If this course were adopted, Mr.
Redmond would be crushed under a combination of the Liberals, who wanted the numbers to be 80, and the Tories who wanted the Irish members to disappear altogether; but in these days, and with such an Opposition as we have now in the House of Commons, it is not possible to make any calculations on what course we would adopt.

To the amazement of the House--above all things to the amazement of Mr.Gladstone--who has not yet entirely got over the traditions of the past, and, therefore, over-sanguine expectations as to the scruples of his opponents--Mr.
Chamberlain and Mr.Balfour both announced that they were ready to go into the same lobby as Mr.Redmond.And so those who wanted all the Irish members, and those who wanted none, were both going to vote exactly the same way.
[Sidenote: A bolt from the blue.] For a moment everybody was staggered by this declaration; and it produced a combination which anybody could forecast, and for which nobody was prepared.

There came accordingly something like a panic over the House.

Here we were face to face with a Ministerial crisis, with doom and the abyss and the end of all things.

Unexpectedly, in a moment, without a second's warning, this state of things led to a phenomenon which belongs to the House of Commons alone.