It would have been strange, indeed, if he could have felt otherwise after all his long years of glorious service in that august assembly.

But then, when the time did come for taking the plunge, he took it boldly and unshrinkingly.

It was a delight to watch him during this Session, and especially when it became necessary to use the guillotine against the revolutionary and iniquitous attempt to paralyse the House of Commons by sheer shameless obstruction.

The "guillotine" was a most serious, a most momentous, and even portentous departure from all precedent, except, of course, the Tory precedent of 1887; but the Old Man, when the proper time came, proposed the experiment with the utmost composure--with that splendid command of nerve--that lofty and dauntless courage--that indifference to attack, which explains his extending hold over the imaginations and the hearts of men.
[Sidenote: The plain duty of Liberals.] I have little doubt that he will be quite equal to any further steps which may be necessary to vindicate the authority of the majority in the House of Commons, and nobody doubts that such further steps may be necessary.

The real and fundamental question--as I put it over and over again--is whether the Liberal party and the Liberal majority shall go before the country at the next election with the charge made good against them of lack of will, competence, and energy.