briefly but strongly in favour
of the amendment.

1879.] THE SPEAKEB AEEAIGNED. 493
When he sat down there vanished all hope of closing the
debate at the morning sitting, ff indeed any had existed.
Courtney came next, and whilst expressing the view that the
unusual circumstances of obstruction should be met by unusual
action on the part of the House, he declared that such action
should be taken openly. The House, having now given up the
attempt to close the discussion, began to empty, and before a
comparatively scanty audience the discussion was continued.
At twenty-five minutes to seven Callan rose, protesting that
he had no desire to avoid the di-rislon. Accidentally or other
wise, his remarks were so timed that he resumed his seat at
fourteen minutes to seven, just leaving time for the division
to be taken on Parnell's resolution. But there was no time
to put the amendment, the sitting of necessity being sus
pended, it being ten minutes past seven when the division
was announced. PameU's resolution was rejected by 421 votes
against 29, one of the largest majorities entered on the re
cords of the House. The announcement of the figures was
received with loud cheers. The minority was almost entirely
made up of Irish members. As far as might be observed,
the only EngUsh members who voted for the resolution were
Wilfrid Lawson, Jacob Bright, Courtney, Hopwood, Mac
donald, and Kenealy.
On the House resuming at nine. Gray moved an amendment
to the Chancellor of the Exchequer's amendment (now the sub
stantive motion), embodying, as he said, some of Mr. Hatsell's
Precedents, to the effect that the clerk at the table should
take no notes except by the order of the House. The attempt
to renew the debate proved utterly futile, though speeches were
made which prolonged the proceedings by an additional couple
of hours. One of those speeches, contributed by Bowyer, nearly
brought about an unexpected crisis. The hon. baronet inadver
tently took notice of the presence of strangers. The Speaker
was, however^ judiciously deaf to this slip, and the speechmaking
went on amid constant interruption from a House weary of much
talking and anxious only for the division. The House dividing
on Gray's amendment, it was rejected by 292 votes against 24,
The Chancellor of the Exchequer's resolution was then put, and
agreed to without a division — a conclusion of the business hailed
with prolonged cheering.

494 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mn,
July 23.— A pri- A Housc might havc been "made" at twelve
™ner at the ^'^i^^^ ^ the Speaker had been pleased to enter
promptly at the legal hour. At ten minutes past
twelve, when prayers were read, the benches were filled much the
same as at the same epoch of an ordinary Government night,
and at twenty minutes past, when strangers were admitted, the
House presented an appearance unparalleled at the same hour
on any Wednesday during the existence of the present Parlia
ment. This unusual assembly was due to the interest attaching to
the proceedings in a matter of breach of privilege. But It was
unexpectedly justified by the importance of an announcement
the Colonial Secretary was accidentally prepared to make. A
presentiment of important news seemed to pervade the House,
and, as Hicks-Beach approached the table, the buzz of conversa
tion was stilled by impatient cries of " Order ! " The Colonial
Secretary, with briefest preface, proceeded to read a telegram
from Bartle Frere, which commenced by " congratulating her
Majesty's Government " on the decisive victory obtained over
the forces of the Zulu King. This [courtly narrovring of the
limit of interest in the communication was disregarded by the
crowded House, which listened with profoundest attention while
the Colonial Secretary read the brief but dramatic recital of how
Cetewayo, finally brought to bay, had given battle in the open
to the British troops ; how his forces, estimated at from twelve
to twenty thousand men, had been utterly routed with trifling
loss to the British ; how the victors had advanced and destroyed
Ulundi ; and how the royal kraal had been burned.
Bartle Frere added that this victory had been obtained under
Lord Chelmsford, Wolseley being detained by stress of weather
at Durban, and that the news had been brought by Archibald
Forbes, the correspondent of the Daily News, who had out
stripped all couriers by a ride of fifteen hours in the saddle.
When the loud and prolonged cheers -with which this news
was received had subsided, the Speaker announced that "the
clerk would now proceed to read the Orders of the Day." The
first on the paper was the question of privilege, in respect of
which Mr. Grissell and Mr. Ward had been ordered to appear at
the Bar, charged -with the offence of offering to parties con
cerned in a private Bill to "square" the Committee to which it

1879.] THE SPEAKEB AEEAIGNED. 495
had been referred. The Speaker inquired whether these persons
were in attendance. The Serjeant-at-Arms, leaving his chair, and
advancing just within the Bar, answered that Mr. Ward was in
attendance, but that Mr. Grissell had not put in an appearance.
"Will you," said the Speaker, remaining seated as he
addressed the Serjeant-at-Arms, "state what measures have
been taken to secure the attendance of Mr. Grissell ? "
The Serjeant-at-Arms explained that on Tuesday a messenger
deUvered the mandate at his house, and had been informed by
Mrs. Grissell that her husband had gone abroad. The Serjeant-
at-Arms had received yesterday morning a telegram from Mr.
GrIsseU, dated from Boulogne, stating that he had been sent
away by the doctor's orders, and was not well enough to travel
on the return journey.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer observed that this telegram
did not appear "at all satisfactory." He therefore moved a
resolution declaring that Mr. Grissell, ha-ring been ordered to
attend the House, and having neglected to do so, be taken into
the custody of the Serjeant-at-Arms, and that Mr. Speaker do
issue his warrant to that effect. Forster having seconded the reso
lution, and KnatchbuU-Hugessen having endeavoured to show
that if the House had only taken his advice Mr. Grissell would
now have been in custody, the question was put and agreed to.
The Speaker, rising again, consulted the pleasure of the
House as to Mr. Ward's being called in. ' A cry of " Aye "
responding, the Speaker said —
" Let John Sandilands Ward be called in."
The Serjeant-at-Arms left the House, two of the mes
sengers advanced to the cross benches, and, amid manifest
signs of interest, pulled out the Bar. Meanwhile the Serjeant-
at-Arms had retumed, accompanied by a tall, dark gentle
man, who advanced towards the Bar with solemn step, and
seized it with both hands as he bowed low to the Speaker.
The Speaker, still remaining seated, addressed the prisoner
at the Bar, and informed him that his conduct had been
the subject of patient inquiry by a Committee of the House,
whose conclusions were expressed in the final paragraph of the
report which he read for the information of the prisoner, at
whose side stood in close attendance the veteran doorkeeper,
Mf. Hartley.

496 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm.
Being invited to offer any remarks that occurred to him, the
prisoner read with careful elocution a document, the gist of
which lay in the last sentence, wherein he submitted himself to
the decision of the House, whatever it might be, but impressed
with the hope that "this honourable House would give due
consideration to the solemn statement which he now made, that
he was the -rictim of a cruelly unfortunate misapprehension."
The prisoner ha-ring been ordered to withdraw, the Chan
cellor of the Exchequer, rising again, pointed out that the
statement of the prisoner did not differ from that made by him
before the Select Comraittee, and upon which, after full investi
gation, they had decided upon his guilt. He would therefore move
that John Sandilands Ward, having been a party to an offer to
control the decision of a Select Committee of the House, had
been guilty of a breach of privilege, Goschen observing that it
would be convenient if one of the Committee would state
whether there was anything in the prisoner's declaration which
differed from the evidence given before the Committee, Walpole
stated that the points urged were precisely the same as those
upon which the Committee had come to their deliberate decision.
This representation was confirmed by Pemberton and Gray,
members of the Committee ; and Forster having seconded this
resolution, it was put from the Chair, and carried without
dissent. The Chancellor of the Exchequer said it now became the
duty of the House to consider what course they would take.
He moved that Mr. Ward be committed to the custody of the
Serjeant-at-Arms, and that the Speaker do issue his warrant to
this effect. This resolution (which it may be mentioned as a
matter of detail was not seconded) was put and carried, after
sorae remarks from Denison, and a few observations on Con
stitutional law from Bowyer, who had made several attempts to
rise earlier In the discussion, and whose ultimate triumph was
grievously marred by impatient cries of " Agreed ! Agreed ! "
The Serjeant-at-Arms, not waiting for the formal issue of the
warrant, left the House in search of his prisoner, and the House
proceeded, as if nothing particular had happened, to the next
order of the day — the Public Works Loan Bill,
In the meantime Mr. Ward had been standing outside by
the doorkeeper's chair, awaiting the _issue of the proceedings.

1879.] THE SPEAKEB AEEAIGNED. 497
On being informed of the result, he quietly accompanied Captain
Gosset to the prison-rooms in the Clock Tower, where he will
remain during the pleasure of the House, Two messengers
have been detailed to keep watch and ward over him, an
outer-guard being furnished by the police. The prison-rooms
in the House of Commons adjoin the residence of the Serjeant-
at-Arms. They consist of two suites, one on the ground
floor and one above, the latter comprising bedrooms for the
prisoner and his warder. Regarded as a temporary residence,
they are by no means uncomfortable, and the prisoner will
be subject to no other discipline than what is necessary for his
safe keeping.

GG

SESSION 1880.

CHAPTER XXXVI.
DISSOLUTION.
The Queen's last Appearance in Parliament — Dissolution announced — Historical
last Words — Dying — dead !
Feb. 5. — The The fog which during the past few days has
Queen's last gj^gj ^j^g g f ^ ^ j common with less
appearance m _ _ '
Parliament. illustrious chambers in London, had happily
cleared off before noon, and the spectacle of
the opening of Parliament by the Queen was not dimmed by a
too familiar presence. The doors were opened at twelve o'clock,
and ladies whose seats were not so secure as those of the
peeresses took the earliest opportunity of claiming thera. But
it was one o'clock before the House began to present any
thing like an animated appearance. As usual, the peers had
chivalrously abandoned the greater number of their seats- to
ladies, reserving for their own accommodation the front row
of the benches, and a few seats placed closely together on
the space ordinarily assigned to the occupants of the cross
benches. These were not so inviting that their lordships
were to be induced to fill them before the appointed time.
But many ha-ring ladies in charge strolled in and out, giring
to a scene rapidly growing in gorgeousness a groundwork of
colour of the particular red which from time imraeraorial has
dyed the robes of a peer of ParUaraent,
At half- past one nearly all who were bidden as spectators
were seated, and there remained nothing but to wait and
watch. The throne, draped through long successive sessions,
was uncovered, save for the ermine cloak which lay upon it
with rich white silk lining outwards. In the recess on either
side were two chairs. At the steps of the throne was the
famous seat known as the woolsack, a bench which does not

1880.] DISSOLUTION. 499
differ from those commoner conveniences temporarily impressed
for the occasion, and which were ranged together at uncom
fortably close quarters before the bar. The woolsack was at
the moment tenantless. A few paces before it was another
bench of almost precisely similar make, on which sat the
Lord Chief Baron, Lord Chief Justice Cockburn, and Mr.
Justice Lopes, sole representatives of the judges, who just
now chance to be engaged in other than ceremonial business.
When the House of Lords is in session, the bishops are
accustomed to sit to the right of the woolsack, removed by
the breadth of the gangway from the heated air of politics
and partisanship, which in this part of the chamber commences
at the front Ministerial bench. But the bishops, like the
lay peers, had sacrificed their convenience to hospitality, and,
save for the front bench, had given up the whole of their
seats to the foreign ambassadors. These, who for the most
part had come early, presented a mass of glittering colour,
which under gasUght might have been dazzling. As it was,
it drew to this part of the House the eyes of all beholders,
their excellencies wasting none of the effect because they with
one accord elected to stand through the long hour of waiting.
The one exception to this rule was the American Charge
d'Affaires, distinguished amid the blaze of diplomatic millinery
by the severe simplicity of evening dress. He remained for
the greater part of the time seated, thus affording a better view
of the Chinese Minister, who stared about him vrith never-
ceasing wonder, presenting to the interested audience a bland,
almost childlike face, in which it was difficult to suppose diplo
matic art could ever find expression.
The Russian Ambassador, arriving late, introduced a dis
turbing element among the representatives of European nations,
which some people might say was characteristic. His seat
had been fixed at the farthest end of the first row, and in
passing to it Germany, Austria, Italy, and France were tempor
arily disturbed as they courteously made way for him. But
he was not absolutely last, the most dilatory comer of the
distinguished circle being the Turkish Arabassador. His excel
lency, strolling in with fez on head and a great jewel flashing
on his left breast, chanced upon the Archbishop of Canterbury,
who sat at the end of the front bench retained by the bishops.
gg2

