noticed that the smell of perspiration was
beginning to overpower the oranges. It is my misfortune to have an
unusually acute sense of smell. No one afflicted with such an
infirmity ought to take any part in the politics of a modern
democratic state.

Moyne introduced Babberly to the audience, and everybody cheered,
although no one heard a word he said. Moyne has not a good voice at
any time, and his objection to the hymn had made him nervous.

Babberly was not nervous, and he has a very good voice. I imagine that
at least half the audience heard what he said, and the other half knew
he was saying the right things because the first half cheered him at
frequent intervals.

He began, of course, by saying that our forefathers bled and died for
the cause which we were determined to support. This, so far as my
forefathers and Moyne's are concerned, is horribly untrue. The
ancestors of both of us commanded regiments of the volunteers who
achieved the only Home Rule Parliament which ever sat in Ireland. My
own great grandfather afterwards exchanged his right to legislate in
Dublin for the peerage which I now enjoy. But Moyne and I were no
doubt in a minority in that assembly. Babberly's forefathers may
possibly have bled and died for the Union; but I do not think he can
be sure about this. His father lived in Leeds, and nobody, not even
Babberly himself, knows anything about his grandfather.

When the audience had stopped cheering Babberly's forefathers, he went
on to tell us that Belfast had the largest shipbuilding yard, the
largest tobacco factory, the largest linen mill, and the second
largest School of Art Needlework in the United Kingdom. These facts
were treated by everybody as convincing reasons for the rejection of
the Home Rule Bill, and a man, who was squeezed very tight against the
platform just below me, cursed the Pope several times with singular
vindictiveness.

Babberly's next statement was that he defied the present Government to
drive us out of the British Empire, which we had taken a great deal of
trouble in times past to build up. This was, of course, a perfectly
safe defiance to utter; for no one that I ever heard of had proposed
to drive Babberly, or me, or Moyne out of the Empire.

Then we got to the core of Babberly's speech. Some fool, it appeared,
wanted to impeach Babberly, and Babberly said that he wanted to be
impeached. I am a little hazy about the exact consequences of a
successful impea