This created a new situation.  Mr. Sexton had now to fight, not Mr. Brodrick, not even Mr. Balfour—­but the chair; and to fight the chair is to enter into a contest with the Grand Llama of the House of Commons.  Meantime the House had filled; and every nook and cranny was occupied; a large number of members were standing up; and there was that intense thrill of excitement which always forecasts a great outburst, and the outburst came when Mr. Sexton—­resolute and composed—­gave it plainly to be understood that he would not obey the ruling of the chair; and that he must first get an apology from Mr. Brodrick, as the original offender, before Mr. Brodrick got any apology from him.  Then was the cyclone let loose; and there began a series of the wildest, most violent, most angry, and disorderly scenes I have ever witnessed.  Scores of members were on their legs at the same time; men hitherto quiet, composed, and good-natured, began to raise cries hoarse with rage, and finally four or five hundred voices were united in producing the deafening and discordant din of angry and contradictory voices.  Nor was this all.  In some parts of the House men began directly to assail each other—­to exchange language of taunt, and insult, and defiance; and, in more than one corner, there were the signs of impending physical conflict.  The one relief of the situation was that some men kept their heads and looked on in sadness, while others, seeing only the comic side of the situation, smiled upon it all.

[Sidenote:  Gladstone to the rescue.]

Mr. Gladstone, who had been away to dinner, had meantime entered, and a look of pain and solicitude crossed his white face.  There is so much of innate gentleness—­of inexhaustible kindliness, and of high-bred and scholastic spirit beneath all the vehemence of his political temper and the frenzied energy of his political life—­that for such scenes he has never any stomach; and they always bring to his face that same look of shock and pain and humiliation.  And he it was who finally saved the situation.  Several times Mr. Brodrick would have been willing to withdraw, but Mr. Balfour was resolved to get Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Sexton into a difficulty, to convict Mr. Sexton of disobeying the chair, to compel Mr. Gladstone to take action against his most useful friend and most powerful ally.  Over and over again, then, he refused to allow Mr. Brodrick to get rid of the whole situation by withdrawing his language, and so enabling Mr. Sexton to follow the example.  Meantime, Mr. Mellor had ruled that Mr. Sexton had been guilty of gross disorder, and had called upon him to leave the House.  Mr. Sexton had steadily refused, basing his refusal on the demand that there had been no vote of the House.  The point was this:  There are two rules for dealing with disorder.  Under the one a member is named, and then a division takes place, in which the House may refuse or consent to the suspension of a member.  Under the other rule, the presiding officer has the