Taunts, insults, gentle and seductive invitations, are addressed to them--from the front, from behind, from their side; they never open their lips--the silent, stony, and eternal silence of the Sphinx is not more inflexible.

And similarly men rage, some almost seem to threaten each other with physical violence; _they_ sit still--silent, watchful, composed.

Not all, of course.

There are the young, and the vehement, and the undisciplined; but that Old Guard which was created by Parnell--which went with him through coercion, and the wildest of modern agitations--which contains men that have lived for years under the shadow of the living death of penal servitude--men who have passed the long hours of the day--the longer hours of the night--in the cheerless, maddening, spectral silence of the whitewashed cells--the Old Parliamentary Guard is silent.
I have been in the House of Commons for upwards of thirteen years; and in the course of that stormy time have, of course, seen many scenes of passion, anger, and tumult; but the scene which ensued on May 8th, after Mr.Morley's motion, was the worst thing I have ever beheld.

I am a lover of the British House of Commons--with all its faults, and drawbacks, and weaknesses, it is to me the most august assembly in the world, with the greatest history, the finest traditions, the best oratory.