[Sidenote:  103 v. 80.]

At last Mr. Redmond seemed to hit off the situation by a proposal to omit a couple of sub-sections in the ninth clause.  But Mr. Redmond had scarcely spoken when the House found itself in an extraordinary and most embarrassing dilemma.  The object of Mr. Redmond was plain enough; what he desired to do was to retain the Irish members in the Imperial Parliament in their present, that is to say, in their full, strength—­103 they are now, 103 he wanted them to remain.  The position of the Government was equally clear.  With emphatic language—­with a superabundance of argument—­Mr. Gladstone stated his conviction that the Irish members should not remain in such large numbers and that the number should be 80.  This was all clear enough; but what about the position of all the other parties in the House?

[Sidenote:  Tot homines, tot sententiae.]

At first sight, it would appear that this ought to be very clear.  The Tories and the Unionists had several amendments on the paper.  One wanted the Irish members reduced to 48, one wanted to have them reduced to 40, and several of them desired that they should be reduced still further—­in fact, should reach the irreducible minimum of none at all.  It was assumed, of course, that gentlemen who had thus indicated their desire for the reduction of the Irish members, or for their disappearance altogether, would vote against a proposition which asked that they should remain in full force.  If this course were adopted, Mr. Redmond would be crushed under a combination of the Liberals, who wanted the numbers to be 80, and the Tories who wanted the Irish members to disappear altogether; but in these days, and with such an Opposition as we have now in the House of Commons, it is not possible to make any calculations on what course we would adopt.  To the amazement of the House—­above all things to the amazement of Mr. Gladstone—­who has not yet entirely got over the traditions of the past, and, therefore, over-sanguine expectations as to the scruples of his opponents—­Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Balfour both announced that they were ready to go into the same lobby as Mr. Redmond.  And so those who wanted all the Irish members, and those who wanted none, were both going to vote exactly the same way.

[Sidenote:  A bolt from the blue.]

For a moment everybody was staggered by this declaration; and it produced a combination which anybody could forecast, and for which nobody was prepared.  There came accordingly something like a panic over the House.  Here we were face to face with a Ministerial crisis, with doom and the abyss and the end of all things.  Unexpectedly, in a moment, without a second’s warning, this state of things led to a phenomenon which belongs to the House of Commons alone.  Councils of war are usually held in the silence and secrecy and beneath the impenetrable walls of the council chamber.  But sudden councils of war, called for by unexpected events, have to be held