Gladstone, over-pale, with a strange glitter in the eyes that made them
look unnaturally large, two jets of lambent and almost dazzling flame,
but otherwise very composed, deadly calm. On the Irish Benches the
excitement was more tense, for their course was even more difficult than
that of the Government. The Government had stated their decision that
they wanted only eighty members. But there was an Irish member, a leader
of a party which seeks to claim Irish support as a better Irish party
than the other, proposing that Ireland should have her full total of
members. The Irish members naturally would be inclined to support their
countrymen, if not to seek to keep the Irish representation as high as
it could possibly be.
[Sidenote: A splendid gambler.]
On the other hand, if all the Irish members went the same way it was all
up with the Government. Some fifty to seventy British Liberals adopt the
same policy as the Irish members with regard to the Irish question and
the Home Rule Bill, and if the Irish members only give the word, they
also would vote with Mr. Redmond, and the Government would be "snowed
under," to use an expressive Americanism, a majority of upwards of two
hundred against them.
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