members, habituated to insult--conscious of
Mr. Chamberlain's object--had allowed the observation to pass unnoticed;
but Mr. Byles--ardent, sincere, an enthusiast on the Irish
question--shouted out, "How much would it take to square you?" At once
there rose a fierce tropical storm. There were loud shouts of
approval--equally loud shouts demanding an instant withdrawal; members
rose from every part of the House; in short, it was Bedlam let loose,
and a scene impossible to describe.

This was deep enough, but there was a lower depth still to be sounded;
and again it was Mr. Chamberlain's plummet that descended down to the
unfathomable bottom. "I do not," he said to Mr. Byles, "object to the
question, and I will answer it by saying that it would take a great deal
more than the hon. member for Shipley will ever be able to pay." There
the words stand--in the immensity of their vulgarity, in their
unsurpassable degradation, let them lie.

[Sidenote: The first fence.]

Finally, May 10th saw the first fence taken. The genial and gentle T.W.
Russell proposed the removal from the Bill of the Second Chamber--the
Chamber specially created for the protection of the loyal minority. With
similar and strange unscrupulousness, the Tories all trooped into the
lobby against their own principles. They were accompanied by a few
foolish Radicals--indeed, it was the hope of detaching a sufficient
number of Radicals to place the Government in a minority which produced
the Tory apostasy from their own principles. There was a little
uncertainty as to the result, and everybody expected that the Government
majority would have been reduced to a dangerously low figure. When Mr.
Marjoribanks read out a majority of 51--or a majority bigger than the
usual one--there was a loud halloo of triumph and delighted surprise
from the Liberal and the Irish Benches; and so the first big fence in
the Home Rule Bill was easily taken.

[Sidenote: Obstructive Chamberlain.]

By the middle of the sitting on the following day the House of Commons
stood face to face with the first clause. Under ordinary circumstances,
the clause would have been passed after a few speeches--especially and
definitely directed to the words of the clause; Mr. Chamberlain demanded
the right on this clause to discuss, not only the whole Bill with all
its other clauses, but the past and future of the whole Home Rule
struggle. He quoted passage after passage from speeches delivered by
Iri