attend that
annihilation of his special condition which will be produced by the
disestablishment of the Church. Of all good fellows he is the best
good fellow. He is genial, hospitable, well-educated, and always
has either a pretty wife or pretty daughters. But he has so
extreme a belief in himself that he cannot endure to be told that
absolute Chaos will not come at once if he be disturbed. And now
disturbances,--ay, and utter dislocation and ruin were to come from
the hands of a friend! Was it wonderful that parsons should be seen
about Westminster in flocks with _"Et tu, Brute"_ written on their
faces as plainly as the law on the brows of a Pharisee?

The Speaker had been harassed for orders. The powers and prowess
of every individual member had been put to the test. The galleries
were crowded. Ladies' places had been ballotted for with desperate
enthusiasm, in spite of the sarcasm against the House which Madame
Goesler had expressed. Two royal princes and a royal duke were
accommodated within the House in an irregular manner. Peers swarmed
in the passages, and were too happy to find standing room. Bishops
jostled against lay barons with no other preference than that
afforded to them by their broader shoulders. Men, and especially
clergymen, came to the galleries loaded with sandwiches and flasks,
prepared to hear all there was to be heard should the debate last
from 4 P.M. to the same hour on the following morning. At two in the
afternoon the entrances to the House were barred, and men of all
ranks,--deans, prebends, peers' sons, and baronets,--stood there
patiently waiting till some powerful nobleman should let them
through. The very ventilating chambers under the House were filled
with courteous listeners, who had all pledged themselves that under
no possible provocation would they even cough during the debate.

A few minutes after four, in a House from which hardly more than a
dozen members were absent, Mr. Daubeny took his seat with that air of
affected indifference to things around him which is peculiar to him.
He entered slowly, amidst cheers from his side of the House, which no
doubt were loud in proportion to the dismay of the cheerers as to the
matter in hand. Gentlemen lacking substantial sympathy with their
leader found it to be comfortable to deceive themselves, and raise
their hearts at the same time by the easy enthusiasm of noise. Mr.
Daubeny having sat down and covered his head just raised his hat