Mr.Balfour, speaking on some question, was interrupted by Mr.Lowther--and then, in front of the whole House--in words which everybody could hear, with gesture of his whole arm--sweeping, indignant, irritated--the gesture with which a master dismisses an importunate servant--the Tory leader rebuked the interruptions of Mr.Lowther.
[Sidenote: Jimmy flouts Mr.Balfour.] But Mr.Lowther, in these days, is not to be put down, and doubtless he feels in his inner breast that wrong which has been done for years to his talents and his services; doubtless he remembers the silence and obscurity to which he has been condemned, while Mr.Balfour has been figuring largely before the general public, in the very situation which Jimmy held himself in days when Mr.Balfour stumbled and trembled from his place below the gangway.

At all events, Jimmy has determined to revive; and in these sad days, when nothing but the sheer brutality of obstruction is required, he is not a man to be trifled with.

And so he defied Mr.Balfour and insisted on a division.

Mr.Balfour ostentatiously left the House, but the majority of the Tory party followed Jimmy.
[Sidenote: The pity of it.] All this resuscitation of obstruction necessitated, on Mr.Gladstone's part, an extreme step.

Before this time Mr.Gladstone was very rarely in the House after eight o'clock.