professor to a parcel of boys from the Quartier
Latin. For the moment you could actually imagine that the Old Man had
forgotten that there were such things in the world as Home Rule,
Obstruction, Newmarket Lowther, and Brummagem Joe. And all the time here
were we, who could be his sons, grinding our hearts in despair--in
futile anger--in melancholy retrospect.

[Sidenote: An hour of gloom.]

With the Monday, however, came a biting frost. The news that Mr.
Gladstone had been struck down from the fray, was sufficient to prepare
anybody for the final announcement. With him leading the Liberal hosts,
one could feel that obstruction could finally be beaten, however
obstinate might be its resistance--for he has the faith that moves
mountains. Then came the announcement that the second reading of the
Home Rule Bill had been postponed till after Easter. The Tories and the
Unionists were apparently taken by surprise; so much so that they did
not seem to have the power of yelling forth their delight at the triumph
of their policy with that full chorus which one would have expected.
Altogether, the announcement came upon the House, and passed the House,
with a quickness and a greater quietness than one might have expected.
The consequences were too serious to be grasped immediately; and men
were almost anxious to get to the lobbies for the purpose of discussing
it in all its bearings.

The rest of the week was but a poor falling-off after the heroic and
tragic fever of its opening, and of the week which preceded it. One
could see that in the Liberal ranks there had succeeded to the fierce
fighting spirit of the previous days a certain lassitude and
disappointment. What their faces told in the House their lips more
freely uttered in the lobbies. For a time, indeed, there was a feeling
of almost unreasoning despair, and that full, frank, unsparing criticism
to which every Government is subject from its friends when the winds
blow and the waves are high. It was said that the Government had
committed the mistake of making too many targets at once; that they had
first infuriated the Church by the Welsh Suspensory Bill; that they had
followed this up by infuriating the publicans and the brewers by the
Veto Bill; that, meantime, there was very little chance of their being
able to obtain the compensatory advantage of getting these Bills passed
into law. There were grumblings about the Registration Bill; in short,
nothing and nobody we