own leader and
follow the guidance of the Irish members. And behind Mr. Sexton was the
grimmest enemy of all--the men from his own country, who were resolved,
on this occasion, to push the demand of Ireland to the extreme point,
and who held that he would betray the Irish cause if he backed, not
them, but Mr. Gladstone and the British Government.

[Sidenote: And takes the lead.]

It required all the dexterity, all the coolness, all the splendid
equanimity and courage of the man of genius at such a fateful hour to
keep his head. Mr. Sexton was equal to the occasion. He spoke slowly,
and there was a hush in the House to catch his every syllable, for his
words were the harbingers of fate. As he spoke so would be decided one
of the most momentous and indeed tragical of human issues. He spoke, I
say, slowly--but at the same time it was evident that he had his mind
well fixed on the end which he wished to reach. Nothing adds so much to
the effectiveness of oratory as the sense that the man who is addressing
you, is thinking at the very moment he is speaking. You have the sense
of watching the visible working of his inner mind; and you are far more
deeply impressed than by the glib facility which does not pause, does
not stumble, does not hesitate, because he does not stop to think. Many
people, reading so much about Mr. Sexton's oratory, will be under the
impression that he is a very rapid and fluent speaker. He is nothing of
the kind. He speaks with a great slowness, grave deliberation, and there
are often long and sometimes even trying pauses between his sentences.
He could not conceal on this great occasion the anxiety and the
seriousness of the situation; but the mind was splendidly clear, the
language as well chosen as though he were sitting in a room and holding
discourse to a few admiring friends; and what Mr. Sexton had to say was,
that he would not go into the same lobby with Chamberlain and Balfour in
order to defeat the Government; in short, that he was going to vote with
Mr. Gladstone. A long-drawn sigh of relief. The Government is saved.

[Sidenote: The field unsteady.]

But hush--not yet. There are still some of the hard Radicals from
Scotland who have never wavered in the idea that the Irish members ought
to remain at their full total. They have been partially relieved by what
Mr. Sexton had said. But then Scotchmen are proverbially tenacious of
opinion; and not even his appeal--joined to the appeal of their