This victory exalted the rather languid spirits of the Gladstonians
to the point of what we may fairly regard as excessive glee. In the evening there was a sort of glorification meeting at the National Liberal Club, from which Mr. Glad. alone very wisely absented himself after the effort of the morn- ing; while Sir William Harcourt, Lord Spencer, Lord Ripon, Mr. Mundella, Mr. Bryce, and Sir George Trevelyan united their voices in a passionate pecan to their absent leader, and danced a triumphant dance over the bodies of those whom they appeared to see in a vision as prostrate foes, especially the Duke of Devonshire, Mr. Chamberlain, and Mr. Jesse Collings. As we have said in another column, we think the attack a somewhat unseemly one, and should have wished that Mr. Collings had made his speech without moving any amend- ment; but, of course, it is idle to regard an amendment of this kind as intended seriously for a vote of censure. It was an unwise, but not unnatural, revenge taken on Mr. Gladstone for availing himself of a somewhat similar amendment of Mr. Collings's in 1886 to turn out the Salisbury Government, and then quietly shelving Mr. Collings's allotment proposal directly it had served his purpose. Sir William Harcourt's ecstasy of triumph was puerile, and even ridiculous.
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