from
his brows, and then tried to look as though he were no more than any
other gentleman present. But the peculiar consciousness of the man
displayed itself even in his constrained absence of motion. You could
see that he felt himself to be the beheld of all beholders, and that
he enjoyed the position,--with some slight inward trepidation lest
the effort to be made should not equal the greatness of the occasion.
Immediately after him Mr. Gresham bustled up the centre of the House
amidst a roar of good-humoured welcome. We have had many Ministers
who have been personally dearer to their individual adherents in the
House than the present leader of the Opposition and late Premier, but
none, perhaps, who has been more generally respected by his party
for earnestness and sincerity. On the present occasion there was a
fierceness, almost a ferocity, in his very countenance, to the fire
of which friends and enemies were equally anxious to add fuel,--the
friends in order that so might these recreant Tories be more
thoroughly annihilated, and the enemies, that their enemy's
indiscretion might act back upon himself to his confusion. For,
indeed, it never could be denied that as a Prime Minister Mr. Gresham
could be very indiscreet.

A certain small amount of ordinary business was done, to the disgust
of expectant strangers, which was as trivial as possible in its
nature,--so arranged, apparently, that the importance of what was to
follow might be enhanced by the force of contrast. And, to make the
dismay of the novice stranger more thorough, questions were asked and
answers were given in so low a voice, and Mr. Speaker uttered a word
or two in so quick and shambling a fashion, that he, the novice
stranger, began to fear that no word of the debate would reach him up
there in his crowded back seat. All this, however, occupied but a few
minutes, and at twenty minutes past four Mr. Daubeny was on his legs.
Then the novice stranger found that, though he could not see Mr.
Daubeny without the aid of an opera glass, he could hear every word
that fell from his lips.

Mr. Daubeny began by regretting the hardness of his position, in that
he must, with what thoroughness he might be able to achieve, apply
himself to two great subjects, whereas the right honourable gentleman
opposite had already declared, with all the formality which could be
made to attach itself to a combined meeting of peers and commoners,
that he would confine himself s