o the wrong thing. It
will be seen presently how he helped to save the Government it was his
duty to destroy. No; the danger of the situation came not from the Tory,
but from the Liberal benches. There are in the Liberal, as in every
party of the House, a number of young and new members who have not yet
learned the secret and personal springs of action, and who, moreover, do
not at once realize the vast underlying issues on an apparently small
question. To them the Liberal intriguers against the Government had
steadily and plausibly addressed themselves, and many of them were under
the impression that the question raised by Dr. Hunter would decide
nothing more serious than the special purpose to which one day of the
Session could be devoted.

[Sidenote: A coming storm.]

But anybody with the slightest acquaintance with the House of Commons
would have soon perceived that matter of much greater pith and moment
was at stake. The Senior Ministerial Whip is the danger-signal of the
House of Commons; and the danger-signal was very much in evidence. Mr.
Marjoribanks--of all Whips the most genial, even-tempered, and
long-suffering, as well as the most effective--was to be seen, rushing
backwards and forwards between the lobby and the Treasury bench, where,
with Mr. Gladstone, he held whispered and apparently excited
conversations. Meantime, there grew up in the House of Commons that
mysterious sense of coming storm which its quick sensibilities always
enable it to see from afar. There came a sudden murmuring, and then a
strange stillness, and older members almost held their breaths. From the
Irish benches not a sound escaped. In most Parliamentary
frays--especially when the storm rages--there are certain Irish members
who are certain to figure largely and eminently; but on these benches
there was a silence, ominous to those who are able to note the signs of
the Parliamentary firmament. Anyone looking on could have seen that the
silence did not come from inattention or want of interest, for the looks
betrayed keen and almost feverish excitement.

[Sidenote: Ireland in danger.]

For what was going on was a fight whether Ireland was to be lost or
saved, and lost through the folly, desertion, or levity of some of the
men that had sworn to save her. Fortunately, the strains of the most
tragic situations have their relief in the invincible irony of life, and
there was a welcome break in the appearance on the scene of him whom all