One more point remains to be noted. Mr. Parnell’s party practically consisted of one--namely, Mr. Joseph Gillies Biggar. If it was Mr. Parnell’s desire “to scorn delights and live laborious days” in reforming the administration of English prisons, it was the firm and austere resolve of Mr. Biggar that this great work should be done with a solemnity of deliberation
[Illustration: HORSESHOE CLOISTERS, WINDSOR CASTLE.]
worthy of such an august Assembly as the House of Commons. The business in hand was too serious to be transacted without a quorum--so Mr. Biggar invariably tried to “count” out the House. Public affairs ought not to be transacted at an hour when, to use his favourite phrase, “no decent person would be out of _their beds_,” so Mr. Biggar would insist on adjourning the House or the Committee about one o’clock in the morning.[101] And Mr. Biggar played his part in the serio-comedy with so much elfish delight and quaint, grotesque humour, that if the House now and then roared with rage at him, it still oftener roared with laughter. Those who saw deeper than the surface saw that something more serious than a comedy was being produced by these new performers from Ireland. They saw sprouting the germ of that extraordinary policy of Parliamentary pressure by which the new school of Irish Nationalists sought to gain their end--the policy that offered the Imperial Government the choice of one of two alternatives--concession of autonomy in Ireland, or the sacrifice of the ancient liberties and privileges of Parliament.