from his position with flying colours; would have the Daily News censured for falsehood by a House of Commons that believed in its truth; and have himself declared chivalrous by a Parliament that knows him to be malignant, unscrupulous, and merciless.  To prevent such a catastrophe it was a painful but necessary duty to bring out the realities of the case; and not only a painful but also a thankless duty in face of what everybody knew would be the attitude of Mr. Gladstone himself.

[Sidenote:  Mr. Gladstone shakes his head.]

For Mr. Gladstone did not delay long in indicating to the House what his attitude would be.  When I was speaking and denouncing the rude interruptions of the eventful Thursday night, he shook his head ominously and in contradiction—­though manifestations which came from Liberal and Irish Benches showed that he stood alone in his view of the events of that night.  And it was no surprise to the House, therefore, when he stood up and said that he entirely disclaimed any feeling of resentment for anything that had been done to him, and that he confessed he had not perceived the interruptions to which the report of the Daily News had called attention.  After this, there seemed no more to be said; but the battle was not yet over.  The Tories had been charged both by the Daily News and by a speech in the House with want of courtesy to Mr. Gladstone.  Nobody knew better than Mr. Balfour how much ground there was for such a charge; for often in the course of the present Session—­with a dark frown on his face, with an almost violent gesture—­he has called on his unruly followers behind him to conduct themselves.  The effect of what had taken place was to extort from Mr. Balfour a tribute to the universal respect in which the Prime Minister was held—­a tribute which the splendid Old Man acknowledged by a low bow; and, in short, the Tories had to bind themselves over to keep the peace by their professions of a chivalrous desire to respect the person and the feelings of the great Prime Minister.  And thus it was that it ended for the moment in a drawn battle—­Mr. Chamberlain having to withdraw his motion, and I my amendment.

[Sidenote:  Slow progress.]

But in the meantime the progress with the Bill was terribly slow.  We were now on the second week with the third clause.  Amendments were disposed of one night only to find that the next day the number of amendments, instead of being diminished, had been increased.  It would be a sheer waste of time and space to go into detail about these amendments.  The third clause is the clause which deals with the questions that are to be excluded from the Irish Parliament.  The list is sufficiently long—­peace and war—­the Crown—­the Lord-Lieutenancy—­trade and commerce—­the coinage and the currency—­copyright and navigation—­treason and treason felony.  But even this list was not sufficiently long for the Unionists.  They propose to increase this list