500 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [issa.
The Archbishop's greeting of the representative of the Sultan
was effusive. Just behind his Grace, whose position at the
end of the bench seemed to endow bim with tbe office of host,
and who with unwearied assiduity had welcomed each coming
guest, towered the tall form of Count Miinster, who warmly
seconded the Archbishop's endeavour to make every one that
passed feel welcome.
Behind the broad bench shared by the bishops and the
judges (behind it looking from the throne) was the table
at which the Chairman of Committees and the clerks are
accustomed to sit, fortified by books of reference and many
docuraents. To-day this table had been cleared of Its usual
contents, and before it sat the three clerks, in black gowns
and grey wigs, the one black line In the gay asserably. It
was behind these that the temporary rows of backless benches
were arranged for the accommodation of noble lords who had
given up their seats to fair ladles. It seemed to ordinary
intelligence that a more convenient way of fixing these benches
would have been to follow the lines of the ordinary cross
benches — that is to say, to arrange them in rows facing the
throne. Probably, however, had this been done the Constitu
tion would in some subtle manner have suffered. Accordingly
the benches were set sideways, noble lords seating themselves
after the fashion compeUed by the accommodation of an Irish
car. This rule was enforced with the exception of the par
ticular peer who had chanced to get at the end of each seat,
and who incontinently turned his face towards the throne and
his back' to his neighbours.
Behind a thin streak of red which bordered the ordinary
rows of benches sat the ladies. To the left of the throne the
-wives of peers, and peeresses in their own right, had seats
assigned to them. On the corresponding benches opposite
were ladles of noble famUies. The galleries, with the excep
tion of a few yards of that to the left of the throne, were also
given up to the use of ladies. The exceptional space was
filled by foreign attaches and other highly privileged strangers.
Most of these wore uniform. Conspicuous amongst them was
one in a magnificent Eastern costume of white silk gleaming
with gold threads, his swarthy face surmounted by a turban —
a stately and picturesque dress which made to look more than

tl

1880.] DISSOLUTION. 501
usuaUy absurd the odd, iU-fitting red gowns slashed with bars
of ermine which the peers wear in the presence of the Sovereign
in Parliament. The ladies had seated themselves, wearing the opera cloaks
and shawls in which they had driven down to the House.
At a few minutes to two the blare of trumpets announced
that royalty was at hand. Cloaks and shawls were forthwith
slipped off, displaying the full charms of white shoulders and
glistening diamonds. The prevailing colour of dress was white,
with here and there a flash of blue, or a more timid presenta
tion of delicate sage green, Prorainent among the peeresses
sat a lady in deepest black — black dress, black shawl, black
gloves, and raven hair, from the depths of which shone three
diamond stars. This, it was whispered round the throng of
strangers in the gallery over the bar, was the Countess of
Dudley. But the Countess of Dudley was not present.
Just on the stroke of two the audience rose with a quick
rustling sound and made obeisance to the Princess of Wales,
who entered a few feet in advance of the royal dukes and
princesses who accompanied her. Bowing graciously and
smiling sweetly in answer to the welcome which beamed upon
her from every eye in the assembly, her Royal Highness took
her seat on the hitherto erapty woolsack, and was joined by
the Duchess of Connaught and the Princess Frederiea of
Hanover, daughter of the late King George. At the sarae
time entered the Prince of Wales, who was conducted to a
chair to the right of the throne. The Duke of Edinburgh,
the Duke of Connaught, and the Duke of Cambridge, having
escorted the princesses, took their seats on the front bench
corresponding to that on which the Archbishop of Canterbury
and the more fortunate bishops sat in front of the ambassadors.
At this moment her Majesty's Government were solely repre
sented by Lord Cranbrook. On the front Opposition bench
sat Earl Granville and Lord Selborne, The attendance of peers
whose naraes are known to readers of Parliamentary debates
was unusually limited. If Lord Hampton, Lord Houghton,
and Lord Rosebery be mentioned, the list is almost exhausted.
At ten minutes past two there filed into the Chamber,
through the open doors behind the throne, a procession headed
l^-y- gorgeously attired heralds, whose path towards the farther

502 A , DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. [I880.
side of the throne was beset with difficulties. There was the
necessity of bowing, first to the Prince of Wales on the left,
to the Princess of Wales and her companion princesses on the
woolsack, and, finally, when this was accomplished in four dis
tinct and elaborate genuflexions, the heralds came full upon
the three royal dukes sitting at the end of the bench to the
left of the woolsack, and were fain to bow again.
This was, finally, happily accomplished, and the Queen was
seen entering, with slow step, the centre of a brilliant throng, in
which were recognised the Duke of Richmond and Gordon,
holding aloft the sword of state, and the Marquis of Winchester
bearing on a cushion the cap of maintenance. Princess
Beatrice accompanied her Majesty, and as the Queen seated
herself on the throne, she deftly released the long white riband
pendant from the back of the Queen's cap, which, catching
in the seat, threatened to tear the crown from the Sovereign's
head in presence of all the world. The Queen was dressed in
mourning, though of a somewhat less decided character than
that in which she Is accustomed to be seen. The sombre colour
of her dress was lightened by broad bands of white, and across
her breast lay the blue riband of the Garter. For jewels she
wore a crown-shaped circlet of diamonds, and on her breast the
Koh-i-noor, Princess Beatrice, who was dressed in blue, and who, In
respect of colour, was more pronounced than any lady In the
assembly, stood close by the chair at the right of the throne.
Prince Leopold, scarcely recognisable in the uniform of an Elder
Brother of the Trinity House, stood to the left of the Queen,
before the vacant chair which so many years ago the Prince
Consort used to fill on occasions like to-day.
At an almost Imperceptible gesture from the Queen, the
audience, which had remained standing, seated themselves, and
Black Rod was despatched in search of the Commons. There
was now time to look, as every one did, for the Prime Minister ;
but he had not come with the brilliant throng, and the ceremony
of opening Parliament was begun and completed without him.
In a few raoraents the familiar roar was heard, and presently the
Speaker was discerned standing at the Bar, where he had been
washed up on the crest of a wave of rushing members of the
House of Commons, To his left was Captain Gosset, Serjeant-

1880.1 DISSOLUTION. 503
at- Arms, but without the mace, for, on approaching the presence
of the royal authority of whom the mace is a symbol, he had
given that imposing feature of Constitutional Government into
the hands of an attendant at the door of the House of Lords,
Black Rod stood to the right, and just behind the Speaker
was the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Cross had succeeded in
getting a good point of view a little to the left; but the First
Lord of the Admiralty vainly attempted to survey the scene
over the shoulders of Thomas Cave.
Quiet being restored. Cairns advanced, and, bending on one
knee, proffered the Queen a manuscript he had brought with
him. With a gesture that must have been imperceptible to
those at a distance, her Majesty beckoned refusal, and Cairns,
interpreting this as a command to read the Speech, retired a few
paces. Then, standing on the steps of the throne, and partiaUy
hiding the Prince of Wales from -riew, he read. In a voice that
reached all corners of the chamber, the last " Speech frora the
Throne " that can be deUvered in the life of the present Parlia
ment. This done, the Queen rose, and, with a slight acknow
ledgment of the presence of the august assembly gathered under
the historic roof, walked out, not stopping, as on former occa
sions, to speak to the Princess of Wales, whom she passed on
the way.
Her Majesty gut of sight, the Princess of Wales followed,
escorted by the Prince of Wales, The Princess Frederiea of
Hanover and the Duchess of Connaught went in their train.
The three Royal Princes on the floor of the House doffed their
plumed hats and vanished through the doorway. The brilliant
assembly, meeting and mingling for a few moments on the floor
of the House, vanished from sight. The Speaker and the
Commons retumed to their own House, and it was there
formally announced that the session of 1880 had commenced.
Mar. 8.-Dissoiu- Members met in the House of Commons this
tion announced, afternoon wholly unprepared for the surprise in
store. The business on the paper not being of a striking or
iraportant character, the attendance was rather less than usual
for the first hour of the sitting. Among other absentees were
Hartington and Gladstone, Neither side was crowded, thus
indicating (what appears to be the fact) that the sudden decision

504 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm.
to dissolve Parliament at Easter was as much a secret on the
Ministerial side as among members of the Opposition, Up to
the very last raoment the delusion was kept up by what may,
upon consideration, seem a somewhat significant incident. The
regular questions on the paper being disposed of. Sir Charles
Russell rose, and asked the President of the Board of Trade
whether it would not be possible for the Select Committee ap
pointed to consider the Grain Cargo Bill to report on the
particular subject of loading In sacks, without waiting to con
sider other matters submitted to them, so that the subject might
be dealt with forthwith. The question was addressed to Lord
Sandon, who by a fortuitous circumstance chanced to be 111,
though bis indisposition was happily of so temporary a character
that he appeared in the precincts of the House immediately after
the Chancellor of the Exchequer had made his statement, and
remained about throughout the sitting.
Of couree If Sandon had happened to be in his place it would
have been difficult for him, being in possession of the Cabinet
secret, to answer the question precisely as it was answered by
the Secretary of the Adrairalty. That gentleman was able to
say it would be quite possible for the Committee to report in a
month or six weeks, so that legislation might take place "before
the end of the summer." This is an unusual phrase ; but Its
substitution for the more customary one, " the end of tbe
session," was not noticed, and doubtless its significance did not
occur to Egerton, who simply read what was written down for
him on a piece of paper.
This business being settled, and it being duly made known to
the country that the Government have made every arrangeraent
for meeting the popular demand raised by Plimsoll's Bill, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer rose and proposed to " make a few
reraarks." There was something in his manner and the tone of
his voice which instantly riveted attention, and before the words
were pronounced the House knew that its fate was sealed. The
contention of the Chancellor of the Exchequer went to show
that the only reason the present Parliaraent had been summoned
for a seventh session was in view of the Irish famine. The
necessities of the case being now met, there remained nothing
that imperatively kept Parliament together, and all the Govern
ment had to consider was whether it were better to dissolve at

1880. DISSOLUTION. 505
Easter or at Whitsuntide. On a careful consideration of the
best interests of the country, they had decided that Easter was
the time, and accordingly the dissolution will take place from
the amended date fixed for the Easter recess — the 23rd inst.
This would make it possible for the new Parliament to meet
again in May.
There was some slight cheering at this announcement, but it
was rather of a spasmodic character, members evidently being
too much taken aback to be able to find immediate expression for
the mingled feelings with which they heard the statement. The
Chancellor went on to say that it was desirable the Budget
should be before the country prior to the general election, and
he therefore proposed to introduce it on Thursday next, ^y
this time the Ministerialists had recovered their presence of
mind, and greeted this heroic resolve with a cheer. The BUl
dealing -with Corrupt Practices and with the conveyance of
voters in boroughs it was highly desirable should be passed,
and he hoped this might be done. He assured the House that
he had taken it into his confidence at the earliest possible
moment, a statement accepted on the spur of the moment by
general cheering,
Forster, rising in the absence of the Leader of the Opposition,
said he had heard with great satisfaction the statement from the
Treasury bench, a feeling shared by members on that side of the
House, He wished to know up to what date it was intended
to take votes upon account. The Chancellor of the Exchequer
replied "three months," Dilke inquired, "What about the
Water Bill?" This was instinctively felt to be a crucial
question, there being an impression so widely spread as to
araount almost to conviction that it is upon the London
Water Bill a Ministry which has essayed many great feats of
Imperial policy at length finds itself checked. Cross said no
bargain had been made with the water companies. One had
been suggested, and if ParUament did not think it desirable,
there was an end of the matter.
Another important piece of information was drawn from the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, to tbe effect that private BUls
would be put in the same position in the new Parliament as they
stand in respect to the present. The Attorney-General gave
notice of his intention to bring in a fresh Bill dealing with

