y
secrets will die with him--the secret of saying the exact thing in the
most difficult and embarrassing of situations. To the outside public,
perhaps, this speech appeared nothing remarkable, and the allusions to
it I have seen in the press have been few and perfunctory. You should
hear House of Commons' opinion; you should listen to Unionists who hate
him, to Tories who distrust him, to know what an estimate was formed of
this marvellous speech by House of Commons' opinion.

[Sidenote: The triumph of the miners.]

On the Wednesday, again, Mr. Gladstone gave another example of his
extraordinary dexterity. The miners had come down in full force to
demand a legal eight hours. Sam Woods, of the Ince Division, on the one
side, John Burns, of the Battersea Fields, on the other, frowned on the
Old Man and bade him surrender. Behind him sat the great Princes of
Industry--silent, but none the less militant, fierce, and minatory;
opposite him was Lord Randolph Churchill, ready to raise the flag of
Social Democracy and to wave it before the advancing masses against the
Liberal party. Out of this difficulty, Mr. Gladstone rescued himself
with all that perfect, that graceful ease which he most displays when
situations are most critical. The debate was further made remarkable by
a speech from Lord Randolph Churchill, who, amid the grim and ominous
silence of the Tory Benches, thundered against Capital and Capitalists
in tones for which Trafalgar Square or the Reformers' Tree would be the
appropriate environment; and then came the remarkable division, with 279
for the Bill and 201 against.

[Sidenote: Hull Again.]

This was not the only victory which Labour was able to win in the course
of this week. The House presented a very notable spectacle on May 4th.
It was only by the aid of the Irish members, it is true, that Mr.
Havelock Wilson was able to get the necessary forty to procure the
adjournment of the House for the discussion of the Hull strike; but
then, when Mr. Wilson was enabled to bring the subject before the House,
he was listened to with an attention almost painful in its seriousness
and gravity. Nothing, indeed, shows more plainly the vast social and
political changes of our time, than this transformation in the attitude
of the House of Commons towards labour questions. There was a time--even
in our own memory--when such a question as the strike at Hull would have
been promptly ruled out of order; and when the workme