In favour of 103 members?
Not at all--the vote would mean nothing of that kind--it would simply mean that they were opposed to the plan of the Government; in short, there was the issue quite plain.

The Tories and the Unionists would vote black was white, wrong was right.

This way one moment, the other way the next--they would do anything, provided only they could turn the Government out, defeat the Bill, and humiliate the Old Man.

And so the situation grew more difficult every moment.
For it was now plain that the Government were most certain to be beaten, and that if they were beaten, there must be an end of Home Rule.

It might be good Parliamentary tactics to say that the Government would accept the decision of the House, but everybody knows what moral authority, what reality of strength, there is in a Government which has been "snowed under" by a majority of 200.
[Sidenote: Mr.Sexton makes the running.] It will now be understood what tremendous issues rested on the speech which Mr.Sexton rose to deliver.