faces half
round to Front Opposition Bench, and, with left foot clasped round right
ankle, elbow of right arm leaning on box, and clenched left hand
swinging to and fro in perilous proximity to a grand old proboscis, he
literally drives home his argument. House may listen, if it pleases,
like crowd closing in on street squabble; HENRY JAMES is having it out
with his old friends and Leader; professing fullest respect, and even
reverence for his right hon. friend the Member for Midlothian, but at
same time showing how utterly, hopelessly wrong he and his have gone
since his former Solicitor-General parted company.

HARCOURT, a little out of it, sits and ponders, possibly thinking of the
days when he was plain Mr. VERNON HARCOURT, and, seated below the
Gangway, used, in company with his young friend, Mr. HENRY JAMES, to bait
GLADSTONE, then on Treasury Bench, hastening to the catastrophe of 1874.

"Makes me feel quite old," said THOMAS BAYLEY POTTER, dexterously
appropriating another half-inch of the space that rightfully belonged to
PETER O'BRIEN. "Seems but yesterday that HARCOURT and JAMES were in the
running, one for Attorney-General, the other Solicitor-General. But
getting it, having got it, or having abandoned it, seems all to lead to
the same end--the worrying of the Grand Old Man."

_Business done._--PARNELL'S Amendment to Address negatived by 307 Votes
against 240.

_Wednesday._--LYCIDAS is dead--dead in his prime! It was this very
morning, in the earliest moments of its birth, that I watched JOSEPH
GILLIS walking up the floor shoulder to shoulder with old friend DICK
POWER, "telling" in division on PARNELL'S Amendment to Address. Beaten,
of course, but majority diminished, and JOEY beamed as he walked across
Lobby towards Cloak-Room. Rather a sickly beam, compared with wild
lights that used to flash from his eyes in the old times, when majority
against Home Rule was a great deal more than 67.

"Yes, I _am_ a little tired, TOBY, dear boy," he said. "These dull
sittings and early adjournments don't suit me. I was better and stronger
in the old times, when we used to sit up all night and fight all day.
Remember thirteen years ago, when I slept for an hour on two chairs in
the Library? Returned to House at five in morning; found them all
looking jaded and worn; cheered them up by saying I'd come back like a
giant refreshed. Well, I'll go home now, have a good sleep, be all right
in the morning."

And when we