stily drawn "Disturbance Bill," which the
Government passed through the Commons. It was rejected by an
overwhelming majority in the Lords, and the natural consequence of its
rejection was seen in the ghastly record of outrage and murder which
stained the following winter.

The Session of 1881 opened on the 6th of January. The speech from the
Throne announced two Irish Bills--one to reform the tenure of land, and
one to repress crime and outrage. The combination was stigmatized by Mr.
T. P. O'Connor as "weak reform and strong coercion"; and the same
vivacious orator, alluding to Mr. Chamberlain's supposed sympathy with
the Irish cause, taunted the Right Honourable gentleman with having had
"if not the courage of his convictions, at least the silence of his
shame."

The debate on the Address in the Commons lasted eleven nights, the
Irish Members moving endless amendments, with the avowed object of
delaying the Coercion Bill, which was eventually brought in by Forster
on the 24th January. The gist of the Bill was arrest on suspicion and
imprisonment without trial. The Irish Members fought it tooth and nail,
and were defied by Gladstone in a speech of unusual fire. "With fatal
and painful precision," he exclaimed, "the steps of crime dogged the
steps of the Land League; and it is not possible to get rid of facts
such as I have stated, by vague and general complaints, by imputations
against parties, imputations against England, or imputations against
Government. You must meet them, and confute them, if you can. None will
rejoice more than myself if you can attain such an end. But in the
meantime they stand, and they stand uncontradicted, in the face of the
British House of Commons." The speech in which this tremendous
indictment was delivered attracted loud cheers from Liberals and
Conservatives alike, but stirred the Irish to fury. I remember Mr.
O'Connor saying to me, "If only Gladstone had been in opposition, how he
would have enjoyed tearing into shreds the statistics which he has just
quoted!" The resistance to the Bill became impassioned. The House sat
continuously from the afternoon of January 31st to the forenoon of
February 2nd. Members were divided, like miners, into Day-Shifts and
Night-Shifts. The Refreshment-Rooms at the House were kept open all
night, and we recruited our exhausted energies with grilled bones,
oysters, and champagne, and went to bed at breakfast-time. At 9.30 on
Wednesday morning, February 2n