The Government Whips would be withdrawn and members of the Government be left free to vote as they pleased.
It was a fair deduction, however, from what was said at that time and later, that the strongest possible pressure--arguments _ad hominem_ and in a sense _ad pecuniam_--was brought to bear on Liberals and on Irish Nationalists to vote against the Bill.

Had the Second reading been carried, the Government would have resigned and a Home Rule Bill for Ireland have been once more postponed.
The rejection of Mr.Dickinson's measure by a majority of forty-seven convinced the Militants that Pharaoh had once more hardened his heart; and the hopelessness of the Woman's cause at that juncture inspired one woman with a resolution to give her life as a protest in the manner most calculated to impress the male mind of the British public..