[Sidenote:  While a wronged nation waits.]

Mr. Morley did appear in due course, and then there was an attempt to assail him for his absence.  There was also an attempt to take advantage of his presence to resume the discussion of the very topics which had already been discussed for many hours in his absence.  Mr. Morley refused to fall into the trap.  Speaking quietly, but with a deadly blow between every word, he declined to be a party to obstruction by answering again questions which had already been answered many times over.  At this, there was a loud shout of approval from the Liberal benches—­exasperated almost beyond endurance by the shameless waste of time in which the Tories, aided by Mr. Chamberlain, had indulged in for so many hours.  Mr. Chamberlain professed to be greatly shocked.  But the House was not in a mood to stand any more nonsense.  Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Lowther, and the rest of the obstructive gang, had to submit to have the vote taken.  In the meantime there stood the business of the country to be done.  All its needs, its pressing grievances, its vast chorus of sighs and wails from wasted lives—­rose up and called for justice; but tricksters, and self-seekers, and horse-jockeys stopped the way.

[Sidenote:  Carlton Club echoes.]

There were signs of the meeting at the Carlton when the House met on Thursday evening, March 9th.  The Tory benches were crowded; the young bloods were fuller than ever of that self-consciousness to which I have adverted, and there were signs of movement, excitement, and the spirit of mischief and evil in all their faces and in their general demeanour.  There were nearly one hundred questions on the paper—­and questions had become a most effective weapon of Obstruction.  But there was a certain peculiarity about the questioning on this Thursday evening.  A stranger to the House would have remarked that all the questions addressed to Mr. Gladstone were asked last.  This was not an accidental arrangement.  It was done in the case of every leader of the House, so as to leave him more time before coming down to the House of Commons.  It was done in the case of Mr. Balfour when he was leader of the House, with the result that that very limp and leisurely gentleman never came down to his place until the House had been one or two hours at work.  There was, of course, much stronger reason for that little bit of consideration in the case of Mr. Gladstone, than in that of a young man like Mr. Balfour.

[Sidenote:  The epoch of brutality.]

But the Tories, in the new and brutal mood to which they have worked themselves up, have taken means for depriving Mr. Gladstone of what small benefit he got from this postponement of the questions to him till the end of question time.  The puniest whipster of the Tory or the Unionist party now is satisfied with nothing less, if you please, than to have his questions addressed to and answered by Mr. Gladstone himself.  One of this impudent tribe is a Scotch