ned on an effort to secure reserve for the time,
that our freedom might not be compromised. I, therefore, ventured
upon describing myself as an "old parliamentary hand," and in that
capacity strongly advised the party to keep its own counsel, and
await for a little the development of events. Happily this counsel
was taken; had it been otherwise, the early formation of a
government favourable to home rule would in all likelihood have
become an impossibility. For although our Home Rule bill was
eventually supported by more than 300 members, I doubt whether, if
the question had been prematurely raised on the night of the
Address, as many as 200 would have been disposed to act in that
sense.

In the debate on the Address the draft Coercion bill reposing in the
secret box was not mentioned. Sir Michael Hicks Beach, the leader of the
House, described the mischiefs then afoot, and went on to say that whether
they could be dealt with by ordinary law, or would require exceptional
powers, were questions that would receive the new chief secretary's
immediate attention,(176) Parliament was told that the minister had
actually gone to Ireland to make anxious inquiry into these questions. Mr.
Smith arrived in Dublin at six o'clock on the morning of January 24, and
he quitted it at six o'clock on the evening of the 26th. He was sworn in
at the Castle in the forenoon of that day.(177) His views must have
reached the cabinet in London not later than the morning of the 26th. Not
often can conclusions on such a subject have been ripened with such
electrifying precocity.

"I intend to reserve my own freedom of action," Mr. Gladstone said; "there
are many who have taken their seats for the first time upon these benches,
and I may avail myself of the privilege of old age to offer a
recommendation. I would tell them of my own intention to keep my counsel
and reserve my own freedom, until I see the moment and the occasion when
there may be a prospect of public benefit in endeavouring to make a
movement forward, and I will venture to recommend them, as an old
parliamentary hand, to do the same."(178) Something in this turn of phrase
kindled lively irritation, and it drew bitter reproaches from more than
one of the younger whigs. The angriest of these remonstrances was listened
to from beginning to end without a solitary cheer from the liberal
benches. The great bulk of the party took their leader's