Would it not be possible for the Government, asked Sir Charles, to adopt the proposal with regard to their measures?
The answer of the Old Man was cautious, vague, and dilatory.

It is one of his well-known peculiarities not to arrive at the solution of a tactical difficulty one moment too soon; and this is a rule which, generally speaking, acts extremely well.

I dare say Sir Charles Dilke did not expect any other answer; and nobody in the House was surprised that the Old Man answered as he did.

But all the same, one could read between the lines, and it was pretty clear that the Old Man was preparing to face the situation by remedies drastic enough to meet even so revolutionary a situation.
[Sidenote: A great Parliamentarian.] Everybody was delighted--that is to say, everybody on the Liberal side of the House--to see that the great old leader was displaying on this question the same unerring tactics, the same resources the same willingness to learn, and the same elasticity of mind as he has manifested throughout his whole life--or at least throughout all that part of it which dates from his escape from the shackles of his early and obscurantist creed.

He has never concealed the fact that he departed from the old rules of the House of Commons with misgiving reluctance, and even repulsion.