as ringing from the grey tower of the Parish
Church, and summoning the villagers to the daily Evensong of Holy Week.
The contrast was too violent to be ignored; and yet, for a citizen who
took his citizenship seriously, the meeting was an even more imperative
duty than the service. Hostilities were suspended for Good Friday,
Easter Even, and Easter Day, but on Easter Monday they broke out again
with redoubled vigour; and, before the week was over, the Paschal
Alleluias were blending strangely with paeans of victory over conquered
foes. When even so grave and spiritually-minded a man as Dean Church
wrote to a triumphant Gladstonian, "I don't wonder at your remembering
the Song of Miriam," it is manifest that political fervour had reached a
very unusual point.

On the 2nd of April I was returned to Parliament, as colleague of Sir
Nathaniel de Rothschild, in the representation of Aylesbury. We were the
last Members for that ancient Borough, for, before the next General
Election came round, it had been merged, by Redistribution, in Mid
Bucks. The Liberal victory was overwhelming. Lord Beaconsfield, who had
expected a very different result, resigned on the 18th of April, and
Gladstone became Prime Minister for the second time. Truly his enemies
had been made his footstool. On the 30th of April I took the oath and my
seat in the House of Commons, and a fresh stage of life began.

FOOTNOTES:

[29] I must except from this general indictment the Rev. A. T. Lloyd,
Vicar of Aylesbury in 1880, and afterwards Bishop of Newcastle. A strong
Conservative, but eminently a Christian gentleman.

[30] Archbishop Alexander.

X

PARLIAMENT

"Still in the Senate, whatsoe'er we lack,
It is not genius;--call old giants back,
And men now living might as tall appear;
Judged by our sons, not us--_we_ stand too near.
Ne'er of the living can the living judge--
Too blind the affection, or too fresh the grudge."
BULWER-LYTTON, _St. Stephen's_.

"In old days it was the habit to think and say that the House of Commons
was an essentially 'queer place,' which no one could understand until he
was a Member of it. It may, perhaps, be doubted whether that somewhat
mysterious quality still altogether attaches to that assembly. 'Our own
Reporter' has invaded it in all its purlieus. No longer content with
giving an account of the speeches of its members, he is not satisfied
unless he desc