Then there are the shouts of "Aye" and "No," with "Agreed, agreed!" from some Irish Benches--a humorous suggestion that highly tickles everybody. Mr. Gladstone is almost the last to enter from the lobby of the majority. Alone, slowly, with pale face, he walks up the floor. The significance of the great moment, the long years of struggle, of heroic courage, of inflexible temerity, of patient and splendid hope, all this rushes tumultuously to the minds of his friends and followers, and, in a second, without a word of warning or command, the Liberals and the Irish have sprung to their feet, and, underneath their cheers--their waving hats, their uplifted forms--Mr. Gladstone passes through to his seat as under a canopy. At last, Tom Ellis, the Junior Liberal Whip, quickly comes up the floor--the paper is handed to Mr. Marjoribanks--this announces we have won--a good cheer, but short, for we want to know the numbers--and then they are read out. For the second reading 347 Against 304 The majority is 43. The Lord be praised! we have polled all our men! And then more cheers--taken up outside in the deeper bellow of the big crowd, and then more waving of hats and another great reception to Mr. Gladstone. And so, as the streaks of day rose on this hour of Ireland's coming dawn, we went to our several homes. CHAPTER X. THE BUDGET, OBSTRUCTION, AND EGYPT. [Sidenote: Sir William.] Sir William Harcourt, on April 24th, had the double honour of speaking before the smallest audience and making the best Budget speech for many years. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has two manners. He can be as boisterous, exuberant, and gay, as any speaker in the House, and he can also be as lugubrious as though his life had been spent in the service of an undertaker. He was in the undertaker mood this evening. Slowly, solemnly, sadly, he unfolded his story of the finances of the country. He had taken the trouble to write down every word of what he had to say--an evil habit to which he has adhered all his life. But, notwithstanding these two things--which are both, to my mind, capital defects in Parliamentary speaking--Sir William put his case with such extraordinary lucidity, that everybody listened in profound attention to every word he uttered; and when he sate down, he was almost overwhelmed with the chorus of praise which descended on his head from all quarters of the House.