It is one
of his well-known peculiarities not to arrive at the solution of a
tactical difficulty one moment too soon; and this is a rule which,
generally speaking, acts extremely well. I dare say Sir Charles Dilke
did not expect any other answer; and nobody in the House was surprised
that the Old Man answered as he did. But all the same, one could read
between the lines, and it was pretty clear that the Old Man was
preparing to face the situation by remedies drastic enough to meet even
so revolutionary a situation.
[Sidenote: A great Parliamentarian.]
Everybody was delighted--that is to say, everybody on the Liberal side
of the House--to see that the great old leader was displaying on this
question the same unerring tactics, the same resources the same
willingness to learn, and the same elasticity of mind as he has
manifested throughout his whole life--or at least throughout all that
part of it which dates from his escape from the shackles of his early
and obscurantist creed. He has never concealed the fact that he departed
from the old rules of the House of Commons with misgiving reluctance,
and even repulsion. It would have been strange, indeed, if he could have
felt otherwise after all his long years of glorious service in that
august assembly.
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