o are narrowly watched to see which return first to the House,
for the first return means which lobby has been sooner exhausted, and
the lobby sooner exhausted is necessarily the smaller lobby, and,
therefore, the lobby of the minority. Mr. Marjoribanks, who has told for
the Government at the door of the Tory lobby, has returned to the House
first. That's a good sign. But still, if there be a majority, what is it
going to be?--disastrously near defeat, or near enough to moral strength
as to mean nothing? A few minutes more have to pass before this fateful
question is settled. Mr. Thomas Ellis--light, brisk--walks up the floor
to the clerk in front of the table. Then the numbers are whispered to
Mr. Gladstone. The winning teller always takes the paper from the clerk.
It is Mr. Marjoribanks who receives the paper, and the Government has
won. A faint cheer, then an immediate hush; we want to know the exact
numbers. Mr. Marjoribanks reads them out--a majority of thirty-one. We
have won, and we who support the Ministry, cheer; but our majority has
been reduced, so the Opposition burst their throats with defiant answer.

Then, with fatuous folly, the Tories insist on another division. Two
Irish members, driving straight from Euston station to the House--John
Dillon and Mr. Collery--have meantime been added to the Ministerial
ranks. Some of the mutineers have come back, and the majority rises to
forty-two.

And so ended the great intrigue of the Liberal malcontents against the
Gladstone Government.

[Sidenote: Obstruction rampant.]

The word had gone forth--the Home Rule Bill was not to be allowed to
pass the second reading before the Easter recess. The slings and arrows
of the Tory press had at last begun to have their effect, and
obstruction had now been entered upon thoroughly, fiercely, and
shamelessly. The first specimen of it was on the following Thursday
night, when Mr. T.W. Russell took advantage of an harangue by Mr.
Justice O'Brien--those Irish judges are all shameless political
partisans--to move the adjournment of the House. Mr. Morley was in
excellent fighting form. T.W. Russell is a man peculiarly well
calculated to draw out the belligerent spirit of any man, and the Chief
Secretary, though he holds himself well under restraint, has plenty of
fire and passion in his veins. He let out at T.W. Russell in splendid
style, and the more the Tories yelled, the more determinedly did Mr.
Morley strike his blows. Russe