tter of the Home Rule Bill. Another was that this later speech,
with all its graceful air of ready wit, fervid fancy, and momentarily
inspired argument, was also in print, and, according to current report,
was in advance widely circulated among a friendly Press. It turned out
to be impossible to recite it all before the adjournment; equally
impossible to cut it down. That mighty engine, the Press, was already,
in remote centres of civilization, throbbing with the inspiration of his
energy, printing off the speech at so many hundreds an hour. It was
impossible to communicate with the unconscious editors and mark the
exact point at which the night's actual contribution to debate was
arrested. There was only one thing to be done: that was boldly to take
the fence. So Sir Ellis went on till twelve o'clock as if nothing were
happening elsewhere, was pulled up by the adjournment, and, turning up
bright and early with the meeting of the House next day, reeled off the
rest regardless of the gibes of the enemy, who said some of the faithful
papers had muddled the matter, reporting on Tuesday morning passages
that were not delivered in the House of Commons till Tuesday night.

[Sidenote: THE PITY OF IT.]

These accidents have their comical aspect. When it comes to
appropriating two hours of the time of a busy Legislature, they also
have their serious side. The House of Commons is a debating assembly,
not a lecture hall, where prosy papers may be read to sparse audiences.
The House is seen at its best when masters of fence follow each other
in swift succession, striking and parrying, the centre of an excited
ring. A prevalence of the growing custom of reading laboriously-prepared
papers will speedily bring it down to the level of the Congress meeting
at Washington. There the practice has reached its natural and happy
conclusion, inasmuch as members having prepared their papers are not
obliged to read them. They hand them in to the printer, and, at a cost
to the nation willingly borne in view of compensating circumstances,
they are printed at length in the _Congressional Globe_.

[Illustration: "REELING IT OFF."]

Perhaps when we have our official report of debates in the House of
Commons this also will follow. It is easy to imagine with what eagerness
the House would welcome any alternative that should deliver it from the
necessity, not of listening to these musty harangues--that, to do it
justice, it never suffers--but of givi