There is a flutter of expectation.

On this speech depended, at this moment, the fate of Home Rule and the Gladstone Government.

What will it say?
Mr.Storey always takes a line of his own; is a strong man with strong opinions, plenty of courage, not altogether free from the tendency of original natures, to break away from the mechanical uniformity of party discipline.

Moreover, he is the chief among that sturdy little knot of Radicals below the gangway who are determined to make the Liberal coach go faster than the jog-trot of mere officialism.

Will he call upon his friends to stand by the Government or to desert them--it is a most pregnant question.
It is not easy, in the midst of cyclones, to collect one's thoughts--to choose one's words--to hit straight home with short, emphatic blow.