There was something significant and suggestive of the fact that we were brought back to Westminster Hall by the dead body of the man who staked the political activity and usefulness of the last twelve er thirteen years of his life on his scheme for the pacification of the Irish people. Until this week and this notable lying-in-state we have not had the run of Westminster Hall since that January day in 1885 when dynamite infernal machine was exploded on those broad marble steps upon which Lady Harcourt, early on Thursday morning,' stood looking down upon this coffin and thinking mournfully of this last appearance of the great. statesman among his fellow countrymen. Itis difficult to understand and to realise this fact, that for some thirteen years the public have been shut out of the great historic Hall and to a large extent out of Palace Yard, where they used to assemble, at exciting political times, to watch the coming and going of Ministers and distinguished members of Parliament and, indeed, in a larger degree to see Mr. Gladstone than to see any other public man connected with the business of the State. And it was not politics alone which brought crowds to Westminster Hall before dynamite shut the lo out. Great cases in the Courts of Justice would be almost an equal attraction before the courts were removed to Temple Bar, and some of the most memorable scenes of these six.or eight and twenty years were those when hundreds and thousands gathered here for the chance of seeing the Tichborne Claimant while his trials were o, and for the opportunity of very quaint and curious public discussions of the question whether the Claimant was Orton or 'Tichborne. If the dynamite infernal machine was excuse enough for the closing of Westminster Hall to the people, the lying-in-state of Mfr. Gladstone, ome Ruler, might be excuse enough for restoring to' our people their old privileges in this most famous historic interior in the world.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.