506 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm.
Corrupt Practices, In reply to Henry James, he said the
Criminal Code Bill would of course be dropped ; but he thought
the Committee to whom the Bankruptcy Bill had been re
mitted might report before Easter,
It was a considerably curtailed audience to whom these latter
statements were made. Since the moment the news the
Chancellor of the Exchequer had communicated was actually
in possession of members, the House had been rapidly thinning,
and at this time there were more merabers in and about the tele
graph office than in the House of Comraons. In the lobbies all
was excitement, but the general feeUng on both sides appeared
to be one of satisfaction that the tension had been broken, and
that the long-looked-for struggle was now actually at hand.
In the House of Lords a similar announcement was made in
much briefer terms by the Prirae Minister. Here, as in the
Commons, members were unprepared for the crisis. The news
was received by the few peers present -without the slightest
indication of feeling. They at least were sure to come back
-with the new Parliament, however It might fare with indi
vidual members of the other House.
Mar. 18 — Histori- On Monday night, by an unpremeditated coinci-
cai last words, (jgngg, an event happened in Parliament to which
the newspapers have not called attention, though history
will doubtless not find it unworthy of notice. On that night
Gladstone in one House, and Beaconsfield in the other, for the
last tirae addressed the Parliament which has proved such a
memorable turning-point In the career of both. Gladstone
spoke first, having taken upon himself the duty of demolishing
the latest financial scheme of his former pupil. He carried with
him a sign, the significance of which is familiar to those accus
toraed to his House of Coraraons habits. He was most carefully
dressed, his hair — alas I woefully scanty — was brushed with much
solicitude, and in his buttonhole he wore a white rose. All this,
more particularly the flower, meant that Gladstone intended to
make an Important speech. Ordinarily he is most careless In his
attire, and averages the trouble he says he gives to his hatter by
drawing very little on the resources of his tailor. But when he
proposes to make a great speech in the House of Commons he
always submits hiraself to the control of others, puts on his very

1880.] DISSOLUTION. 507
best clothes, and passively stands whilst a flower is pinned in
his buttonhole.
The portent of Monday night was not misleading. He did
not say much on the general question of the Budget. But for
the Probate Duty Bill, which adds to the already sufficient tax
on frugality, increasing the duty on small estates whilst dealing
tenderly with the wealth of millionaires, he had no words
too strong, no condemnation too severe. He thundered at the
ChanceUor of the Exchequer across the table, and whilst the
Opposition loudly cheered, the Ministerialists sat sullen and
silent, incapable of answering the argument, even by their
favourite scheme of counter-cheering.
This dumbfoundering of the Ministerialists was of itself a
remarkable success. The Ministerial case must be bad indeed
if gentlemen who sit on the back benches cannot be pre
vailed on to cheer for it. Gladstone himself disclaimed all
hope of more substantial success. He had, he said, done his
duty when he had made the real bearing of the case clear to
the country, and had entered his protest again^ the Bill. But
as it turned out, he underrated the power of his own eloquence
and the solvent force of truth. His speech was made on
Monday, and on the following morning he left for Midlothian.
On Tuesday the Bill was further, discussed in its later stages.
To-day (Wednesday), at the last moraent, when it had passed
through Committee, and was before the House in its penulti
mate stage, Stafford Northcote quietly announeed his submission
to Gladstone's views, and moved amendments which practically
met them to the extent that he abandoned that portion of the
Bill which increased the Probate Duty on small estates up to
£2,000 in value.
Mounted on his favourite horse. Spirited Foreign Policy, the
Premier in the other House caused It to prance and curvet to the
beaming delight of Cranbrook and the undisguised admiration of
the messengers at the open doorway. He had an exceUent foil
for his wit In Stratheden and Campbell, a peer whose oratorical
manner, if reproduced by an actor in comedy, would be de
nounced as an exaggeration- insulting to the intelligence of the
pit. The Premier made some good fun out of the eccentric
custodian of British foreign policy, which was serenely relished
by the august assembly. But it was when he came to the

608 A DIABY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. nm.
dark passages pointing to the mysterious conspiracy against
England, which in spite of our continued triumph of the past
six years, stalks through the capitals of Europe, it was then
that the Premier was at his best. Then did his voice reach its
most sonorous tones, then was his brow contracted with mingled
resolve and Indignation, then was his right arm waved aloft as
if cheering on a united England to a final assault, then did
Cranbrook's smile yield to a look more suitable to the solemnity
of the occasion, and then did the messengers crowding at the
door tremble with unnamed horror, and, their emotions strained
too highly for speech, nudge each other In interchange of opinion
that here truly was a great man.
The physical energy with which this election speech was
delivered was certainly very remarkable for a man in his seventy-
fourth year. There is, however, unmistakable evidence of purap-
ing up in the Preraier's latest oratorical feats. The vigour is
spasmodic, the strength artificial, and the listener has a feeling
that at any moment a spring may break, a screw grow loose,
and the whole machinery come to a sudden stop.
Gladstone's to'urs deforce are perfectly natural. When after
one of his great speeches he resumes his seat, he is, and often
proves himself to be, ready to start again. With the Premier,
the excitement of the moment over and the appointed task
achieved, he falls into a state of prostration painful to witness.
His eyes seem to lose all expression, his cheeks fall in, and his
face takes on a ghastly hue. Physically he is at least ten years
older than Gladstone. He, nevertheless, retains something of
the dandy air of Vivian Grey. His hair is a marvel for a man of
seventy-four. Just before he left the Commons this triumph of
art was permitted to show a few grey threads, a circumstance at
the time accepted as confirming the current rumour that he was
about to retire from office. But when he went to the Lords
this graceful concession to the approach of old age was aban
doned, and now, whilst noble lords many years his juniors sit
about him bald or grey. Lord Beaconsfield shakes ambrosial
locks, alike untamed and untlnted by age.
Mar. 21.— Dying The ninth Parliament of Victoria, which met for
-dead! ^]^g gj,g^ ^-jj^g ^^ ^.jjg 5^j^ ^j March, 1874, died at
half-past two this afternoon, aged six years and nineteen days.

1880.] DISSOLUTION. 509
Of the members forming both Houses very few were present
during the last moments. The House of Commons was sumraoned
for half -past one; but there were not at any time enough present
to form a quorum. In these circumstances the Speaker, instead
of taking his usual seat, took the chair at the table occupied by
Raikes when the House is in Committee, Here he had the
opportunity of holding a friendly chat with Stafford Northcote.
In addition to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, there were of
Ministers present W, H, Smith, Eustace Cecil, Barrington,
Dyke, Elphinstone, and Plunket, who, for the second time In
the history of this Parliament, took his seat on the Treasury
bench on appointment to office. This time his occupancy was
even more brief than his tenure of the Irish Solicitor-Generalship,
for scarcely had the new Paymaster-General taken his seat than
the sumraons of Black Rod was heard at the door, and the end
of all things (as far as the Parliament of 1874 is concerned) was
at hand. The full total of members present in the Commons was
twenty-seven, of whom the larger number sat on the Ministerial
side, KnatchbuU-Hugessen was the only member of the late
Ministry present. Others seated on the Opposition side were
Dilke, Fawcett, Sullivan, Brassey, and Alexander Gordon. On
the Conservative side there were several merabers taking their
last look at the House of Commons from its privileged benches.
Of these were BaiUie-Cochrane, Bowyer, and Melior, Newde
gate, his mind untroubled by the contingencies of an election
contest, had come to see the last of a ParUament in whose hear
ing he has so often lifted up his voice in solemn counsel and
unheeded reproof.
At a few minutes to two the cry of " Black Rod " echoing
through the lobby brought the Serjeant-at-Arms to his feet,
and the independence of the Commons was promptly and
practically asserted by closing and barring the outer door.
Black Rod, knocking thrice, was admitted without further re
sistance, and, advancing towards the table, thrice made low
obeisance to the mace. The delivery of the famUiar message
with which General Knollys was charged was invested -with
pecuhar interest by reason of a little incident which hap
pened on the last occasion he had appeared to summon the
House. Bowyer had then publicly taken note of the fact that.

510 A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS. mm.
contrary to established usage and the privilege of the Commons,
Black Rod had " required " the attendance of raembers in the
House of Lords, instead of "desiring " it. Would the messenger
from the Lords prove contumacious? Would he "desire" or
" require ; " and if the latter, what next ?
Bowyer, eager in his new-born enthusiasm for the repression
of lordly aggression, had strategically occupied the corner seat
just below the gangway, as near as possible to the spot at which
Black Rod would halt and make fateful choice of phraseology.
General Knollys proceeded through the formula of the summons
till he reached the word for which every one was watching.
Then he distinctly paused, and, drawing himself together for a
final effort, proceeded to say that " the presence of members of
this Honourable House Is desieed to hear the Lords Com
missioners give their assent to certain Bills."
The House of Lords was still more erapty than the House of
Comraons, At a first glance round the benches it seeraed that
none of her Majesty's Ministers were present. On close in
spection, Cranbrook was discovered araong the five cloaked and
cocked-hatted figures on the bench before the woolsack corarais
sioned to represent her Majesty. On the arrival of the Speaker
at the Bar, whither he was accorapanied by all the gentleraen
named as having been in the Commons, the Commission was
recited, the Royal assent was given to the few Bills on the table,
and then the Queen's Speech was read. After this came the
prorogation, the House being "prorogued till Tuesday, the 1 3th
April, then to sit for the disposal of business,"
This, as all who heard it knew, was a mere jievice in comple
tion of the fiction that ignored the imminence of dissolution.
The prorogation was In all respects identical with the usual
form. But members at the Bar, though bidden to meet again
on the 13th of April, knew very weU, as they turned and fol
lowed the Speaker, that the Parliament of which they formed
units was actually dead, and that they might presently, if they
pleased, read the fiat of dissolution in the Gazette.

INDEX.

Abolition of Capital Pun
ishment, Debate on, 257
Absence of Disraeli felt in
Commons, 218, 328
Acoustic propertiea of the
Hoase of Lords, 181
Adam, W. P., Influence of,
as "Whip," 151 ; Slumber
of, in House, 377
Adderley, Sir C. B., Speech
of, against second read
ing of Merchant Shipping
BOl, 31 ; Goodness and
dulness of, 93 ; Failure
of, over Merchant Ship
ping Bill, 93; Kenewed
exhibition of incapacity
of, 142: Parliamentaary
career of, 390 ; Last night
of, iu House, 391 ; Eetort .
of, on Plimsoll, 392
Addison on Wit, 102
Agricultural Holdings Bill
introduced, Q6
"Algerme" policy of Lord
Sandon, 157
Allen, W. S,, Amendment
of, to resolution for open-
ii^ museums, &c., on Sun
days, 20
Amherst, Lord, Anecdote
respecting, 176
Anderson, G-,, moves vote
of censure on Lord Sand
hurst, 21 ; on •' Ornamen
tal Commissioner," 127
Angel of Death over the
House, 417
Answering questions, how
managed by Disraeh, 86;
hy Ward Hunt, 85; by
Sclater Booth, 86 ; by
Gathorne Hardy, 86; by
Lord John Manners, 86;
by Lord Henry Lennox, 86
Arch, Joseph, extoUed by
Forster, 17
Army Bill, Committee of
House on, 485
Army Estimates, Discus
sion on, 455
Ash Wednesday, Effect of,
on House, 361
Ashantee War, 8
Ashley, E., Eegoinder of, to
Dr, Kenealy, 57
Astley, Sir John, Maiden
speech of, 4S ; Opinion of,
on Home Etders, 313
Bag(}alat, Sir E., as Attor
ney-General, 98; Speech
of, on Judicature Act
Amendment Bill, 98 ; as a
speaier, 186; Eapid de
livery of, 378 ; sits on his
hat, 379

