more galling, for instance, to those who had charge of
the Home Rule Bill, than to look across at the Irish Benches and see a
vast and aching void in the places where the representatives of the
people mainly concerned are accustomed to sit. The Tories were not slow
to utilise the moment; and if things had been different--if the Home
Rule cause had not got so far--they would probably have been able to
stop progress with the measure altogether. But fortunately the Home Rule
Bill was in committee--and whether men like it or not, it is impossible
for them to avoid something like business discussion when a Bill is in
committee. There is the clause under discussion; there are the
amendments to it, which stand on the paper; the clause and the
amendments have to be spoken to; and it is impossible, within the limits
of a discussion so defined, to introduce a subject so extraneous as a
domestic difficulty in the Irish ranks. But, at the same time, the
opportunity was too tempting to be altogether passed without notice. Sir
John Lubbock has taken a prominent part at times in opposing the Home
Rule Bill. Sir John is a most estimable man, has written some very
entertaining books, and in the City has appropriate rank as both an
erudite and a rich banker. But he does not shine in the House of
Commons. His voice is thin and feeble, and his arguments, somehow or
other, always appear wire-drawn. And then the House of Commons is a
place, above all others, where physical qualities go largely towards
making success or failure. A robustious voice and manner are the very
first essentials of Parliamentary success; and no man who is not gifted
with these things has really much right to try Parliamentary life.
However, Sir John Lubbock was not strong enough to withstand the
temptation of making capital out of Irish misfortunes; and he pointed to
the Irish Benches, with their yawning emptiness, as a proof that the
Irish members took no interest whatsoever in the Home Bale Bill.

[Sidenote: Irish objections to divorce.]

Meantime, in the House itself the Home Rule Bill was crawling slowly
along. The Unionists were at their sinister work of delaying its
progress by all kinds of absurd and irrelevant amendments. For instance,
one Unionist wished to restrict the Irish Legislature as to the law of
marriage and divorce. Mr. Gladstone has over and over again pointed out
that, as the Irish have one way of looking at these things, and the
English another