There was a grand duel between Mr. Disraeli and Mr.
Gladstone on Tuesday night. The Tory leader, like Sir It. Peel, is an in- habitant of the House of Commons, and never heartily approves any proceeding derogatory to its character. He accordingly rose to try to prove that time had not been deliberately wasted this Session. If it had, it was Mr. Gladstone's fault. He ignored the factious, opposition to the Army Bill, declared that the Ballot Bill was needless, not a fifth of the House having been pledged on the hustings to the ballot, and asserted that the amendments were substantial, and had many of them been accepted. He joked at Mr. Gladstone for enforcing a Pythagorean silence, sneered at him for always menacing the House, and provoked much laughter by saying that Pythagoras intended to disapprove the ballot when he said, "Beware of beaus." Mr. Gladstone replied to the political point by showing that there had been seventy divisions on the Ballot Bill, and that in all the Liberal party had pulled together, and to the personal point by 'denying that he had ever complained of factious opposition to 'the Ballot—his complaint having referred solely to the Army Bill—and declared that Mr. Disraeli'e speech only proved how 'carefully the House had worked upon the details of the measure. It was one intended "to increase the securities for the freedom of the people," one which had reknit the Liberal party, and one therefore which he hoped would not be rejected by the other branch of the Legislature on a paltry plea of time. Mr. Dis- Taeli had, as usual, the advantage in humour, and Mr. Gladstone in argument.
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