When the strangers were cleared out, and the doors locked, we had six hundred and eight members present,--more by fifty-five than ever were in a division before.

The Ayes and Noes were like two volleys of cannon from opposite sides of a field of battle.

When the opposition went out into the lobby, an operation which took up twenty minutes or more, we spread ourselves over the benches on both sides of the House; for there were many of us who had not been able to find a seat during the evening.

["The practice in the Commons, until 1836, was to send one party forth into the lobby, the other remaining in the House."-- Sir T.Erskine May's "Parliamentary Practice."] When the doors were shut we began to speculate on our numbers.

Everybody was desponding.