Gladstone. A long-drawn sigh of relief. The Government is saved.
[Sidenote: The field unsteady.]
But hush--not yet. There are still some of the hard Radicals from
Scotland who have never wavered in the idea that the Irish members ought
to remain at their full total. They have been partially relieved by what
Mr. Sexton had said. But then Scotchmen are proverbially tenacious of
opinion; and not even his appeal--joined to the appeal of their
leader--will altogether change the purpose of those rugged sons of
bonnie Scotland. And so, Mr. Shaw, the member for Galashiels, gets up to
ask a question. He plainly declares that according to the answer given
to this question, his vote would be given for or against the Government.
So we are still in all the agonies of possible delay, for we know that
seven Parnellites will go against the Government--that counts fourteen
on a division; and if only seven or ten more go the same way, there is a
majority against Mr. Gladstone, and we are lost. Mr. Mellor has to
answer this fateful question, and everybody cries "Order, order," which
is the House of Commons way of saying that people are very anxious to
hear what is about to be said.
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