The consequences were too serious to be grasped immediately; and men
were almost anxious to get to the lobbies for the purpose of discussing
it in all its bearings.
The rest of the week was but a poor falling-off after the heroic and
tragic fever of its opening, and of the week which preceded it. One
could see that in the Liberal ranks there had succeeded to the fierce
fighting spirit of the previous days a certain lassitude and
disappointment. What their faces told in the House their lips more
freely uttered in the lobbies. For a time, indeed, there was a feeling
of almost unreasoning despair, and that full, frank, unsparing criticism
to which every Government is subject from its friends when the winds
blow and the waves are high. It was said that the Government had
committed the mistake of making too many targets at once; that they had
first infuriated the Church by the Welsh Suspensory Bill; that they had
followed this up by infuriating the publicans and the brewers by the
Veto Bill; that, meantime, there was very little chance of their being
able to obtain the compensatory advantage of getting these Bills passed
into law. There were grumblings about the Registration Bill; in short,
nothing and nobody were spared in this hour of gloom and disaster.
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