tched between his early morning arrival
and midnight. How men will consent to go through all this travail is, to
easy-going people, one of the curiosities of political struggle.

[Sidenote: The Chamberlain Party.]

Meantime, there had been another and an equally important descent. Mr.
Chamberlain made his son the Whip of the Unionist Party. The resemblance
between father and son is something even closer than that usually
noticed between relatives. The son looks a good deal more gentlemanly
than the father. But the single eyeglass--which no man can wear without
looking more or less of a snob--is even less becoming to the youthful
Austen than to the parent; and gives him even a coarser air. There is a
suspicion that young Chamberlain also came to the House armed with a
goodly supply of hats; at all events, he and his friends managed to
secure a large number of seats for the Unionists. Chamberlain and his
friends sat together on the third bench below the gangway--a position of
'vantage in some respects--from which they could survey the House. The
first seat was occupied by Mr. Chamberlain; next him was Sir Henry
James, and then came Mr. Courtney, in a snuff-coloured coat and drab
waistcoat; for all the world like an old-fashioned squire who has not
yet learned to accommodate himself to the sombre garments of an
unpicturesque age. The dutiful Austen left himself without a seat, and
was content to kneel in the gangway, and there take sweet counsel from
his parent.

[Sidenote: Enter the G.O.M.]

Mr. Gladstone, as everybody knows, was not technically a member of the
House of Commons when it met at the beginning of the Session. He had to
be sworn, and the first business of the House was to witness this
ceremony. I remember the first day I was a member of the House, and saw
a similar spectacle--it was in 1880. Then the House was crowded, and
there was a tremendous demonstration; but on the opening day of the
Session just ended, the ceremony came off a little earlier than had been
expected, and the House was not as full as one would have anticipated.
Then there was a great deal of work to be done; every section of the
House was busy with the attempt to get an opportunity of bringing in
Bills. The Irishmen are always to the front on these occasions, with the
list of a dozen Bills, which they seek to bring forward on
Wednesdays--the day that is still sacred to the private member anxious
to legislate. The Welsh members have now