The House presented a very notable spectacle on May 4th.
It was only by the aid of the Irish members, it is true, that Mr.
Havelock Wilson was able to get the necessary forty to procure the adjournment of the House for the discussion of the Hull strike; but then, when Mr.Wilson was enabled to bring the subject before the House, he was listened to with an attention almost painful in its seriousness and gravity.

Nothing, indeed, shows more plainly the vast social and political changes of our time, than this transformation in the attitude of the House of Commons towards labour questions.

There was a time--even in our own memory--when such a question as the strike at Hull would have been promptly ruled out of order; and when the workmen who rose to call attention to it would have been coughed or even hooted down; and he would be certain to receive very rough treatment from the Tory party.
The Tory party still remains the party of the monopolists and the selfish, but it has learned that household suffrage means a considerable weapon in the hands of working men, and, accordingly, though it may put its tongue in its cheek, it keeps that tongue very civil whenever it begins to utter opinion.

To Mr.Wilson, then, the Tories, as well as the Liberals, listened with respectful and rapt attention as he made his complaint of employment of the military and naval forces of the Crown in--as he alleged--the buttressing of the case of the employers.

And yet there was a something lacking.