me over me the moment I
climbed to my seat; and as no one had at that time made a speech, it
can only have been the oranges which affected me. I wish some
philosopher would work out a theory of oranges. The blossom of the
tree is used at weddings as a symbol of enduring love, perhaps as an
aid to affection. The mature fruit pervades political meetings, which
are all called together with a view to promoting strife and general
ill feeling. What would happen if any one came to a meeting crowned
with the blossoms? What would become of a bride if she were decked
with the fruit? Is there any connection whatever between the fruit and
the lily? It is certainly associated with political action of the most
violent kind.

Poor Moyne, who took the chair, wore one of the lilies, a very small
one, in the lapel of his coat. Lady Moyne carried a large bouquet of
them. Babberly wore one. So did Malcolmson. Our Dean would have worn
one if he could; but it is impossible to fix a flower becomingly into
the button-hole of a clerical coat. We began by singing a hymn. The
Dean declaimed the first two lines of it, and then the bands took up
the tune. Considering that there must have been at least forty bands
present, all playing, I think we got through the hymn remarkably well.
We certainly made an impressive amount of noise. I think it was
Babberly who suggested the hymn. He had an idea that it would impress
the English Nonconformists. I do not think it did; but, so far as our
meeting was concerned, that did not matter. We were not singing
it--any of us, except Babberly--with a view to impressing other
people. We were singing with the feeling in our breasts, that we were
actually marching to battle under the divine protection. The reporters
of the Unionist papers made the most of the prevailing emotion. They
sent off telegrams of the most flamboyant kind about our Puritan
forefathers.

Poor Moyne, who is a deeply religious man, did not sing the hymn. He
has a theory that hymns and politics ought not to be mixed. I heard
him arguing the position afterwards with the Dean who maintained that
the question of Home Rule was not a political one. Political questions
are those, so he argued, with regard to which there is a possibility
of difference of opinion among honest men. But all honest men are
opposed to Home Rule, which is therefore not a political question.

My seat was in the very front of the platform, and when we had
finished the hymn I