Ball, Dr., on Public Meet
ings (Ireland) BiU, 20
Bannerman, H. Campbell,
Speech of, in defence of
Lord Sandhurst, 22
BartteUot, Sir W., Impres
sions of, with regard to
Chamber lain, 175; Samples
of speeches of, 434
Bates, E., Amendment of,
to Merchant Shipping
Bill, 94; Plimsoll's ques
tion respecting, as ship-
owncB, 107
Batoum, Harbour of, 444
Baxter, W. E., Speech of,
on Gladstone's resolu
tions, 233 ; Quietness and
modesty of, 317
Bazley, Sir T., Attention of,
to speakers, 379
Beach, Sir M. H., Capabihty
of, as Irish Secretary, 41 ;
moves second reading of
Irish Coercion Bill, 56 ;
Success of, as Irish Secre
tary, 167
Beaconsfleld, Earl of, takes
oaths in House of Lords,
174 ; First speech of, 180 ;
manner, &c., shows no
change, 180 ; easily makes
himself heard, 181 ; Warm
reception of, 183; visits
Qneen during thunder
storm, 213; gains Her
Majesty's assent to his
foreign policy, 213; Defence
of, re his appointment of
Mr. Pigott as Controller
of Stationery Office, 283 ;
Absence of, felt in Bouse
of Commons, 328; Atti
tude of, on Treasury
bench, 329 ; Pleasure of,
in rousing House, 329;
Speech of, on Lord Car
narvon's resignation, 336;
explains difference be
tween armistice and pro
posed terms of peace, 336 ;
Difficulty of, about hat in
House of Lords, 369; ex
presses regret at Lord
Derby's resignation, 375;
Spirited speech of, on call-
• ing out the reserves, 382;
Apt joke of, on Lowe, 392 ;
Speech of, on retum from
Berlin Congress, 440 ; pro
gress through Parliament
Street, Ml ; remarks on
dress of, 441 ; Eeception
of, by crowd, 442 ; cheered
on entry into House, 443 ;
substance of speech with
regard to Easteru Eou-

melia, Bosnia, Greece,
Eussia, &c., 443 ; harbour
of Batoiun, 444 ; Surprise
of, at ovation accorded by
House and people, 445;
Personal attack of, on
Gladstone, 454 ; Eeply of,
to Gladstone's letter, '456 ;
Speech of, on vote of cen
sure on South African
affairs, 475 ; Animation
and physical vigour shown
by, 476 ; announces com
ing dissolution in House
of Lords, 506 ; Historical
last words of, in House,
506 ; Speech of, on foreign
policy 508; Evidences of
failing power of, 508
Belgians, Eing of, in House
of Lords, 473
Benett Stanford, T. F.,
Effect of cough of, 203
Bentinck, G. W. P. A., cri
ticism of navy by, 30 ; on
British army, navy,* and
railway system, 43
Beresford, Lord C, Experi
ences of, with Tom Fat,
420 ; Amendment of, to
Churchill's resolution on
Irish education, 420 ; Opi
nion of on forms of reli
gion, 421; Motion of, re
Emrydice, 462
Beresford Hope, A. J.,
tickled with own joke,
253 ; Character of oratory
of. 185
Biggar, J. G., Speech of,
on Coercion Bill, 66 ;
Four hours' speech of, on
Peace Preservation (Ire
land) Biil, 76; Strangers
espied in the House by,
82 ; Grotesqueness of, as
speaker, 189 ; talks out
Threshing Machine Bill,
189; Prodigious waistcoat
of, 355 ; names member
for Scarborough, 472
Bills, Precedence in intro
duction of, how settled
and obtained, 131 ; case
tn illustration, 131
Black Eod, the new, 249 ;
^ Terme of, message of to
the Commons, 510
Blake, T.,on speech of C. S.
Pamell, 279
Blennerhasset, E. P., on
representation of minori
ties, 468
Bon mot of Lowe on Sir
H. D. Wolff, 247
Bourke, E., Speech of, in
debate on Gladstone's re-

512

A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS.

solutions on Eastern
Question, 239 ; Disappoint
ment of, at losing post of
Common Serjeant for City
of London, 386 ; Weariness
of, with foreign affairs, 386
Bowyer, Sic G., Appeal of,
to Smollett, 14; Speech
of, re statement by New
degate, 28 ; Speech of,
nipped in bud, 496 ; Con
stitutional difficulty of,510
Brand, H. B., re-elected
Speaker of H ouse of Com
mons, 6; retums thanks, 6
Breach of privilege by Gris
sell and Ward, 494
Bright, John, takes affirma
tion, 7 ; Offer of, to in
troduce Dr. Kenealy, 51 ;
Unwonted hesitation of
when speaking, 51 ; speaks
iu Turnpike debate, 54 ;
Speech of, on Burials Bill,
74 ; Speech of, on Ke
nealy's motion, 81 ; Re
luctance of, to take part
in debate, 260 ; Contempt
of for Holker, 260 ; Speech
of, on Layard*s telegram,
349 ; Welcome of, to Justin
McCarthy, 484
British Empire enlarged by
Conservatives, 479
Brooks, M., and Lord E.
Churcbill's"Slanderupon
Irish members," 23
Bryan, G. L., repudiates
Biggar 84
Burials Bill, Eejection of,
75; in the Lords, 216;
Notions of Chinese En
voys respecting, 217
Butt, Isaac, and Conolly, T.,
Scene between, 20; Deser
tion of party by, 36 ; de
nounces Biggar, 37 ;
Speech . of, on Coercion
Bill, 66 ; insulted by Irish
party, 203 ; on ostracism of
Biggar, 224
Cabinet Minister called
from the House, 331
Cabinet pensions. Qualifica
tion for, 268
Cabinet, Secrets of, divulged
earher in Commons than
House of Lords, 333
Cairns, Lord, directs Com
mons to choose Speaker, 5
Callan, P., Speech of, on
Coercion Bill, 66 ; imputes
" dishonourable conduct **
to Speaker, 486
Campbell, Sir G. , Parlia
mentary career of, 198 ;
hooted in House, 199 ; in
terrupted by Macdonald,
200; on Indian affairs, 265 ;
Eelation of, to G. Bal
four, 266 ; Speech of, on
self-government in South
Africa, 287 ; Speech of, on
Eoads and Bridges (Scot
land) BiU, 332
CATnarvon, Lord, Eesigna
tion of, 335 ; Speech of, in
defence of Frere, 475

Cat in the House, 34
Cat, Use of, in navy. Dis
cussion on, 216
Cattle Plague Committee,
Appointment of, 222
Cave, T., traduces Irish Ob
structionists, 404 ; stig
matises Pamell as "a
Curse to the House and
Country," 405; Straight
forwardness of, 406
Cavendish, Lord F., and
Lord Sandon, 155 ; Style
of, addressing House, 156
Cavendish, Lord G. H,,
seconds re-election of
Brand as Speaker, 5
Cetewayo, Defeat of, 494
Chamberlain, J., First
speech of, in House, 176 ;
Personal appearance of,
176
Chaplin, H., proposea re
election of Brand as
Speaker, 5 ; Speech of,
respecting prevention of
deterioration of Stock of
Horses, 85 ; Attack of, on
Gladstone, 178 ; tripped
upby Biggar, 188; Motion
of, for Adjoumment of
House over Derby Day,
424 ; Trouble of, with new
coat, 424 ; on Peel's Par-
liamentaryEeputation, 472
Charley, W. T., "Vote of, in
support of Election by
Corporation of City of
London, 402
Chelmsford, Lord, Question
on Eecall of, 469
Chesterfield, Lord, on Audi
ble Laughter, 182
Childers, H., Resumption
of Adjourned Debate on
Gladstone's Eesolutions
by, 232 ; Heaviness of as
a Speaker, 316
Churchill, Lord E., Earlier
triumphs of, in House,
363 ; Attacks of, on
Sclater-Booth, 363 ; Criti
cisms of, on County Go
vemment Bill, 363; By
play of, with sheets of
note-paper, 365; Personal
appearance of, 419 ; Ani
mosity of, to Sclater-
Booth, 420 ; Eesolution of,
on Irish Education, 420
City of London, Old Privi
lege of Members of, 3
Clergy, Tbe, styled "Se
poys " by Whalley, 157
Clifford, Sir Augustus, as
Black Eod, 249
Cobden and Faggot Voting,
467
Coercion Bill, Continuance
of,forIreland disputed, 36;
Second reading of, passed
without division, 55 ; Ee-
newed debate on, 62
Colebrook, Sir E., Easping
Intonation of, 433
Coleridge, Lord, Parliamen
tary Career of, 97
Committee of Eeferees,
Nomination of, 133

Conolly, T., Notice by, for
partial disenfranchise-
ment of Galway, 24
Conservative Meethig in
Di^e of Wellington's
Eiding School, 454
Conservative Party, How
constructed, 410
Conservatives, Hearty sup
port rendered by to meu
of their own party, 341 ;
present on last day of
Session of 1878, 462
Coi^tantinople, Eussian
advance on, despite nego
ciations for peace, 347
Constitution, Tremendous
simphcity of, 468
Contrast between Harting
ton and Northcote as
party leaders, 164
Conundrum on Pamell and
Biggar, 253
Conventual Institutions in
Great Britain; Proposal
for inquiry into, 28
Corrupt . Praxitices, Bill
deahng with, 505
County Franchise Bill, De
bate on Trevelyan's Eeso
lutions on, 269
County Franchise *' Selling
Stakes/' Straight Tip on,
270
Courtney, L., Ability of, as
Writer on Parliamen
tary Proceedings, 254 ;
Self-confidence of, 255 ;
badgered in theHouBe,256 ;
enacts part of Coriolanus,
304 ; Speech of, ou Trans
vaal, 461; on Irish Ob
struction, 493
Cowen, Joseph, Maiden
speech of, 53 ; Success of,
as speaker, 169; Speech
of, in support of Yote of
Credit, 3^; cheered by
Ministerialists, 349 ; Per
tinent Question of, to
Speaker, 471
Cramming of Irish Members
on subjects vrith which
they are practically unac
quainted, 132
Cranbrook, Lord, Defence
of Govemment by, res-
pectuag conduct in South
African affaira, 474
Crawford, J. S., Style of
oratory of, 263 ; Specimen
of sentences of, 263 ; Ex
planation of Ulster Cus
tom by, 263
Crimean War, Cost of, 345 ;
How paid, 345
Critique on conduct of Min
istry in is: 6, 139; Disraeli's
loss of tact and power,
139.; Ward Hunt's blun
ders, 140 : Adderley's
helplessness, 140 ; Hon
ker's success without
knowledge, 140 ; North
cote, a tower^of strength,
140 ; Cross's middle
course, 140 ; Hardy appre
ciated by the Opposition,
140; Sandon always con-

INBBX.

513

cihatory, 140; Manners's
inactivity; Beach's forti
tude, 140
Cross, E. A., an average
Home Secretary, 40; Ten
dency of to " play to the
gaUery," 124; Why a good
Home Secretary ,341 ; Ex
planation by, of foreign
poUcy of Govemment,
341 ; Mannerisms of, wheu
speaking, 342 ; Eesolution
of, re report of select com
mittee on Clare County
Writ, 477
** Gum grano Salis-bury,"
445
Dalrymple, C, Manner of,
when speaking, 431
Davies, D. , Modesty and
Genuineness of, 267
*' Dear Lord Beaconsfield,"
455
Death in the House, 417
Debate on Gladstone's Eeso
lutions on Turkish Ques
tion, 2<;7 ; Interest shown
in, 227 ; Gladstone's
speech on first resolution
debate adjourned, 231
resumption of debate, 232
again adjourned, 233
third night of debate, 236 ;
fourth night, 239; fifth
night, 241 ; close of debate
and division, 244
Debts and Heiitages accord
ing to Gladstone, 478
Decadence of Speeches and
Speakers in House, 219
Delahunty, I., Enthusiastic
reception of, 175 ; Desire
of, for abolition of One
Poimd Notes, 369 ; His
Bag, and its contents, 370
DeUneation of a father's
coffin, 82
Denison, C. B., Manner of,
when addressing House
of Commons, 376
Derby Day, Proposal to sit
on, 324
Derby, Lord, Despatch of,
to Sir H. EUiott, 177 ;
Vindicates Foreign Policy
of Beaconsfield Govem
ment, 337 ; Eesignation
of, 374 ; Speech of, against
Forei^ Policy of former
colleagues, 385 ; Little
'joke of, 446; Speech of,
referred to by Gladstone,
re Foreign Eelations, 479 ;
"Desiring" and "Eequir-
ing," 500
Dilke, Sir C, on unreformed
Corporations, 130 ; Ac
ceptable as Speaker to
House, 169 ; Speech of, on
County Franchise, 269 ;
Parliamentary Career
of, 30/; Manner of,
when speaking, 309 ; Com
mands attention of House,
3U9 ; Speech of, on Cattle
Diseases Bill, 440;
Seconds Trevelyan'sEeso-
lutioijs on County Fran-
H H

chise, 467 ; Speech of, in
moving Vote of Censure
,. in Commons on Govern
ment, re South African
Affairs, 476 ; Question of,
respecting Water Biil for
London, 505
Dillwyn, L. L., always pre
sent at rows, 292 ; Dispute
of, with Eoebuck, 413
Disciphne wanting in the
Opposition, 183
DisraeU, B., Address of, to
Electors of Bucks, 1;
Eeply to Montague, re
Govemment of Ireland,
8 ; moves vote of thanks
to officers aud men en
gaged in Ashantee War,
8 ; Remarks of, on House
hold Franchise (Counties)
BUl, 18 ; Eemarks of, on
conduct of Mr. France,
26 ; Defence of Scotch
Church Patronage Bill,
33 ; Eemarks of, on
Public Worship Regula
tion BUl, 34 ; describes
Marquis of SaUsbury as a
"master of jeers," etc.,
35 ; Tact of, as Premier,
39 ; Patience of, under
suffermg, 40 ; rephes
to Hartington's Stric
tures on Ministerial Pro
gramme, 44 ; Entrance of,
into House, 46; Motion
of, for dispensing with
Eules of House, with
regard to introduction of
Kenealy, 61; Angry re
joinder of, to Bright on
Turnpike Debate, 54 ;
Advocates immediate set
tlement of Kenealy inci
dent, 58 ; winds up Debate
on Coercion BUl, 67 ;
Speech of, on Kenealy's
motion for inquu*y into
conduct of Judges in
Tichborne case, 80 ; moves
suspension of order for
withdrawal of strangers,
83 ; decUnes to deal with.
relations of Parliament
and Press, 88 ; saves Mer
chant Shipping Bill, 95 ;
shows symptoms of decUne
of power, 96 ; Speech of,
on Agricultural Holdings
BiU. 96; Statement of,
on Public Business, 105 ;
moves for reprimand of
PlintsoU, 108; compared
at 70 with older pohti
cians, 113 ; Breakdown of,
during Session of 1875 ;
as Priam at Scsean Gate,
116 ; Mannerism of, when
speaking, 125 ; Loss of hold
onthe House, 138; absents
himself from Committee
on Merchant Shipping
BiU, 142 ; contradicts, by
authority of Her Majesty,
Lowe's statement at Eet-
ford, 144; Eecovery of,
from illness, 150; winds
up debate on Eeform, 150 ;

