[Sidenote: Joe's motives.]
But there were other and more immediate reasons for his anger with the
_Daily News_. Joe was conscious of the growth of two feelings--either of
which was very perilous to him. First, he began uneasily to feel that
the country--watching the struggle between him and the Old Man--was
getting a little disgusted at the business; and saw in it a want of that
chivalry and fair play which it desires to see even in the fiercest
political controversy. This was not a pleasant sentiment to have growing
up against one; and Joe felt that it has serious perils to his future
political position. And, secondly, he was conscious that the majority of
the House of Commons was growing very restive under the desperate
obstruction of which he had made himself the champion, and that this
feeling might soon become strong enough to carry Mr. Gladstone and the
Ministers off their feet, and compel drastic measures which had hitherto
been steadily refrained from. This would not suit the book of Joe at
all, whose object it was to keep the struggle going as long as he
possibly could manage it, careless of the traditions of Parliament, of
the dignity and decency of the House of Commons, of the life and
strength of Mr.
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