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.]
But so it was; and there verily stood Mr. Asquith at the box in front of
the Speaker's chair introducing the third great Bill of the Government
in the same evening. Mr. Asquith's grasp of Parliamentary method
increases daily. He is really a born Parliamentarian. It is certain that
he has made up his mind to go back to the bar when his time for retiring
from office comes; it will be a tremendous pity if he does. Such a man
is wasted before juries and in the pettiness of nisi prius. For the
moment, however, he sails before the wind. With his youthful--almost
boyish face--clean-shaven, fair and fresh--with his light brown hair
carefully combed, school-boy fashion, and with no more trace of white
than if he were playing football in a school gymnasium--he is a
wonderful example of early and precocious political fortune. There is in
his face a certain cheery cynicism--a combination of self-confidence and
perhaps of self-mockery, the attitude of most clear-sighted men towards
fortune, even when she is most smiling.
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