Mr.
McNeill indignantly denied the charge: then Mr. Macartney attributed
them to Mr. Sexton--another and equally indignant denial; and then much
uproar and contradictions and apologies--the lubberly and unmannerly
interventions of Lord Cranborne as usual conspicuous--and, finally, the
end of the storm in a teacup. Positively loathsome--the whole business
methods of the Tories to grasp at everything to rouse a storm or provoke
a scene; and altogether disheartening to those who don't wish to see the
House of Commons reduced to the drivel and turbulence and anarchy of a
French Convention. Finally, a little after six o'clock, the first clause
of the Bill had passed, with a majority of 42. The House of Commons had
decided that there shall be established in Ireland a Legislature of two
Chambers. Then in a graceful, well-delivered, and pleasant little
speech, Mr. Victor Cavendish opened the fight on the second clause. The
evening was devoted to the Anti-vaccinationists--answered triumphantly
in an admirable and unanswerable little speech by Sir Walter
Foster--with as many as seventy men voting against vaccination. I had no
idea previously that the proportion of lunatics in the Assembly was so
large.
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