mechanical and hollow effect underneath its bellowings, the group below
the gangway uttered its war notes. Beyond all question, recognizable by
the unmistakable family features, it was there--the organized theatrical
claque on the floor of the British House of Commons. There were other
indications of the transformation on which the Tories were determined.
When Mr. Seton-Karr sate down after a palpably obstructive speech, Mr.
Bartley got up, and several other Tories at the same time. Mr. Bartley
is not an attractive personality. He has a very strong rather than
pleasant or intellectual face. There is plenty of bulldog tenacity in
it--plenty of animal courage, plenty of self-confidence; but it has none
of the rays of a strong intelligence, and not many glimpses of
kindliness or sweetness of nature. It is in the work of obstruction that
one sees temperament rather than intellect in the House of Commons.
Obstruction does not call for very high intellectual powers, though,
undoubtedly, obstruction can at the same time display the highest
powers.

[Sidenote: Artists in obstruction.]

For instance, Mr. Sexton made his first reputation in the House of
Commons by a speech three hours in duration, which was regarded by the
majority as an intentional waste of time and an obstruction of a hateful
Bill, but which everybody had to hear from the sheer force of its
splendid reasoning, orderly arrangement of material, and now and then
bursts of the best form of Parliamentary eloquence. But the
obstructionist wants, as a rule, strength of character rather than of
oratory--as witness the extraordinary work in obstruction done by the
late Mr. Biggar, who, by nature, was one of the most inarticulate of
men. It was because Biggar had nerves of steel--a courage that did not
know the meaning of fear, and that remained calm in the midst of a