One hundred years ago The Home Rule Bill
The excitement at Westminster on Thursday afternoon was quite unequal- led in our history, the House of Com- mons being crowded from floor to ceiling — applications for places under the floor to listen through the gratings having been refused by the Speaker's order — while the Reporters' Gallery was besieged by about twice the number of men furnished with tickets who had ever before on one and the same day congregated there; and 50 per cent more than could get in. When Big Ben stopped, about two o'clock, the super- stitious thought it a bad omen, and real relief was, it is said, felt when he was set going again to time the great speech of the evening. Mr Gladstone — who rose at twenty minutes before five, and spoke for nearly three hours and a half with great force and clearness, and without the huskiness which has trou- bled him so much of late — had, of course, a great reception, both outside of the House and within it. Nor, as an oratorical effort, and for the grasp and force of intellect exhibited, has the speech ever been surpassed, even by himself.
Spectator, 10 April 1886
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