defends Lord Henry Len
nox, 164 ; Eejuvenescenc*3
of, 159 ; Last Speech of, in
House of Commons, 163
Dissolution of Parliament,
1874, 1 ; 1880, announced
in House, 504
" Divine WiUiams," The,
269
Division in Liberal Eanks
on Turkish Question, 226
Dodson, J. G.. Strictures
of, on Harcourt's non-
attendance on Select Com
mittee, 477
Doubts and Difficulties of
House on Vote of Credit
Question, 350, 351
Downing, McCarthy, on
Debate on Peace Preser
vation BlU, 90; Hopeful
nature of, 194; suffers
checks in House of Com
mons, 195 ; speaks in
name of Irishpeople, 195 ;
demolished by Butt, 196 ;
crushed by Bright, 197
Dull times in the House,
251; Effect of, on Mem
bers, 252
Dulness of House of Com
mons in 1877, 218
Dunphy, James, the "Spof
forth Sponge," 397
Dyke, Sit- W. H., Motion
of, for production of Mit
chell papers, 49
Easter Eecess, 1875, Ad
journment for, 68
Edmonstone, Sir W., Effect
of gestures of, on Irish
Party, :;57 ; and Mr.
Eylands, 3^5; Disappoint
ment of, at Northcote's
speech, 327 ; negatives
Newdegate, 408
Education in Eural Dis
tricts, Motion on, 55
Egerton, Hon. W., Speech
of, when moving Address,
324
Elcho, Lord, Commence
ment of Speeches of, 431
Elementary Education BUl,
All-night sitting over, 158
Elphinstone, Sir J., Anxiety
of, for the dockyards, 310 ;
how prevented from deal
ing with Navy Estimates,
311 ; tortured by re
straint, 312 ; breaks loose
on Irish members, 313;
makes apology, 313
Encounters between Dis
raeli and Gladstone, 89
EsUut^ton, Lord, an honour
to the Peerage, 367 ; Capa
bUity of, for real work,
367 ; Manner of, when
speaking, 368
Estimates, Eeduction in,
likened to death-bed re
pentance, 479
Ewing, A. Orr, on Scotch
Church Patronage Bill, 33
Ex-Ministers during Ses
sion of 1876, 168; main
tenance of old power by

514

A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS.

Gladstone, 168; improve
ment manifested by Hart
ington, 168
Exciting House, Members
capable of, 329
Faggot Votes in Midlo
thian, 466
Fawcett, H., Speech of, on
condition of education in
rural districts, 65 j the
Diogenes of the House,
136 ; Pedagogic manner
of, 136 ; Manner and tone
of, when speaking, 137 ;
Speech of, on Eailway
Passeuger Duty, 137; Ee-
newal of Eastern Question
by, 459
Fitzmaurice, Lord E., Sym
pathy of, with discomfort
caused to House by his
speeches, 187
Five Commissioners at Pro
rogation of ParUament,
1877 ; Description of, 317
Fleet ordered to the Dar
danelles, 334
Floyer, J., Speech of, on
condition of education in
rural districts, 56
Forbes, A., Daring ride of,
494
Forster, Sir C, in search of
a petitioij, 272
Forster, W. E., on House
hold Franchise (Counties)
Bill, 17 ; extols Joseph
Arch, 17; a bidder for
the leadership of Liberal
party, 110 ; not popular
in House, 112 ; Enjoyment
of own jokes by, 186 ;
Speech of, denying need
of Iriah Parliament, 214;
acknowledges influence of
Hartington, 316; has "a
wash and brush up," 340 ;
W ithdrawal of amend-
m ent of, on Vote of Credit,
348, 350, 352 ; Alarm and
terror excited in, by ora
tory of Jenkins, 353 ; Pos
ing of, as Chatham on
crutches, 411 ; Speech of,
ou his supports, 412
Forsyth, W., Motion by, for
discharge of Mr. France
from attendance, 25
France, R. S., Breach of
privilege by, 24; admon
ished by Speaker, 27
Frere, Sir B., and South
African affairs, 474 ; Tele
gram from, 494
Friendly Societies' BUl,
Second reading of, 53
G4LLOWS, Debate on the, 257
Gang of timabhers, A, 385
Gardner, J. T. Agg, comes
to rescue of the state, 280
Ghosts of great men, 116
Gibson, E., Speech of, on
Coercion BUl, 66; takes
seat as Attorney- General
for Ireland, 179 ; Qualities
of, as speaker, &c., 179
Giffard, Sir H., Sohcitor-

General, enters House to
be sworn in, 190
Giles, A., Maiden speech of,
ou Cattle Diseases Bill,
438 ; Breach of decorum
by, in addressing House
from gangway, 439 ; makes
second mistake, 440
Gladstone, W. E., Address
of, to electors of Green
wich, 1 ; addresses House
on re-election of Speaker,
6 ; criticises Northcote's
Budget, 11 ; rephes to
SmolJet's strictures, 13 ;
Speech of, on Scotch
Church Patronage Bill,
32 ; Speech df , on Public
Worship Eegulation Bill,
34 : Sarcastic criticisms
of, on Harcourt's attain
ments, 36; Entrance of,
into House, 46 ; takes part
in debate on Regimental
Exchanges BU1,60 ; Speech
of, on Burials BiU, 74;
motion of aniitiation while
' speaking, 75 ; speaks with
eflect on Budget resolu
tions, 89 ; his " wail for
rest" at 65, 114; Appetite
of, for hard work, 114 ;
shows readiuess to take
part in debate once more,
124 ; supports motion for
Sunday Closing in Ireland,
149 ; Speech of, on Der
by's despatch to Elliott,
177 ; discusses Tripartite
Treaty, &c., 177; Resolu
tions of, on Eil stern
Question, 221 ; Eeply of,
to Trevelyan's questions,
228; openly scoffed at in
House, 235 ; result of his
readiness to take notice
of petty attacks, 236 ; re
plies to Northcote in con
clusion of debate on his
resolutions, 243 ; refreshes
himself from pomatum
pot, 244 ; Admirable bear
ing of, through debate,
246 ; Explanation of, with
reference to Cabinet
Pension, 268; ignored by
House, 294; Proclivities
of, for post-cards, 307 ;
Decline of influence of, in
House, 315; likened to a
comet let loose, 315;
Fagged appearance of, at
opening of Session of lb78,
326; Speech of, on Vote
of Credit, 344; proposes
postponement of the Vote
and Address to the Crown,
346 ; expresses astonish
ment and dismay at tele
grams from Russia and
Turkey, 350 ; denounces
policy of Government in
calliug out Reserves, 384 ;
mobbed in the House of
Commons, 388; has his
windows broken, 392 ; Con
versation of, with Dodson,
425 ; his pomatum pot
again considered, 451 ;

Speech of, on Eastem
Question, 453. A-saultsof,
on hands, books, and black
box, 45i ; Remarks of, on
Beaconsfield's strictures,
454 ; Letter of, to Premiei-,
466 ; Indictment of finan
cial pohcy of Govem
ment by, 478; supports
Speaker against Irish
members, 492 ; Dress of, a
sign of coming speech
from, 506 ; Criiicisms of,
on Budget and Probate
Duty Bill, 507; Tour de
force of, natural, 508
Goldsmid family. Curious
story respecting, 393 ;
Fluctuations in fortunes
of, 394
Goldsmid, Sir F., Death of,
by railway accident, 392
Goldsmid, Sir J., Incapacity
of as speaker, 201
Gordon, E. S., as Lord Ad
vocate, 98
Gore, W. R. Ormsby, a
specimen of the county
member, 99 ; Attitude of,
iu House, 99
Gorst, J. E., Sympathy of,
with discomfort of House
when speaking, 187
Goschen, G. I,, Severe
si^eech of, on third read
ing of Licensing Bill, 31 j
on abandonment of Mer
chant Shipping BiU, 106
shows improvement a
speaker, 220; Speech of.
on County Franchise, 269 ;
Powers of, as debater,
developing, 316 ; Manner
isms of , when speaking, 387
Grain Cargo Bill, Question
and reply on; Considera
tion of report on, 604
Grant to Wolseley, 10
Grant-Duff, M. E., Aggi-es-
sive intellectuaUty of. 126
GranvUlt*, Earl, Questions
of, to Premier, on move
ment against Russia, 336 ;
to Lord Derby, on his ru
moured resignation, 337;
Speech of, on South Afri
can affaii's, 476
Gray, B. D., Amendment
of, to Northcote's amend
ment, re Speaker's con
duct, 493
Great Atossa' s Grandson
by some removes, 363
" Great Disturber," Anec
dote of the, 413
Greene, E,, and Sir W.
Barttelot, 435
Gregory, G. B., Speech of,
on Probate m England,
Ireland, and Scotland, 12 ;
Trousers and green patch
worn by, 61
Grissell, Mr., Interference
of, with Committee of
House, 495 '
Gurney, E., Speech of, on
moving second reading of
Public Worship Emula
tion BiU, 33 ; Dtath of, 418

INBEX.

515

Half-Pat, Incident in
House respect'ug, 303
Hamilton, Lord C, Amend
ment of, to Trevelyan's
resolutions on County
Fi-anchise, 467
HiimUton, Lord G., Cajia-
bility shown by, as Under
Secretary of State for
India, 41 ; as Under Secre^
tary of State for India, 376
Hampton, Lord, Appoint
ment of, as First Civil
Ser ^ ice Commissioner, 127
Hanbui'y, E. W., Compari
son of, with Kay Shuttle-
worth, 330 ; Question of,
relating to Russian terms
of peace, 331
Harcourt, Col , SUence of,
in House, 435
Harcourt, Sir W. V., Stric
tures of, on Gladstone's
speech on Public Worship
Regulations BUl, 34 ; Com
plaints of, respecting
Marqu's of Salisbury's
strong language, 35 ; at
tacks Gladstone on Coer
cion (Ireland) BiUs, 39;
Criticisms of, on Mer
chant Shipping BUl, 145 ;
Gestures of, when speak
ing, 185 ; Reprobation by,
of Gladstone's conduct on
Turkish Question, 226 ;
Speech of, on Gladstone's
resolutions on Eastern
Question, 242 ;- Aptness
of, at skirmisbing, 275 ;
lost, on Treasury Bench,
275 ; Readiness of, to par
ticipate in debate, 316 ;
G\mnastic exercises of,
when speaking, 436"; Quail
ing of, under Brother's
eye, 436 ; Absence of,
from House, 437 ; Par
ticipation of, in debate,
though ignorant of its
course, 437 ; " fustigates "
Dodson, 477
Hardcastle, E., Conundrum
propounded by, 400 ; Man
ner of oratory of, 400
Hardy, Guthorne, I)6but of,
as Secretary of State for
War, 9; Speech of, on
Vote of Censure on Lord
Sandhurst, 21 ; Opposi
tion of, to Public Worship
Regulation BiU, 34 ; Con
duct of, during Session of-
1874, 40 : Speech of, on
Regimental Exchanges
BiU, 60 ; SkUl of, as a de
bater, 166; Reply of, to
Gladstone's question to
Govemment on Turkish
Affairs, 178; Inspiriting
character of Speeches by,
206 ; Spirited Speech of,
in reply to Gladstone's
proposal to postpone Vote
of Credit, 346; sharply
handles Trevelyan for
asserting Beaconsfield's
e:igerness for war, 346 ; as
Secretary of State for
HH 2

