ten o'clock
His position that night was one that required dexterous management and delicate tact . He habitually supported the Government ; his speeches had been hitherto in their favour . On this occasion he differed from the Government . The difference was known to the chiefs of the Opposition , and hence the arrangement of the whips , that he should speak for the first time after ten o'clock , and for the first time in reply to a Cabinet minister . It is a position in which a young party man makes or mars his future . Chillingly Gordon spoke from the third row behind the Government ; he had been duly cautioned by Mivers not to affect a conceited independence , or an adhesion to `` violence '' in ultra-liberal opinions , by seating himself below the gangway . Speaking thus , amid the rank and file of the Ministerial supporters , any opinion at variance with the mouthpieces of the Treasury Bench would be sure to produce a more effective sensation than if delivered from the ranks of the mutinous Bashi Bazouks divided by the gangway from better disciplined forces .