=Source.=--_Macaulay's Life and Letters_, by the Right Hon. Sir
George Otto Trevelyan, 1876.
_Lord Macaulay's Description of the Scene._
Such a scene as the division of last Tuesday I never saw, and never
expect to see again. If I should live fifty years the impression of
it will be as fresh and sharp in my mind as if it had just taken
place. It was like seeing Caesar stabbed in the Senate House, or
seeing Oliver taking the mace from the table; a sight to be seen
only once, and never to be forgotten. The crowd overflowed the
House in every part. When the strangers were cleared out, and the
doors locked, we had six hundred and eight members present--more
by fifty-five than ever were in a division before. The Ayes and
the Noes were like two volleys of cannon from opposite sides of
a field of battle. When the opposition went out into the lobby,
an operation which took up twenty minutes or more, we spread
ourselves over the benches on both sides of the House; for there
were many of us who had not been able to find a seat during the
evening. When the doors were shut we began to speculate on our
numbers. Everybody was desponding. "We have lost it. We are only
two hundred and eighty at the most. I do not think we are two
hundred and fifty. They are three hundred. Alderman Thompson has
counted them. He says they are two hundred and ninety-nine." This
was the talk on our benches. I wonder that men who have been long
in Parliament do not acquire a better _coup d'œil_ for numbers.
The House, when only the Ayes were in it, looked to me a very
fair House--much fuller than it generally is even on debates of
considerable interest. I had no hope, however, of three hundred. As
the tellers passed along our lowest row on the left hand side the
interest was insupportable--two hundred and ninety-one--two hundred
and ninety-two--we were all standing up and stretching forward
telling with the tellers. At three hundred there was a short cry
of joy--at three hundred and two another--suppressed, however, in
a moment; for we did not yet know what the hostile force might be.
We knew, however, that we could not be severely beaten. The doors
were thrown open, and in they came. Each of them, as he entered,
brought some different report of their numbers. It must have been
impossible, as you may conceive, in the lobby crowded as they were,
to form any exact estimate. First, we heard that they were three
hundred and three; then that number rose to three hundred and ten;
then went down to three hundred and seven, Alexander Barry told me
that he had counted, and that they were three hundred and four. We
were all breathless with anxiety, when Charles Wood, who stood near
the door, jumped on a bench and cried out, "They are only three
hundred and one." We set up a shout that you might have heard to
Charing Cross, waving our hats, stamping against the floor, and
clapping our hands. The tellers scarcely got through the crowd;
for the House was thronged up to the table, and all the floor was
fluctuating with heads like the pit of a theatre. But you might
have heard a pin drop as Duncannon read the numbers. Then again
the shouts broke out, and many of us shed tears. I could scarcely
refrain. And the jaw of Peel fell; and the face of Twiss was as
the face of a damned soul; and Herries looked like Judas taking
his necktie off for the last operation. We shook hands and clapped
each other on the back, and went out laughing, crying, and huzzaing
into the lobby. And no sooner were the outer doors opened than
another shout answered that within the House. All the passages,
and the stairs into the waiting-rooms, were thronged by people who
had waited till four in the morning to know the issue. We passed
through a narrow lane between two thick masses of them; and all
the way down they were shouting and waving their hats, till we got
into the open air. I called a cabriolet, and the first thing the
driver asked was, "Is the Bill carried?" "Yes, by one." "Thank God
for it, sir." And away I rode to Gray's Inn--and so ended a scene
which will probably never be equalled till the reformed Parliament
wants reforming; and that I hope will not be till the days of our
grandchildren, till that truly orthodox and apostolical person, Dr.
Francis Ellis, is an archbishop of eighty."