So it was during the second week of the Home Rule Session.  No great diplomats claimed their seats; the outer lobby was no longer besieged; there was no longer any ferocity of competition for seats; and the attendance at prayers visibly relaxed; but all the time more useful legislation was initiated in the course of the week than in any similar period for upwards of six or seven years of Parliamentary time.  A good deal of the progress is due to the sober and subdued spirit of the Opposition.  So long as Mr. Balfour was in power, the more democratic section of the Tory party was kept comparatively under; but with his fall came an outburst of freedom; and men like Sir Albert Rollit, who represent great constituencies, have been able to freely express their real opinions.  Let me pause for a moment on Sir Albert Rollit, to say that he is a very remarkable type to those who have known the House of Commons for a number of years—­as I have.  It is rather hard to make a distinction between him and a moderate, and in some respects, even an advanced Liberal.  He boasts, and rightly, that he represents as many working men as most of his Radical colleagues; and he certainly does sit for a place which is not inhabited by any large number of wealthy people.  Disraeli, with his Household Suffrage; Lord Randolph Churchill, with his Tory Democracy, have brought this type of politician into existence, and now he is with us always.  This is the answer to those who contend that because there will be always Tories and Whigs, it makes no difference what changes we make.  The answer is Sir Albert Rollit; he is a Tory, but the Tory of to-day is pretty much the same as the Radical of a few years ago.

[Sidenote:  The Registration Bill.]

The Government brought forward the first of their Bills, and at once the Tory Democrat showed what he was.  For Mr. Fowler was able to quote opinions from Tories quite as favourable to reform of registration as from Radicals, and several Tories stood up to speak in favour of the measure.  Opposition was really left to poor Mr. Webster, of St. Pancras; but, then, everybody knew what poor Mr. Webster meant, and nothing could better express the lowliness of the Tory party than that opposition to anything should be led by the hapless representative of St. Pancras.  The consequence of all this was that the Registration Bill passed in the course of a few hours—­the debate illumined by an excellent maiden speech from our John Burns—­delivered in that fine, manly, deep voice of his—­which always makes me think of a skipper on the hurricane deck in the midst of rolling seas and a crashing storm.  Even a few briefer moments sufficed for the Scotch Registration Bill; and the House of Commons almost rubbed its eyes in astonishment to find that it had actually got through two great Bills and was about to listen to a third in the course of one evening.

[Sidenote:  Employer’s Liability.]