[Sidenote: Mr. Asquith as leader.]
Mr. Asquith was for the moment the leader of the House. Though he has
still some of the ingenuous shyness of youth--though he is modest with
all his honours--though he has charmed everybody by the utter absence of
swagger and side in his dazzling elevation--there is a ready
adaptability about Mr. Asquith to a Parliamentary situation, which is as
astonishing as it is rare in men who have spent their lives in the
atmosphere of the law courts. The aptitude with which the right word
always comes to his lips--his magnificent composure, and, at the same
time, his power of striking the nail right on the head and right _into_
the head--all these things come out on an occasion such as that of April
24th. Very quietly, but very significantly, he told the story of the
riots; and very quietly and very significantly he spoke of the
responsibility of the Salisburys, and the Balfours, and the Jameses,
whose wild and wicked words had led to this outburst of medieval
bigotry.
[Sidenote: Mr. Dunbar Barton.]
Mr. Dunbar Barton made a valiant but vain attempt to stem the tide
against him, but he, like every other Unionist, was weighted down by the
feeling that the Orangemen were doing immense service to the cause of
Home Rule by their brutality.
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