and to have loved his country well,—­though there were of course they who declared that his hand had been too weak for power, and that his services had been naught;—­and on this evening his virtues were remembered.  Once when his voice failed him the whole House got up and cheered.  The nature of a Whig Prime Minister’s speech on such an occasion will be understood by most of my readers without further indication.  The bill itself had been read before, and it was understood that no objection would be made to the extent of the changes provided in it by the liberal side of the House.  The opposition coming from liberal members was to be confined to the subject of the ballot.  And even as yet it was not known whether Mr. Turnbull and his followers would vote against the second reading, or whether they would take what was given, and declare their intention of obtaining the remainder on a separate motion.  The opposition of a large party of Conservatives was a matter of certainty; but to this party Mr. Mildmay did not conceive himself bound to offer so large an amount of argument as he would have given had there been at the moment no crowd in Palace Yard.  And he probably felt that that crowd would assist him with his old Tory enemies.  When, in the last words of his speech, he declared that under no circumstances would he disfigure the close of his political career by voting for the ballot,—­not though the people, on whose behalf he had been fighting battles all his life, should be there in any number to coerce him,—­there came another round of applause from the opposition benches, and Mr. Daubeny began to fear that some young horses in his team might get loose from their traces.  With great dignity Mr. Daubeny had kept aloof from Mr. Turnbull and from Mr. Turnbull’s tactics; but he was not the less alive to the fact that Mr. Turnbull, with his mob and his big petition, might be of considerable assistance to him in this present duel between himself and Mr. Mildmay.  I think Mr. Daubeny was in the habit of looking at these contests as duels between himself and the leader on the other side of the House,—­in which assistance from any quarter might be accepted if offered.

Mr. Mildmay’s speech did not occupy much over an hour, and at half-past seven Mr. Turnbull got up to reply.  It was presumed that he would do so, and not a member left his place, though that time of the day is an interesting time, and though Mr. Turnbull was accustomed to be long.  There soon came to be but little ground for doubting what would be the nature of Mr. Turnbull’s vote on the second reading.  “How may I dare,” said he, “to accept so small a measure of reform as this with such a message from the country as is now conveyed to me through the presence of fifty thousand of my countrymen, who are at this moment demanding their measure of reform just beyond the frail walls of this chamber?  The right honourable gentleman has told us that he will never be intimidated by a concourse of people.