y. Alone, slowly, with pale face, he walks up the floor. The
significance of the great moment, the long years of struggle, of heroic
courage, of inflexible temerity, of patient and splendid hope, all this
rushes tumultuously to the minds of his friends and followers, and, in a
second, without a word of warning or command, the Liberals and the Irish
have sprung to their feet, and, underneath their cheers--their waving
hats, their uplifted forms--Mr. Gladstone passes through to his seat as
under a canopy.

At last, Tom Ellis, the Junior Liberal Whip, quickly comes up the
floor--the paper is handed to Mr. Marjoribanks--this announces we have
won--a good cheer, but short, for we want to know the numbers--and then
they are read out.

For the second reading 347
Against 304

The majority is 43. The Lord be praised! we have polled all our men! And
then more cheers--taken up outside in the deeper bellow of the big
crowd, and then more waving of hats and another great reception to Mr.
Gladstone. And so, as the streaks of day rose on this hour of Ireland's
coming dawn, we went to our several homes.

CHAPTER X.

THE BUDGET, OBSTRUCTION, AND EGYPT.

[Sidenote: Sir William.]

Sir William Harcourt, on April 24th, had the double honour of speaking
before the smallest audience and making the best Budget speech for many
years. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has two manners. He can be as
boisterous, exuberant, and gay, as any speaker in the House, and he can
also be as lugubrious as though his life had been spent in the service
of an undertaker. He was in the undertaker mood this evening. Slowly,
solemnly, sadly, he unfolded his story of the finances of the country.
He had taken the trouble to write down every word of what he had to
say--an evil habit to which he has adhered all his life. But,
notwithstanding these two things--which are both, to my mind, capital
defects in Parliamentary speaking--Sir William put his case with such
extraordinary lucidity, that everybody listened in profound attention to
every word he uttered; and when he sate down, he was almost overwhelmed
with the chorus of praise which descended on his head from all quarters
of the House.

Sir William Harcourt imitated most Chancellors of the Exchequer, in
keeping his secret to the latest possible moment. Like a good dramatist
also, he arranged his figures and the matter of his speech so well that
the final solu