eight o'clock
It was not for him to ask the Speaker to count the House , but he wondered that no one else should do so . And yet , as the idea of this termination to the night 's work came upon him , and as he thought of his lost labour , he almost took courage again , -- almost dreaded rather than wished for the interference of some malicious member . But there was no malicious member then present , or else it was known that Lords of the Treasury and Lords of the Admiralty would flock in during the Speaker 's ponderous counting , -- and thus the slow length of the ballot-lover 's verbosity was permitted to evolve itself without interruption . At eight o'clock he had completed his catalogue of illustrations , and immediately Mr. Monk rose from the Treasury bench to explain the grounds on which the Government must decline to support the motion before the House . Phineas was aware that Mr. Monk intended to speak , and was aware also that his speech would be very short . `` My idea is , '' he had said to Phineas , `` that every man possessed of the franchise should dare to have and to express a political opinion of his own ; that otherwise the franchise is not worth having ; and that men will learn that when all so dare , no evil can come from such daring . As the ballot would make any courage of that kind unnecessary , I dislike the ballot .