and learned gentleman has
said with regard to the kind of Parliamentary supremacy which alone he
will accept. Well, now we are discussing this very point of the Imperial
supremacy, and the hon. and learned gentleman is not in his place. I
repeat, Mr. Mellor, it is a very remarkable, a very significant, a very
sinister, and instructive fact!" And so on and so on.
[Sidenote: The stony silence of the Irishry.]
This kind of speech had another object--it was to provoke Mr. Redmond
into a speech. For it was all the same to the Obstructives who
spoke--provided only there was a speech. For, first, the speech of the
Irish or the Liberal member consumed so much time in itself--and then
one speech justified another; and thus the speech by the Irishman, or
the Liberal, would give an excellent excuse for another series of
harangues by the Obstructives. And this brings me to describe one of the
portents of the present House of Commons which has excited a great deal
of attention and a great deal of unfeigned admiration. As speakers of
eloquence--as Obstructives--as Parliamentarians of exhaustless
resources--as gladiators, tireless, brave, and cool--and, again, as
stormy Parliamentary petrels--fierce, disorderly, passionate--the Irish
members have been known to the House of Commons and to all the world
during all the long series of years through which they have been
fighting out this struggle.
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