India, 376 ; Speech of, on
calling out the Reserves,
385
Hardy, J. S. G., Resem
blance of, to father, 484
Hartington, Lord, assumes
Leadership of the Opposi
tion, 43 ; criticises Minis
terial Programme for
year, 43 ; seconds suspen
sion of order for with
drawal of strangers, 83;
Resolutions by, regarding
relations between Parlia
ment and Press, 87 ; as
Leader of Opposition, 11 1 ;
Conduct of, in PUmsoU
incident, 112 ; Indifference
of, to want of courtesy,
185 ; moves for papers on
Affiairs of Turkey, 205!;
Weak points of Speech of,
205 ; Collapse of motion,
207 ; Speech of, in Debate
ou Gladstone's Eesolu
tions, 243 ; Speech of, on
County Franchise, 270 ;
Fitness of, for Leadership,
314; Qualities of, as Par-
liajnentary Speaker, 315 ;
Speech at opening of
Session of 1878, 326, 327 ;
Questions of, to North
cote, 'regarding chances
of war with Russia, 331 ;
Questions of, to North
cote, ou conduct of
Ministers, 333 j Questions
of, to Northcote, on
Eusso - Turkish Armis
tice and Peace, 344;
Advice of, to House, on
Control of Individual
Members, 472 ; Speech r.f ,
in support of Speaker's
conduct in Chair, 492
Hats, Difficulties caused to
owners by, 202
Hay, Sir John, Conduct of,
impugned by Mr. Prance,
24
Henley, J. W., Eettrement
of, 338 ; Veneration ,of ,
by new Members, 339 ;
Reputation of, how ap-
quired, 339 ; Axioms
uttered by, readily ac
cepted, 339
Henry, MitcheU, Speech of,
with reference to Biggar,
87 ; Appeal of, to Leaders
of the Opposition, 184
Herbert, H. A., on matters
of Privilege, 19 ; Denial
by, of Power and Mart.in,
as exponents of Irish
opinion, 45
Holker, Sir J., Attorney-
General, Eeply of, to Dr.
Kenealy, 80; as Solicitor-
General, 98 ; Conduct of,
in Committee on Mer
chant Shipping Bill, 143 ;
attacked by Gladstone in
Speech on Eastem Ques
tion, 234 ; castigates Glad
stone iu retum by prais
ing him, 235; Voice of,
compared to creaking of

ships' rigging, 258 ; earns
sixpence easily, 373
Holms, J., Motion of on
appointment of Mr.
Pigott to Controllership
of Stationery Office, 282
Home Rule, what it really
means, 301
Home Rule Debate, 213;
Opened by Shaw and King
Harman, 213, 214; Con
tinued by Forster, many
Hume Rulers, Fawcett,
Lewis, Butt, Hicks Beach,
Hartington, etc., 205 ; Re
jection of motion, 216
Home Eule Party, Break up
of, 204
Hope, E. S., Faggot Vote
and Charity Commis
sionership of, 466
Hopwood, C. H., Asper
sions of, on Layard, 348
Horsman, E., Speech of, on
Vote of Censure on Lord
Sandhurst, 22
House of Commons, Com
mencement of Session of
1877 in, 176
House of Lords, Scene in,
on National Crisis, 334
Household Franchise (Coun
ties) BiU, Second reading
of moved, 17 ; Motion
reiected, 18
Hubbard, J. G., Respectable
dulness of, 357 ; Voice of,
358 ; Uses of, as a Member
of the House, 358
Hunt, G. Ward, Mistakes
and Shortcomings of, 40 ;
Floundering and misap
prehension of, 53 ; Angry
reply of, to Mitchell
Henry, 248; Death of,
296 ; Clough's Portrait,use
of, 296 ; Frank Hill's esti-
niate of, 297 ; Asperity
of temper and " nagging "
way of, 297 ; Animosity of,
to Press, 298 ; Unfitness of,
for First Lord ot Admi
ralty, 298 ; Possessed of
courage and brevity of
speech, 299 ; Last appear
ance but one in House,
299.
"Ip he were only one of
us," 248
Indian affairs, Debate on,
376 ; Languid interest of
House in, 379
Indian Budget of 1877, 264 ;
hmptinesB of House, 265
Indian Mutiny, Reminis
cences of debate on, 485
Inquiry into conduct of
j adges in Tichbome case,
moved for by Kenealy, 81
Irish members. Hurried
entrance of, prior to
MitcheU debate, 49 ;
Treatment of, by Disraeli,
64 ; calculations on debate
on Coercion Bill spoUed
by Premier, 64 ; Ingenuity
of, in securing days for
bringing on bills, 130 ;

516

A DIAEY OF TWO FAELIAMENTS.

Meeting of, with refer-
e ce to Parnell and
Biggar, 252; Dash and
briUiancy of, 332 ;
Speeches of, in com
mittee on Army BUl
checked by order of
Speaker, 486
Irish railways. Debate ou
purchase of, 16; Motion
negatived, 16
Irish Suuday Closing Bill,
Debate on, 89
Jackson, Sir H. , Somno
lence of voice and sadness
of manner of, 259
James, Sir H., Eeply of, to
Dr. Kenealy, 80 ; Eapid
progress of, 97 ; Speeches
of, on Merchant Shippiitg
Bill, 146 ; Motion of, on
Eoyal Titles Bill, 149;
Funereal eloquence of,
400 ; Indictment of Cor
poration of London by,
400
Jenkins, E., Speech of, ou
South African Bill inter
rupted by Monk, 289;
Strictures of, on Captain
, Nolan, 303; Speech of,
denouncing Ministry and
Opposition, 352 ; Pluck
and unpopularity of, 427 ;
Catholicity of contempt
of, 427 ; Least liked man
in HxDuse, 428 ; Redeen.ing
qualities of, 429 ; supports
, Fawcett on Reopening of
Eastern Question, 460 ;
Endeavour of, to bring on
Debate on Lord Chelms
ford's command, 470 ; re
fused a hearing by House,
471
Jenkinson, Sir G., opens
Turnpike debate, 54
Judicature Act Amendment
BiU, 98, 99
Juries Bill, Lax Drafting of,
19 ; Amendment of faulty
clause, 19
Kat - Shuttleworth, Sir
U. J., Personal appear
ance of, 330; held up as
a disorderly member, 471
Kenealy, Dr., First appear
ance of, in House, 60 ;
sworn without introduc
tion, 62 ; Question of, to
Evelyn Ashley as to accu
racy of report of speech
by him, 56 ; attacks Lowe
and DisraeU, aud " shakes
the dewdrops off his
mane," 59 ; Motion of, for
Royal Commission on con
duct of judges in Tich
borne case, 77 ; Strictures
of, on S. Morley, 79 ; ad
vocates triennial Parlia
ments, 92 ; Contrast of, to
Beresford, 463
Kenealy Incident conse
quent on speech in Isle of
Wight by Ashley, 57
KnatchbuU - Hugessen, E.

H., as quaH Leider of the
Opposirion, 252; Fussiness
and verbosity of, 317 ;
Ideas of, with regard to
strangulation, 438
Knollys, Sir William, as
Black Rod, 249, 281
" La Eeyne le veult," 321
Lansdowne (Marquis of).
Resolution of, in Censure
of Government, 474;
Terms of Resolution, 474.
"Laocoo ," A, in Parlia
ment, 303
Last Speech aud Appear
ance of DisraeU iu the
House of Commons, 163
Lawson, ^i^ W., Remarks
of, on Ashantee War, 9 ;
Motion of, to rej'Ct .
Third Reading of Licens
ing Bill, 31 ; Genuine
Humour of, 100 ; Prepara
tion of jokes by, 101 ;
Rhymed Paraphrase of
Gladstone's Resolutions
¦on Eastern Question, 221;
Verses by, on County
Franchise Debate, 271 ;
Rhymes of, on Irish Ob
struction, 300 ; Speech of,
on Eastern Question, 361 ;
moves Amendment to
Address to the Crown on
CaUing out Reserves,
384 ; Appearance of, iu
Eifigy at Madame Tus
saud's, 397
Lawyers in Parliament, 96
Layard, Telegram from, re
specting Eussian Advance,
347
Leaders of House of Com
mons, Disraeli and North
cote compared as, 249
Leatham, E. A., Cold
blooded Epigrams of, 101
Lefevre, J. A. Shaw-, Re
marks of, on Merchant
Shipping BiU, 146
Legard, Sir C, seconds
HamUton's Amendment
to Trevelyan's Resolutions
on County Franchise, 467
Leitrim, Lord, name of,
used by Cattle Dealer to
stop train, 380
Leunox, Lord H., and the
Lisbon Steam Tramways
Co., 154; Statement of,
respecting his connection
with, 154 ; resigns Office,
154 ; Retum of, to House,
423
Letters of recommendation
for Liberals out of place.
Incident respecting, 216
Lewis, C, and Breach of
Privilege by printers, 87 ;
and Oaths of Privy Coun
cillors. 144; on "the fly
in the ointment," 408
Liberal members present on
la'^t day of Session of 187tf,
463
Liberal party. Want of
unanimity in, during
Session of 1876, 141

Liberals and loose povder,
410
licensing BUl, Third read
ing of, passed, 31
Lisbon Steam Tramways
Company, 154
Locke, J., and Macdonald,
104 ; his opinion of F. H.
O'DonneU, 278
Lollypops, effect of eating
on Sunday, 20
Lopes, H. C, Attack on
Iri-'h memLers by, 46 ; re
buked by Disraeli, 47 ;
withdraws offensive ex
pressions, 47
Lord- Advocate, Jauntiness
of, 430 '
Lome, Marquis of, iu
Hou.-e, 433
Loud-voiced members, 439
Louis xrv. and his valets,
Anecdote of, 194
Lowe, B., Happy expression
of, in speech on Endowed
Schools Bill, 35 ; speaks
more effectuaUy when un
assisted by notes, 53 ;
moves adjournment of
House during K enealy
Incident, 58 ; Descrip
tion of Regimental Ex
changes BiU by, 60 ; runs
amutk at the Ministry,
71; Speech of, on relations
of Press and ParUament,
88 ; Mauner of, when
uttering a joke, 101 ; why
unfitted for leadership of
party, 128 ; criticism of
pm'chase of Suez Canal
shares, 128; Speech of,
at Retford, 144 ; Recusal
of, to answer Lewis, 144 ;
Effect of Inverness cape
of, 273 ; SkiU . -f , in attack,
316 ; Speech of, on Cotmty
Franchise, 468 ; Break-
^¦>wii of, in addressing
Lowther, J., on " talking
shop," 357; as Irish Stc^
retary, 359 ; always an
authority on Irish politi cs,
359 ; becomes a capable
minister through careful
study of his subjects, 360 ;
Question of, regarding
Tom Fat, 421 ; goes on tu
tetrace to hear Synan,
430
Lusk, Sir A., Thirst of, f^.r
knowledge, 2S3
McAkthue, a., on opening
museums on Sundays, 20
McArthur, Sir W,, as a
speaker, 187; '* the Father
of Fiji," 313, 320
McCarthy, J. , Maiden speech
of, 4:J4
Macdonald, A., Opposition
o', to grant to Prince of
Wales for expeu ses of
visit to India, 102 ; his
manner in the House, 103 ;
Aspirations of, for peace
and p we'-, 371 ; his poetry
and fetrong language, 372

IJSfBEX.

