members to
disappear altogether; but in these days, and with such an Opposition as
we have now in the House of Commons, it is not possible to make any
calculations on what course we would adopt. To the amazement of the
House--above all things to the amazement of Mr. Gladstone--who has not
yet entirely got over the traditions of the past, and, therefore,
over-sanguine expectations as to the scruples of his opponents--Mr.
Chamberlain and Mr. Balfour both announced that they were ready to go
into the same lobby as Mr. Redmond. And so those who wanted all the
Irish members, and those who wanted none, were both going to vote
exactly the same way.

[Sidenote: A bolt from the blue.]

For a moment everybody was staggered by this declaration; and it
produced a combination which anybody could forecast, and for which
nobody was prepared. There came accordingly something like a panic over
the House. Here we were face to face with a Ministerial crisis, with
doom and the abyss and the end of all things. Unexpectedly, in a moment,
without a second's warning, this state of things led to a phenomenon
which belongs to the House of Commons alone. Councils of war are usually
held in the silence and secrecy and beneath the impenetrable walls of
the council chamber. But sudden councils of war, called for by
unexpected events, have to be held in the open in the House of Commons.
The world--the world of strangers, of ambassadors, of peers, of ladies,
of the constituents, and, above all, the world of watchful, scornful,
vindictive enemies--can look on as though the leaders of the parties
were bees working in a glass hive. And it is impossible for even the
best trained men to keep their air and manners in such dread
circumstances from betraying the seriousness and excitement and awe
which the gravity of the events are exciting in them.

[Sidenote: Mr. Gladstone's attitude.]

On the Treasury Bench there was a good deal of excitement, but it was
pretty well repressed: and in the midst of it all is the face of Mr.
Gladstone, over-pale, with a strange glitter in the eyes that made them
look unnaturally large, two jets of lambent and almost dazzling flame,
but otherwise very composed, deadly calm. On the Irish Benches the
excitement was more tense, for their course was even more difficult than
that of the Government. The Government had stated their decision that
they wanted only eighty members. But there was an Irish member, a leader
of a party