Mr.Morley replied laconically, "There is no such rule." Then several of the Tory members attempted to corner Sir U.K.Shuttleworth about the quantity of coals consumed in the "Majestic" while going at full speed.

Sir Edward Harland was cautious, and Mr.Gibson Bowles, whose rising was the signal for derisive cheers, was pertinacious.

The Secretary to the Admiralty, always dignified, was grave and serious.

He was not to be tripped up, and discreetly declined to be drawn.
[Sidenote: Our first line of defence.] It is one of the well-known peculiarities of the House of Commons that its attendance is usually in inverse line of proportion to the importance of the subject which it is discussing.

On August 28th the House was engaged in debating the question which above all others ought to interest the people of this country--the state, namely, of our Navy.
Yet the House was almost entirely empty throughout the whole evening, and the speeches were generally confined to the somewhat inarticulate representatives of the services, and to the dullest and smallest men in the whole assembly.