517

IMcIver, D., and "he^editnry
knowledge," 146; Partici-
pa'-ion of, in <iebites on
ATeruhaut Shippinsr BUl.
147.
MoLarea, D., Sp ech of, on
Scotch roads, etc., 430;
Persistence of, in speak
ing, 431
Makins, Col., Explanition
of, with reference -to peti
tion from Prittlewell, 73
Manigement of House by
Disraeli, Reflections on,
68; compared to ruling by
Gladstone, 68
Manners, Lord J,, Lady'ike
mnner of, 329; liketed
to fir-tree covered with
snow, 482 ; Manners and
deportment of, in House,
483 ; Aptness of, in making
ddbating speech, 4S3
Mannerisms of speakers in
House of Lords, 181
Martin, John, advocates re
peal of the Union and
re-estabUshment of Irish
ParUament, 45 ; Speech of,
on MitcheU debate, 4Q;
Death of, 71 ; his charac
ter as an Irish member,
72
*' Mass in masquerade," 35
May, SirErsldue, leads Com
mons to House of Lords, 4
Maypole, A., as county
member, 483
Meldon, C. H., on Dublin
University, 23
Merchant Shipping BUI,
Second reading moved,
31 ; motion rejected, 32 ;
under care of Sir C.
Adderley, 93 ; once more
in Committee, 141; the
critics of, 145 ; passed
through Committee, 145
Midhat Pacha in the House,
253, 256
Ministerial resignation,
Question of, 334
Ministry, New, Estimate of
conduct, &c., of, diuing
Session, 39
Minor memb jrs of Disraeli's
ministry, 167 ; Estimate
of conduct, &c., during
Session of 1876, 167
Mitchell debate introduced
by Sir W. H. Dyke, 49
Momentous notice presag
ing war, 330
Monk, C. J., Suggestions of
dusty suit of, 273; inter
rupts Jenkins in speech
on South African Bill,
289; Speech of, on Dog
Tax, 388; Aggressive prim-
n ess of, 389 ; Decorous
laugh of, 389
Moore, A., Speech of, on
Irish Paupers, 463
Morley, S., Denial by, of
statement respecting him
made by Kenealy. 79
Mouvement among the Oppo
sition, 330
MundeUa, A. J., on shouts

of "Divide" from skulkers
behind Speaker's chair, 35
Mjre, Col., questions Jen
kins' respect to Speaker,
471
Muster of House after
Whitsuntide, 1878, 425
Naval College, Site for,
discussed, 422
Newdegate, C. N., Motion
of, for inqu.ry into Con
ventual Institutions in
Great Britain, 2:i ; com
pared with the melan
choly Jacques, 74 ; Speech
of, in favour of suspen
sion of orfler relative to
strangers, 83; Gruesome-
ness of, when spsakiug,
186 ; addresses speech to
himself, 381 ; is driven to
bay, 3J7 ; stirs up the
Admiral to action, 403 ;
Defection of, from party,
410
Nicholas, Grand Duke, Tele
gram from, ordering c-;s-
sation of hostilities, 347
Night, A, with the Home
EuUrs, 273
Ninth Parliament of Vic
toria, Closing scene in,
609 ; members present' in
Commons, 609 ; Commis
sioners in House of Lords,
pr.)rogation by Queen's
Speech, 510
NobbUng the baUot box, 130
Nolan, Capt. J. P., Mau
ner of, when ad(^essing
House, 49 ; on question
of privilege, lOi; "looks
hke it," 4fl6
Northcote, Sir Stafford, in
troduces Conservative
Budget, 9 ; wise and sen-
• sible if not brilliant, 40;
brings in Budget of ly75,
73 ; moves resolutions for
purchase of Suez Canal
ehares, 124; Capa.city of,
to make a clear state
ment, 125 ; Imitation of
Disraeli's gestures by,
125 ; Defence of Lord
Hampton by, 127; Skill
of, in patching up blunders
of colleagues over Mer
chant Shipping Bill, 143 ;
Estimate of, as Leader of
House of Commons, 165 ;
brought into prominence
designedly by Disraeli,
168 ; Speech of, in debate
on Gladstone's resolutions
on Turkish Question, 243 ;
compared with DisraeU as
Leader, 260 ; his matter-
of-fact dealing with Bud
get, &c., 251; Speech of,
on Trevelyan's resolutions
on County Franchise Bill,
270 ; shows urgency for
Soith African Bill, 289;
moves the suspension of
Pamell, 290 ; moves fresh
resolution re Parnell, 292 ;
demolishes the war spec

tre, 327 ; gives momen-
toas notice presaging war,
330; moves for Select
Committee with regird to
conducting Public Busi
ness, 331 ; denies imputa
tion of suppression of
truth by Ministers on
Eussian terms of peace,
333 ; reply of, to Harting
ton's question on Russo-
Turkisti Armistice, 344;
receives important letter
from Lord Derby, 349 ;
communicates telegram
from Prince Gortschakoff",
350 ; announces callmg
out of Reserved. Forces,
376 ; moves address to
Cro wn on caUing out
Ke^jerves, 384; sighs for
his home in Dev-iushire,
46'J ; moves amendment
to Parnell's resolution
arraigning Speaker, 491 ;
moves committal of J.
S. Ward ou Speaker's
warrant, 496 ; announces
coming Dissolution in
House of Comraons, 604;
gives date for iotroduc-
tion of Budget, 505 ; sub
mits to Gladstone's views
on Probate Duty BUl, 507
Norwood, C. M.,pstablishe3
character as debater, 146
Not going home tiU morn
ing, 276.
Obstruction of Irish mem
bers, sir. W. Lawson's
rhymes ou, 300
O'Clery, Chevalier, Speech
of, on MitcheU debate, 49
O'DonneU, F., on Question
of Privilege, 24 ; unseated
for corrupt practices, 24 ;
maiden speech of, 270 ;
incoherent utterances of,
278 ; two hours' speech
of, 288; motion of, on
South African BiU, 289 ;
freshness of, at te -
mination of twenty - six
hours' sitting, 306 ; dis
course of, on vaccination,
398
Official takes notes in House
by order of S leaker, 486 ;
Withdrawal of, 489
O'Gorman, Major, Speech
of, on purchase of Irish
railways, 16 ; Speech of,
ou Sunday closing in Ire
land, 16 ; Speech of, op
posing inquiry into con
ventual institutions, 29 ;
Speech of, on contiuuauce
ot Coercion Act, 36 ;
Defiant conduct of, in
House, 38 ; Interruptions
of, during Disraeh' s
speech on Coercion Bill,
67 ; Similarity of, to Fal
staff, 62 ; Preface of ap
peals to Speaker, 63 ; Why
fuony, 64; resumes de
bate on Peace Preserva
tion (.Ireland) Act, 81 ;

518

A DIARY OF TWO PAELIAMENT^:

poses as Aristides, 89 ;
endeavours to rescue Ke
nealy from count-out, 93;
Conduct of, in challenging
Anderson's Motion on
Committee of Referees,
1-^3 ; Speeches of, on
Sunday closing in Ireland,
1^0, 153 ; Description of,
by national song-writer,
160 ; His character as a
gentleman and a speaker,
161 ; Example of ready
wit of, 161 ; Re-appear
ance of, in House, 224;
Appeai'ance of, at sunrise
iu the House, 280; sug
gests a " count-out," 288 ;
Speech of, on Municipal
Franchise (Ireland) Bill,
362 : expatiates on virtue
and beauty of Irishwomen,
362 ; Irrelevant utterances
of on Czar, 362; Forcible
"Hear, hear" of, 456; is
" named " by the Speaker
for disorderly and dis
respectful conduct, 457;
tenders his apolo^'y, 459;
and is forgiven by the
House, 459; breaks out
again, 461
" Old Bayley " according to
Lowther, 426
O'Leary (Dr.), Motion of, for
adjou-nmerit of debate on
Coercion Bill, 62 ; odd
reference to Dodson, 62
O'Loghlen (Sir Colman), Ir
relevant speech of, 47 ; and
his seat for County Clare,
447
Opening of museums ou
Sundays, Eesolution iu
favour of, 19 ; rejection of,
20
Opposition, Conduct of lead
ing members, during Dis
raeh's adniinist(.atiou, 70;
petty contests among, for
leadership of House, 313
Oratorical displays of
*' whips," Limited, 153
Osborne fBernal), Humour
of, as speaker, 100
Palmeeston (Lord) as lead
er of House, 166
" Paper ships " and "Phan
tom fleet," i9S
Parliamentary Fencing,
Splendid Examples of, 66
Parliameatary kite-flying,
184
Parliamentary reform, Spar
ring of Bright and Lowe
on, 150
ParneU (C. S.). Apt Sarcasm
on Ward Hunt's propen
sity to slee,' in House, 216;
fssuines that refcence
has been made in House
to Biggiir's culling as pro
vision merchant, 225 ; com-
plaihs of intiiijidat'on in
the House, 289, 290 ; words
of, are taken down, i;9Q; .
suspension of, proposed, I
291 ; metamorphosis o*, by |

shaving, 398 ; takes up calf-
lymph qnction, 398 ; tries
to cut off Sclater-Booth's
salary, 398; a "curse to
the House and country,'*
405; Contest of, with
House, 488; disregards
authority of chairman,
488 J resolution of, in ar
raignment of conduct of
Speaker, 491
Peace Preservation (Ireland)
BiU enters committee,
76 ; Debate adjourned, 77
"Peace with Honour," 440
Pease, J. W., BeUicose air
of, when speaking, 259
Peel, Sir R., Abdication of
leadership by, 117
Peel, Sir R. (the younger),
Personal appearance of,
and manner as Parlia
mentary speaker, 149 ; the
" Stormy Petrel " of a
great party division, 236 ;
Speech of, on Eastern
Question, 237 ; on " squab
bling about little points,"
351; supports Jenkins on
South African Question,
472
Perkins, Sir F., Modesty
aud utility of, as member
of House, 422
Personality potent in House
of Commons, 112
Perthshire voter, A, on
Beaconsfleld and Disraeli,
354
Petition from Fellows of
Trinity College, Cam
bridge, in favour of Glad
stone's resolutions, 239
Phorcys, Single Eye of
Daughters of, 484
Pim, Captain B., and Ward
Hunt, 297 ; Animosity to
and contempt for Press,
298
Playfair, Lyon, and his
comii g speech, 377
Plimsol), S., Motion by, for
second readii.g of Mer
chant Shippiug BUl, 106 ;
moves adjoumment of
the House, 106 ; Accusa
tions of, against ship
owners, 107; Excitement
of, iu House, 107; Motion
for reprimand of, 108 ;
apologises to House, 109 ;
His oifeijce co doned,
110 ; compares Northcote
to ingenuous youth iu
gang of smashers, 385
Plunket, D., Speech of, on
Coercion Bill, 66
Pomatum Pot, A Source of
Refreshment to Glad
stone when speaking, 2i4,
450
Poi-trait of Roebuck, by
Disraeli in 1846, 416
Po-t-oards, Gladstone's Pro
clivities for, 307
Power, J. O'Connor, Maiden
Speech of, 29 ; Speech of,
against Lopes, 47 : Ques
tion of, re Volunteers in

Ireland, 277 ; Protest of,
against Speaker, 467
Power, E., deprecates treat
ment of Ireland by
Ministers, 44 ; advocates
reUnquishment of Peace
Preservation Act, 44
Press and Parliament, Dis
cussions on Relations be
tween, 87
Printers of Times and Daily
News at Bar of House on
Brea'ih of Privilege, 87
Prittlewell, Petition from,
in favour of Claimaut, 72 ;
Order that Petition should
lie ou Table rescinded, 73
Prolonged Sitting of Com
mittee ou South African
Bill, An-angements for,
301 ; Battle accepted by
Irish Members, 302 ; Com
mencement of the strug
gle, 302 ; its Close, S-!6
Promotion sui'e to Clever
Lawj ers in Parliament,
97
Prorogation of Parhament,
1877, 307; Scene in the
House of Lords, 307 ;
Reading of the Commis
sion, 320; End of the
Stssion, 322
Public Health (Ireland) Bill
obstructed by Irish Mem
bers, 203
Public Meetings (Ireland)
BUl, 20
Pubhc Works Loan BiU,
496
Public Worship Regulation
BiU, Second Reading of,
33; Presentation ol! Peti
tions respecting, 33
Queen, The, Message from,
re Grant to Sir Garnet
Wolseley, 10 ; Message
from, respecting pro
vision for Pi-ince Leopold,
35 ; Opens ParUament in
.person in 1876, 123; Au
thorisation of, to Disraeli
to contradict Lowe's
statement at Eetford,
144 ; Opens ParUament iu
person in 1877 ; Alleged
alann at thunderstorm,
213 ; Authorises Beacons
fleld's Spirited Foreign
Policy, 213 ; Opens Parlia
ment in 1880, 502 ¦
Eabisat, j., Views of, on
"Life," 433; ideas of,
about laughter, 432 ; guilt
less of joking, 433
Rathbone, W., peculiar
inanner of, when entering
House, 46
Read, C. S., effect of
Treasury Bench on, 276
Regimental Exchanges Bill,
Renewed Debate on, 60
Reserved Forces to be called
out, 376; Address to
message from Crown, 381 ;
Scene in the House of
Lords, 382 ; Spirited

.INDEX.

