tion became inevitable, and the final solution, of course,
was the addition of a penny to the income-tax. The debate which followed
the Budget speech was quiet, discursive, friendly to the Chancellor of
the Exchequer. Mr. Picton is a formidable man to Chancellors of the
Exchequer--for he has very strong ideas of reform--especially on the
breakfast-table; but Mr. Picton is rational as well as Radical; and he
cordially acknowledged the duty of postponing even the reforms on which
Radicals have set their hearts until more convenient times and seasons.

[Sidenote: Belfast.]

It was after midnight when a very serious bit of business took place.
The House gets to know beforehand when anything like serious debate is
going to take place--even though there be no notice. Accordingly, in
spite of the lateness of the hour, the House was pretty full, and there
was a preliminary air of expectation and excitement. One of the iron
rules of the House of Commons is that the Speaker cannot leave the chair
until a motion for the adjournment of the House has been carried. This
is always proposed by the senior Government Whip. The motion is usually
carried in dumb show, and with that mumble in which business is carried
through in the House when there is no opposition. But it is one of the
ancient and time-honoured privileges of the House of Commons to raise
almost any question on the motion for the adjournment of the House. The
reason, I assume, is that the representatives of the people--when about
to separate--thought in the olden days that it ought to be their right
to raise any question whatsoever, lest the king in their absence should
take advantage of the situation. Many of the rules of the
House--including several which lend themselves to obstruction--are due
to this feeling of constant vigilance and suspicion towards the Crown.

Mr. Sexton is one of the men whose life is centred in the House of
Commons. He will attend to no other business, except under the direst
pressure--he has no other interests--though he used to be one of the
greatest of readers, and still can quote Shakespeare and other
masterpieces of English literature better than any man in the House
except Mr. Justin McCarthy. Thus, when he rose after midnight, he had
in his notes before him a perfectly tabulated account of the riots in
Belfast, so that every single fact was present to his mind. The story he
had to tell is already known--the attacks on Catholic workmen--on