Mr. Balfour
perceived--under the light thus borne in upon him--that this was not an
amendment which the Tory party could safely support; and he accordingly
advised Mr. Bartley to withdraw it. Mr. Gladstone made a few scornful
observations; and, without a division, the proposal was huddled out of
sight. It was almost a pity. It would have been such an instructive
spectacle to see the whole Tory party voting that the Catholic Church in
Ireland should have the right to be endowed and established; and some of
the Irish members felt this so much, that they were very much inclined
to force the Tories to a division. But they let the incident pass.
[Sidenote: The triumph of the tweed coat.]
It is one of the curious things about Parliamentary life in England,
that the smallest detail of personal habit attracts the all-searching
gaze of the entire world. Let a man change the shape of his hat, the
colour of his clothes, the style even of his stockings, and the world
knows it all before almost he is himself conscious of the change. And
then, though the House of Commons consists for the most part of men well
advanced in middle life--men who have made their pile in counting-house
or shop, before devoting themselves to a Parliamentary career--it is
also a House where wealth and fashion are very largely represented.
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