more perceptible, and when it got to midnight, he seemed painfully fagged and exhausted.  It was, perhaps, because he was in that mood that he made some concessions to the Unionists, which have been somewhat resented.  But as these concessions, according to Mr. Gladstone himself, only carried out what the Government had intended from the first, these things may be passed.  They had reference chiefly to prohibition of raising in Ireland anything like a military force—­even in the shape of a militia or volunteer force.  On June 2nd, there was one of those transformations in which the Old Man is constantly surprising friends and foes.  He was alert, vigorous, watchful of everything that went on, and the voice rose to its old strength and resonance.  It was during that afternoon that there was a slight indication for the first time throughout the progress of the whole Bill of any dissatisfaction on the part of the Irish members.  Mr. Byrne—­one of the Unionist gang of lawyers—­proposed a ridiculous amendment, the effect of which would have been that the Irish Legislature would not have had the right to give a license for a fowling-piece, or to arm their police to meet a rising of the Orangemen.

[Sidenote:  Mr. Sexton intervenes.]

It was then that Mr. Sexton intervened with a word of warning against such a restriction.  In burning though carefully restrained language, Mr. Sexton replied to a taunt of Mr. Chamberlain at the silence of the Irish members.  Their silence, said Mr. Sexton, was due to their knowledge that Mr. Chamberlain and his confederates had entered into a conspiracy to destroy the power of the House of Commons, and to defeat the mandate of the nation by obstructing a Bill they could not otherwise defeat.  Spoken with great fire—­with splendid choice of language—­with biting sarcasm, of which he is a master—­the speech was an event.  Mr. Gladstone promptly recognized its spirit; thanked the Irish members for their consideration; and then declared, amid a great sniff from Joe’s upturned nose, that if the Irish members desired to express their opinions on any amendment, he and his colleagues would wait before expressing their own views.  There seemed to be a slight hope among the Tories and the ever-venomous Joe that this meant a rift in the lute between the Irish members and the Government; but they were woefully disappointed—­especially when the amendment was indignantly rejected by the House.

[Sidenote:  The “Daily News.”]

It is the outspoken, rather than the loudly uttered, that is often the important thing in a House of Commons discussion.  This was the case with the curious little debate which Mr. Chamberlain initiated on June 6th.  The Daily News had published a little article describing the manner in which the Tories had shouted at—­hooted—­interrupted—­Mr. Gladstone on the Thursday night previous.  It may at once be asked why Mr. Chamberlain should have thought it necessary to notice the article.  He