To Mr. Wilson, then, the Tories, as well as the
Liberals, listened with respectful and rapt attention as he made his
complaint of employment of the military and naval forces of the Crown
in--as he alleged--the buttressing of the case of the employers. And yet
there was a something lacking. Mr. Asquith was able to show that he had
done no more than he was compelled to do by the obligations of his
office; and entirely repudiated any idea of allowing the forces of the
Empire to be ranged on the one side or the other. Mr. Mundella was able
to make a good defence of his officials against the charge which had
been brought by Mr. Wilson. There was a good speech from John Burns, and
it looked as if not another sympathetic word was going to be said for
those starving men and women, who are making so heroic a fight for the
right to live. Altogether, the situation was awkward and even
distressing. The House, divided between the desire to remain neutral and
to be sympathetic, was puzzled, constrained, and silent. It was at this
moment that Mr. Lockwood made a most welcome and appropriate
intervention. Gathering together the scattered and somewhat tangled
threads of the debate, he put to Mr.
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