This is the case with every Government, and with every House of Commons--with every party and with every Ministry.

You do not think that the favourite of fortune whom you envy has reached a period of undisturbed happiness when he sits on the Treasury Bench--even when he speaks amid a triumphant chorus of cheers, or drives through long lines of enthusiastically cheering crowds.

He has to fight for his life every moment of its existence.

He is climbing not a secure ladder on solid earth, but up a glacier with slipping steps, the abyss beneath, the avalanche above--watchful enemies all round--even among the guides he ought to be able to trust.

Do you suppose that every member of the Liberal party loves Mr.Asquith, and is delighted when he displays his great talents?
Do you think that none of the gentlemen below the gangway do not believe that in their mute and inglorious breasts, there are no streams of eloquence more copious and resistless?
No, my friend, take this as an axiom of political careers, that you hold your life as long as you are able to kill anybody who tries to kill you, and not one hour longer.
[Sidenote: Powerful malcontents.] It will be seen at once that a party of malcontents is especially powerful in a Parliament which has in hand the greatest task of our time, and which on the other side has a majority which revolt of even a small number can at any moment turn into a dishonoured and impotent minority.