In the midst of it all, facing the violent howls of
the excited Tories, pale, disturbed, hotly angry underneath all the
composure of language and tone, Mr. Gladstone exposed the shameful and
entirely groundless misrepresentation. Mr. Balfour's better angel
intervened; he got ashamed of himself, and at once apologized. But the
hurricane of passion which had been let loose was not to be so easily
appeased; and when, presently, Mr. John Morley put an end to the
ridiculous and irrelevant discussion which threatened to land the House
of Commons into the consideration of the arcana of a Freemason's Lodge,
there burst from the Tory benches one of the fiercest little storms of
remonstrance I have ever heard. When the closure is proposed, there is
but one way of expressing emotion. Under the rules of the House, the
motion must be put without debate. So when the word of doom is
pronounced by the Minister, all that remains is for the Speaker or
Chairman to refuse or accept the motion; and if he accept the motion, he
simply rises, and, uttering the fateful words, "The question is that the
motion be now put," guillotines all further speech. But then he has to
put the question, and in the answering words of "Aye" or "No," there can
be put an immense fund of passion.
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