re spared in this hour of gloom and disaster.

[Sidenote: "Herr Schloss."]

But the House of Commons--as I have often remarked--is like a barometer
in the promptitude of its reflection of every momentary phase, and all
these things are duly discounted by old Parliamentary hands accustomed
to panics when a check comes to what has been a most successful campaign
on the whole. And in the meantime, if there had been any tendency to
disintegration, it was soon restored by the conduct of the Tories. For,
the old game of obstruction and vituperation went on just as strongly as
if no concession had been made, and no victory gained. The Monday night
had been reserved for a debate on the Evicted Tenants' Commission. And
Mr. T.W. Russell, brimful of notes and venom, sate in his place, as
impatient to rise as the captive and exuberant balloon which only strong
ropes and the knotted arms of men hold tight to mother earth. Jimmy,
however, has a passion for his ignoble calling; he sings at his work
like the gravedigger in "Hamlet." And before the inflated Russell was
able to explode, Jimmy had an hour or so to himself in the discussion
of Mr. Mundella's efforts to deal with labour. It was on this occasion
that Jimmy spread something like dismay in the bench on which he sate.
Mr. Schloss, who had been appointed as a correspondent by Mr. Mundella,
has a name which shows a German origin. Jimmy insisted on speaking of
him accordingly as "Herr Schloss." And there, not a yard from Jimmy,
sate the Baron de Worms, one of the most portentous and pretentious of
English patriots, who bears not only a German name, but a German title.
I don't know whether "Herr" Goschen was in the House at the same time;
if so, his feelings must have been very poignant. Mr. Mundella doesn't
know how to treat these Obstructives. The main thing is not to take them
seriously. Jimmy, to tell the truth, makes no pretence of taking himself
seriously, and grins through a horse-collar most of the time he is
speaking. But the poor President of the Board of Trade is conscious of
doing everything man can do to help to the solution of the vexed
questions of the time. He cannot avoid allowing himself to be worked up
into a frenzy by imputations which he ought to know are simply intended
for the purpose of getting him out of temper, and so prolonging debate.

[Sidenote: Sir John Gorst.]

Sir John Gorst is one of the men who have again been brought much into
evidence by the t