Mr. Goschen was very happy also in his criticism on
Sir William Harcourt's phrase that "Home-rule has a reflexive and a reciprocal influence on other questions." Mr. Goschen thought that that was a suggestion intended to translate into polite language the proverb, "Scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours." But there would also be a less satisfactory meaning for the phrase, in reference to Mr. Bright's famous simile as to the impossibility of getting three or four omni-
buses abreast through Temple Bar. The "reflexive and reciprocal influence of Home-rule on other questions" would mean, from that point of view, that its wheels would get locked in the wheels of other simultaneous measures. Its "reflexive and reciprocal influence" would be manifested by its being unable to move on itself, and also by its preventing those other measures from moving on.
