The debate on it was enlivened by a sharp little
triangular duel, in which Mr. Vernon Harcourt shot at Mr. Forster, and Mr. Gathorne Hardy shot at Mr. Vernon Harcourt. Mr. Har- court reiterated the charge that Mr. Forster was a mere mouth- piece of the Conservatives ; declared that "if one shut one's eyes" the sounds one heard would seem to come from the other side of the House ; that Mr. Forster asked for " rest,"—a sure sign of Conservatism, which always asked for rest,—that when a measure was being discussed he said, "For goodness' sake don't divide now ; take what you can get ;" and that when it had been passed, he cried out, "Don't disturb the settlement ;" and, in short, Mr. Vernon Harcourt made himself as unpleasant as he could,—which, in Mr. Vernon Harcourt, is saying a good deal. On him fell Mr. G-athorne Hardy, stating that he hoped when the time came for electing a Liberal Pope, the honourable member who had just delivered himself of so spirited a Liberal Allocution would receive the appointment. He told a story of a child in one of the London schools who, when asked where the wind came from, first said "from the country," but on further consider- ation, corrected himself, and said "from the windmills ;" and sug- gested that Mr. Harcourt fancied the aura popularis of the country was all manufactured in his own Liberal windmill. We congratu- late Mr. Vernon Harcourt on his triumph in electrifying Mr. Gathorne Hardy into a humourist. Even the regulation prodigy of Livy, bos locutus e,st, would hardly be so great a marvel. And it really was a hit. Mr. Harcourt will not soon lose the nick-name of the Great Liberal Windmill, which claims to have raised the wind on which its motion depends.
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