ghts.

[Sidenote: Flagrant obstruction.]

There was a curious but instructive little scene towards the end of a
sitting early in March. The Tories--headed by Jimmy Lowther--had been
obstructing in the most shameless way for a whole afternoon. Towards the
end of the evening Mr. Chamberlain had come down and joined in the
fray--lending his authority to tactics which usually had been left to
the rag-tag and bobtail of all parties. As I have already said, this
kind of intervention had seriously diminished Mr. Chamberlain in the
respect of the House. And the way in which he did his work was venomous
as well as petty. The vote under discussion was a Supplemental Estimate
for Light Railways in Ireland. Everybody knows that light railways were
the policy of the late and not of the present Government. A supplemental
estimate means simply a smaller sum by which the original estimate has
been exceeded. It ought to have been a matter of course that this
supplementary estimate should have been agreed to by the Tories, seeing
that it was money necessary to carry out the programme passed by their
own friends in the previous administration. But the Tories were in no
humour to listen to such trifles as these, and carried on lengthy
discussions. Mr. Morley, having no responsibility for the policy which
rendered such a vote necessary, was away in his room, attending to the
duties of his laborious department. Mr. T.W. Russell assumed to be in a
great pucker over this absence, and actually tried to stop the
proceedings until Mr. Morley came back.

[Sidenote: While a wronged nation waits.]

Mr. Morley did appear in due course, and then there was an attempt to
assail him for his absence. There was also an attempt to take advantage
of his presence to resume the discussion of the very topics which had
already been discussed for many hours in his absence. Mr. Morley
refused to fall into the trap. Speaking quietly, but with a deadly blow
between every word, he declined to be a party to obstruction by
answering again questions which had already been answered many times
over. At this, there was a loud shout of approval from the Liberal
benches--exasperated almost beyond endurance by the shameless waste of
time in which the Tories, aided by Mr. Chamberlain, had indulged in for
so many hours. Mr. Chamberlain professed to be greatly shocked. But the
House was not in a mood to stand any more nonsense. Mr. Chamberlain and
Mr. Lowther, and the rest o