Page:Australian views of England.djvu/114

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On the 18th, Mr. W. S. Lindsay brought forward a motion in favour of an immediate offer of mediation, and supported it by a speech that breathed throughout of peaceable intervention. During the day a rumour had been running through London like wildfire, that General M'Clellan was completely routed, and had offered a conditional surrender. The interest attached to the motion on its merits, heightened by that extravagant rumour, sufficed to bring a large crowd of strangers to the House of Commons, so that the police had to keep the doors to the entrance lobby. The Confederate emissary, John Mason, was among the most anxious. He was met at the door by several members, who evidently regarded him with great affection. I thought Mr. Gregory would never let go the old slave-master's hand. I was fortunate or rather unfortunate enough to get one of the thirty seats under the gallery, I naturally expected to hear a stirring debate, but the speeches on both sides were utterly unworthy of a subject so momentous. Mr. Lindsay, whom I had always regarded as a clever man, made one of the dullest and clumsiest speeches I ever heard. The Earl of Derby came into the Peers' seat, just below