This was the pith of the interview, but it included
a frank Socratic discussion of the Eight-Hours Bill, in which the deputation suffered terribly. The representa- tive workmen were children, babies, in Mr. Gladstone's hands. They talked, and at intervals the old master of economics interjected a question, and their talk even in their own eyes was made vain. The deputation de- clared that three-quarters of a million of men had accepted the Eight-Hours resolutions in Hyde Park, standing round sixteen platforms—an average of forty-six thousand per plat- form—and Mr. Gladstone, who in his lifetime has seen crowded meetings, asked drily if they could all hear. They suggested that it was his duty to help them, and he retorted that "his first duty was to perfect the instrument, the franchise, which gave power to the bulk of the nation." The deputation was most anxious to assist the unemployed, whose allowances cripple Union finance ; and Mr. Gladstone asked if they thought with an Eight-Hours Bill the employer could make the same profits, and if not, whether that would tempt him to employ more men. Mr. Gregory at last reluctantly acknowledged that there might be some trifling reduc- tion in average wages, but was willing to stand by that ; and Mr. Gladstone mildly hinted that if the same wager- fund was distributed among more people, reduction was inevitable. Then the deputation declared their wish that the majority of each trade should be allowed to exempt itself by vote from the operation of the Act, and Mr. Gladstone asked how they proposed to take the vote. To obtains vote with such results, the trade which voted must be very strictly organised. The climax was, however, reached when the deputation, com- pletely giving themselves away, avowed their wish that sempstresses should be prohibited by law from working in their own homes ! and Mr. Gladstone gently inquired : " Aro you not startled at the extreme length of such an interference with private liberty ? " The deputation was very polite, but went home crestfallen, and, it is said, "much incensed," which we can hardly believe. They had themselves forced on the discussion, and mast as Radicals have rejoiced to find the dialectic power of their worshipped chief so infinitely greater than their own. They will be laughed at all over England; but that will be a joy to them, for the cause of the laughter is Mr. Gladstone's superiority in argument.
