Page:The life and letters of Sir John Henniker Heaton bt. (IA lifelettersofsi00port).pdf/41

 gaze fixed upon the goings out and the comings in of the Postmaster-General. Nothing happens at St Martins-le-Grand but he hath note of it. Nay, that is ludicrously to understate the case. Nothing happens in the smallest post office of the most remote and obscure township of the whole Empire but Mr Henniker Heaton hears of it, and duly enters the circumstances in his inexorable record. He collects grievances as another man collects postage stamps or pictorial post cards; he has a museum of them, and his supremest satisfaction in life is to display his collection to the House of Commons and to dilate with affectionate pride on the rarer and more curious specimens."

When H. H. entered the House, there were more men of "light and leading" than in any previous Victorian Parliament.

On the Government benches, were Sir Michael Hicks Beach, W. H. Smith, Goschen, Balfour, Lord Randolph Churchill, Sir Richard Webster, Sir Edward Clarke, J. P. B. Robertson, Colonel Saunderson, Lord Charles Beresford, Sir John Gorst, and Sir Richard Temple.

On the Opposition side, Gladstone, Chamberlain, Bright, Sir William Harcourt, Parnell, Bradlaugh, Sir Charles Russell, Frank Lockwood, Right Hon. A. W. Peel (the Speaker), and Sir Robert Peel.

The remarkable sight was seen of four brothers being sworn in simultaneously: Lords George, Claude, Frederick, and Ernest Hamilton.

The early years of H. H.'s parliamentary life were memorable for the struggle that surged round the Home Rule question, the close divisions and fierce debates when the House sat all night. Whatever the supporters of Home Rule may feel, the withdrawal of the Irish Members from