to which he suggested he belonged.  The origin of this delicious lament over a venerable and more courteous past by so flagrant a type of modernity, was a statement that Sir William Harcourt had played the dirty trick of putting down a notice to suspend the twelve o’clock rule at a shorter notice than usual.  The suspension of the twelve o’clock rule simply means that the Tories shall not be allowed to obstruct by the mere fact that the House is compelled automatically to close at midnight under the existing rules.  Joe appeared in his place swelling with visibly virtuous indignation; evidently he had come, ready to bear down on Sir William and the Government generally with the cyclone of attack.  But this notable design was prevented by two accidents.  First, Sir William Harcourt got up and explained that the notice he had given was exactly the same kind of notice that was always, and had been always, given in like circumstances.  Everybody who knows anything about Parliamentary matters knows that this was the literal truth.  The dirty trick which Mr. Chamberlain had attributed to Sir William Harcourt existed only in his own uninstructed and treacherous memory; and so he was crushed.  Still he wanted to have a word in, and more than once he showed signs of rising to his feet.  But he stopped half-way, and, when he did finally get up, Mr. Balfour was before him, and he had to sit down again.  Then his opportunity was lost, for Mr. Balfour had declared that he was perfectly satisfied with what Sir William Harcourt had done, and that prevented Joe from entering on the filibustering tactics which apparently he contemplated.  This appeared to the whole House to be a very distinct and unpleasant snub for Joseph.  A short time afterwards he and Mr. Balfour were seen in the lobby, engaged in a conversation that was apparently vehement, and everybody jumped to the conclusion that they were having it out, and that Joseph was resenting the rejection of his advice with that haughtiness of temper which is so well-known a characteristic of the Radical whom wealth has converted into a leader of the aristocracy.  The papers afterwards contained an announcement that the two conspirators against Mr. Gladstone’s Government were in the heartiest accord.  This was one of the semi-official denials which are generally regarded as the best testimony to the truth of the report denied.

[Sidenote:  Mr. Morley.]

If one were on the look-out for dramatic and instructive contrast in the House of Commons, one could not do better than study Mr. Morley and Mr. Chamberlain for a week.  Mr. Chamberlain—­glib, shallow, self-possessed, well-trained by years of public life—­debates admirably.  Nobody can deny that—­not even those who, like myself, find his speaking exasperatingly empty and superficial and foolish.  He is master of all his resources; scarcely ever pauses for a word, and when he is interrupted, can parry the stroke with a return blow of lightning-like rapidity.  But