I don't complain of this--I merely state a fact--a fact which, laughingly, was admitted later in the evening; for here I may say in passing that such is the extraordinary volatility and such the real good-nature of the House of Commons, this terrible evening ended up in the exchange of hearty and friendly jokes between some of the fiercest combatants in the whole business.

I had not the least idea of what Mr.
Gibbs was saying--what his complaint really was I knew for the first time after the whole row was over; indeed, nobody could hear anything in the din that was almost deafening.

Mr.Mellor made several attempts to catch Mr.Gibbs's statement; and only when, after straining his ears to the utmost, he failed to catch one single word, did Mr.Mellor resolve to take no notice of what Mr.Gibbs was trying to say.

This seemed to drive Mr.Gibbs almost beside himself--he shouted angrily and wildly, at the top of his voice, with fierce and almost frenzied gesture; and, after a while, he rushed down with every appearance of passion to the Front Opposition Bench to renew his attempts to make his point of order.
All this time his passion had been rising higher and higher--until, in the end, he was almost a painful sight to witness.

His own friends were foremost in trying to bring him back to composure; and Lord Randolph Churchill expressed, with the fine, full-flavoured plainness of ancient speech, his opinion of the conduct of his friends.
[Sidenote: Keeping the seats.] This plain-spoken opinion of Lord Randolph Churchill was induced by the fact that Mr.Gibbs and his friends had now resolved on a desperate step to secure attention to his complaint.