ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT.
EXTRACTED FROM THE DIARY OF TOBY, M.P.
House of Commons, Monday, April 21.—House really beginning to fill up. Hartington back from the Riviera. First time he has appeared this Session; lounged in with pretty air of having been there yesterday and just looked in again. Blushed with surprise to find Members on both sides welcoming him with cheer.
"We all like Hartington," said Sage of Queen Anne's Gate. "Of course we liked him better when he agreed with our opinions; but we can't all keep straight, and he's gone wrong. Still, we bear him no malice. Sorry he was ill; glad he's better. Must encourage this benevolent attitude towards him, since it enables us, with fuller vigour to denounce Chamberlain. You see, when we howl at Chamberlain, they can't say we are simply moved by personal spite, because here we are cheering Hartington as he returns to the fray."
John Dillon back too; bronzed with Australian suns; ruddy with the breezes of lusty Colorado. Everyone glad to see John back; first because everyone likes him; next for reasons akin to those which the Sage frankly acknowledges when cheering Hartington. Even in the evil days when John Dillon used to fold his arms and flash dark glances of defiance on Speaker Brand, House didn't include him in same angry, uncompromising, denunciation as hurtled round head of William O'Brien, Tim Healy, and dear old Joseph Gillis. John Dillon sometimes suspended; occasionally sent to prison; but the honesty of his motives, the purity of his patriotism, always acknowledged. Mistaken, led astray (that is to say differed from us on matters of opinion), but meant well.
