[Sidenote: Blighted hopes.]
Think of all this, and then imagine what a Prime Minister does who
proposes a scheme which will deprive some dozens of men of an
opportunity of public attention for which they have been panting and
working perchance for years. Recollect, furthermore, that the private
member may be interested in his proposal with the fanaticism of the
faddist--the relentless purpose of the philanthropist, the vehement
ardour of the reformer. Then you can understand something of the danger
which Mr. Gladstone had to face. For his motion came to this, that every
member--except one--who had a resolution on the paper which he desired
to bring before the House had to be either silenced altogether or pushed
into a horrid and ghastly hour when either he would not be listened to
by a dozen members, or would perhaps be guillotined out of a hearing by
the count out. Let me further explain, for I wish to make the whole
scene intelligible to every reader. Tuesdays and Fridays belong to
private members as well as Wednesdays, and on Tuesdays and Fridays
accordingly private members bring forward motions on some subjects in
which they are especially interested.
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