Note 101 — Chapter XXI · THE REIGN OF JINGOISM.
Reading edition
On the 26th of March the House got one of its earliest lessons in the new art of scientific obstruction. Mr. Parnell had, owing to the popular lines on which some of his amendments were drawn up, got about eighteen members at this time to act with him. But even they deserted him when, at one in the morning, Mr. Biggar moved to “report progress.” The division showed—Ayes, 10, Noes, 138. Mr. Biggar and his friends then kept up a series of see-saw motions—for adjournment and reporting progress, till at three in the morning Mr. Cross succumbed, and having struck his flag, assented to the rising of the House. Then Mr. Biggar and his friends pathetically wailed over the scandalous manner in which the House had had two hours of its valuable time wasted by the Home Secretary, whose surrender was cited as a justification of their opposition.