519

speech of Premier, 382;
Debate in Lords, 384 ;
Debate in Commons, 384 ;
Adjournment of Debate,
385.
Resolution on Financial
Pohcy of Conservatives,
moved by Gladstone, 478 ;
Rejected by House, 481
Ritchie, C. T., Care of, for
Tower Hamlets, 402 ;
Speech of, on Cigar Ques
tion, 403
Eoads and Bridges (Scot
land) BiU, 332
Rodwell, B. B. H., Con
fused Metaphor of, 204
Roebuck, *J. A., supports
the Govemment against
Gladstone, 233; Claim of ,
to Seat in tlouse disputed
by Dillwyn, 413; A Politi
cal and Parliamentary
Was^, 415; Portrait of,
by DisraeU, 416 ; Imparts
zest to Speeches lij revil
ing Opposition, from Op
position Benches, 416 ;
Notoriety of, acquired by
snarUng, 417 ; becomes a
- Privy Councillor, 485
Romayne, J. P., Ukens Mc
Carthy Downing to con
vict at gallows, and
Ministers to Calcraft, 90
Eoyal Titles BUl, 149
EusseU, Earl, on Disraeli's
Age, 159
Russians en route to Con
stantinople, 330, 347
Rylands, P., supports the
Govemment, 295 ; De
meanour of, at opening of
session, 326 ; Treatment
of Members' backs and
ribs by, 325 ; Meeting of,
with Elphinstone, 325 ;
Action of, on renewal of
debate on Vote of Credit,
348 ; Motion of, for rejec
tion of County Govern
ment BUl, 364; Studies
of, in history, 426 ; Views
of, on our foreign policy,
425 ; ChaUenges Minis
ters, 326
Salisbttrt, Marquis of, a
"master of jeers, and
flouts, and sueers, 35 ;
Welcome accorded to iu
House of Lords, 174 ; as
Commissioner, 317
Sandhiu'st, Lord, Proposed
Voce of Censure on, 20
Sandon, Lord, Advance
ment of, in good opinion
of House ; Description of,
by Mundella, 156 ; drawn
out by Lord F. Cavendish,
155
Sandwich, Lord. Question of,
on Russian terms of Peace,
335
Scene at opening of Parlia-
meutforSessionot 1875,42
Sclater-Booth, G., as presi
dent of Local Govemment
Bjard, 365 ; Parliameuiary

career of, 365 ; Word pic
ture of, by Lord Rundolph
Churchill, 366 ; Silary of,
iu Ganger, 398
Scotch Church Patronnge
BiU, Discuss. on lu, 32
Scotch chuTob, roads, and
bridges, 430
Scotch elders, and walking
on Sunday, 20
Scotch membe s. Staying
powers of, 332
Scott, D. M., defends Cuck
field magistrates against
P. A. Taylor, 61 ; Curious
appearance of, while speak-
inj,
Soott, Major, Anecdote of,
199
Scourfield, J. H., Ricketty
witticisms of, 101
Seeley, C, makes Ward
Hunt roar, 193
Select Committee, re public
busines?, 331
Self-government in South
Africa, Discussion on, 287
Session of 1874— Openiuir of
Ninth Parliament of Vic
toria, 2 ; Arrival of mem
bers at, 2 ; Ceremonial
attending, 4; reading of
Royal Commission, 4 ;
Election of Speaker, 5.
Session of 1876— Opening of
Parliament, 42
Session of 1876— Opening of
Parliament, 118 ; Scene
in House of Lords,,118;
Foreign . Ambassadors,
120 ; Bishops and Judges,
120 ; Entrance of her
Majesty, 122 ; Arrival of
the Commons, 123 ; Close
of ceremony, 124
Session of 1877— Opening of
Parliament, 170 ; Scene in
House of Lords, 170;
Foreign Ministers, 171;
Arrival of Royal Princes,
171; Entranc-' of her Ma
jesty, 172 ; Earl of Bea
consfield, 172; Entry uf
the Commons, 173 ; Close
of the ceremonial, 174
Session of 1878— Oiiening of
Parliamenr, 323 ; The ad
dress moved and se
conded, 324
Session of 1879 — Commence
ment of, 466
Session of 1880— Opening of
Parliament, 498 ; scene in
House of Lords, 49'9 ;
ForeiguAmbassadors x^re-
Sfiut, 499 ; the Ladies, 600 ;
entry of Eoyal Princes
and Princesses, 501 ; arri
val and entry of the Queen,
502; the coming of the
Commons, 502 ; reading
of the Royal Speech, 503 ;
conclusion of the ceremo
nial, 503
Seventh session — why Par
liament was summoned
for, 504
" Shabby ! " from the Ad
miral, 279

Shaw, W., Motion of for
Select Committee on de
mand of Irish for Irisji
ParUament, 213
"Ship Knackers" de
nounced by PUmsoU, 103
" Shorts " and " stalks,"
402
Sinclair, Sir T., Speech of,
on Eastern Question, 433
Skelmersdale, Lord, as
Commissioner, 307
Smith, W. H., Business
like qualities of, 167 ;
Retort of, on Gladstone's
remarks on foreign acqui
sitions of Beaconsfield' s
Government, 479
Smollett, P. Boyle, on dis
solution by Gladstone, 12 ;
on County Franchise,
269 ; Conscience of,
troubled, 377 ; Relation
ship of, to Smollett the
historian, 445 ; Mental
acquirements and dispo
sition of, 446; Parlia
mentary manner of, 44-7 ;
Egotism of, 447 ; Taking
to task by, 448 ; Agree
ment of, with Mr. Jones,
448; Admitting to the
"fool" by, 449
Smollett, Tobias George,
Portraiture of, by Dr.
Moore, 446
Smyth, R., Motion of, for
Sunday closing in Ireland,
16; Motion rejeced, 17;
Motion of, respecting
Sunday Closing in Ireland,
149 : Introduces BiU, 153
"Sophistical Rhetorician,"
A, 454
Speaker, The, robbed of his
watch, 213 ; sent for
during Committee, 290 ;
Authority of, impugned,
485 ; called into House on
motion of A. M. SulUvan,
486 ; explains nature of
reports authorised by
him, 493 ; exonerated by
House, 493
" Speech Preservation Act,"
wanted by Mitchell
Henry and Newdegate, 88
Speeches made in House
not read by public, 480
Stacpoole, Capt. W., Pa
nacea of, for Eastern
Question, 395; belief in
Old Pam, 395 ; a true Iri&h
gentleman, 396
Stanhope, Hon. E., moves
Address' to Throne, 4H ;
dreams of future advance
ment, 449 ; Promising
speech of, on Vema-cular
Press (India) BUl, 45U ;
Parliamentary manner
of, 450
Stauley, Hon. F. A., Failure
of, in speech on Ee^i-
mental Exchanges BiU,
52 ; Floundering of, in
reply to criticism on
Militia Force, 277; un
lucky " although " of, 282

A DIAEY OF TWO PABLIAMENTS.

Statesman trijiped upby his
notes, 453
Statesman and Pohtician,
Distance between, 388
Stationery office, A Scandal
in, 282
Straits, The Cabinet in.
Verse on, 337
Strangers ordered to with
draw by Speaker, 83 ; Sus
pension of order moved by
Disraeli and seconded by
Hartington, 84 ; carried
unanimously, 85; Espial
of, in the House, 406
Strangulation, New method
ot, 438
Stratheden aud Campbell
(Lord) a dual peer, 355;
Rebuff of by Lord Derby,
356 ; forms party of his
own, 356
SuUivau, A. M., Protests of,
a j;ain st aspersions on Irish
members by Lopes, 47 ;
furious appenl to Pre
mier on miinagement of
Coercion Bill, 65 ; spies
strungeis, 89 ; Question
of, ou defence of Egypt by
Great Britain, 233; calls
attention to Ephinstone's
remarks on Irish mem-
btrs, 313; Motion of, to
report pi ogrets on qufs-
ti< n of breach of privilege,
486; Sptech of, en quanel
with Cetewaj o, 469
Sunday closing in Ireland,
Motion on, 16; Motion in
favour of, carried, 149 ;
Bill for, introduced, 153
Supplementary estimate for
six millioLS, 334
Surplus, A, shown to be a
debt, 480
SuspeTise, A, for the House
of Commons, 327
Suspension of ParneU pro
posed and discussed, 291 ;
Adjournment of debate,
292 ; Debate resumed, 292 ;
Incidents of, 393 ; Termi
nation of, by division, 296
Swearing-in members and
signing roll, 7
Syke.«, Mrs. C, Likeness of,
to flag of truce, 272
Synan, E. J., Shouting of,
when speaking, 429
Synd Takwob Khan Tora,
264, 265
Tait, Dr., A tete-n-tite with,
281
Taylor, P. A., Resolution
of, for or'ening museums,
etc., on Sundays, 19
Teck, Prince, 292
Tennant, R., Martial cos
tume of, 323 ; speech of,
in seconding address, 324

Thunderstorm, Effect of, on
Beaconsfield's spirited
foreign policy, 213
Thurlow, Lord, on court-
martial after Isandula, 469
Tichborne Demonstration,
208 ; armed neutrality of
Commons, 208 ; sct-ne in
the House, 209 ; ariival of
deputation, 211 ; inter
view with WhaUey, 211 ;
The De Morgan 202 ;
mei aces and muffin^:, 203
"Times of Refreshing in
Spain," 248
Tom Fat, Iniquity aud In
gratitude of, 419 ; his
ultimate destination, 421
Torrens, W. T. McC, ou
Army Organisation, 73 ;
the "Jeremiah" of the
House of Commons, 74
Treasury Bench occupants
in Disraeli's administra
tion, 70
Trevelyan, G. O., moves
second reading of Hon- e-
hold Franchise (Counties)
BiU, 17 ; congratulated by
Forster, 17 ; Failure of
attempts to blackball, at
Athenseum, 201 ; Ques
tions Gladstone respect
ing resolutions on Turkish
Question, 227 ; Eesolu
tions of, ou County Fran
chise BiU, 269; Eesolu
tions of, on County
I ranchise, 466
Trickster, Gladstone stig
matised as, 13, 14
Triu'O (Lord), Notions of,
about questions, 360
Tseng, Marquis, Chinese
Ambassador, in Strangers'
Gallery, 490
Turnpike debate proverbi
ally dull, 54
Twenty-six hours' sitting,
A, 3(1
Ulunpi, Destruction of, 494
" Unexpected Occurrence,"
The, according to Lawson,
323
Verbal Duel between Dis
raeli and Bright, 219
Vicarious brewery, 419
Vindicator, The, CaJlan's new
paper, 343
Vote of censure in the
House of Lords, 473; re
sult of division on, 476
Vote of censure on Lord
Sandhurst, 20
Vote of Credit, Discussioa
on, 313 ; Second day of,
347 ; Exciting scenes and
telegrams duriug, 348, 349 ;
aeain adjourned, 350 ;
Close of, 352

Waddy, S. D., Pricking a
windbag, 261 ; Irrita
ting manner of address,
262 ; Offensive egotism of,
262; astray in the House
of Lords, 335
Ward, J, S., at the bar of
House, 495; consigned to
clock tower, 497
Water BiU, The, 605
"We don't want to fight,''
Parody on, 419
Weariest, The, of all Ses
sions, 464
Wednesdays, Rule for ap
propriation of, 131
WethereU, Sir C., and the
shower, 276
Whale in turtle soup, 306
Whalley, G. H., on the dis
solution 13; amodernDon
Quixote, 91 ; on Ireland, 62;
seconds Kenealy's motion
on Tichborne case, 79 ;
Quarrel of, with Kenealy
over Tichborne case, 138 ;
accuses Disraeli of Jesu
itical tendencies, 157 ;
calls the clergy " Sepoys,"
157 ; renews his quarrel
with Kenealy, 241 ; Epi
thets of, for " the un
happy nobleman," 268 ; is
requested to "sing, sing,"
307
" Which Leader? " 184
" Whitehead Torpedo," The,
392
Whitelaw, A., seconds
address to throne, 43
WhiteweU, John, 27
Whisperings of comingwar,
330
Wilmot, Sir J. E., speech
on Ashantee V\ ar, 9 ; on
Capital Pun shment, 258 ;
maimer of, 258
Windbag, prickel by Wad
dy. 261
Wolff, Sir H. D., on Turkibh
question, 231
Women's Suffrage Bill, De
bate ou, 253
Wykeham - Martin, P.,
Death of, 417; Gloom
caused by, 418
Yeaman, J., and Turtle
Soup, 3j6 ; speech of
on Roads and Bridges
(Scotland) BiU, 333; as
Guide to Eastern Ques
tion, 433
Yorke, Reginald, Refusal of
House to hear, 22
Zulu War.— Strictures on
Charges for,and Provision
for Meeting, 480
Zululand, Discussion on
affairs of, 469

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