8
P.M.
Half an hour later he found it _ à propos _ of something to say to the Prince : `` That lady who sang is my sister , Your Royal Highness -- seems to have been subjected to gross cruelties , and has gone crazy '' . The next morning everyone knew that she was the Regent 's sister ; and a man said to a man : `` There is madness in the family , then ... '' The second-reading of the Land Bill had passed by a 59 majority : and it would now have been easy work to hurry through its remaining stages in a couple of weeks ; but the Regent had awaited the nation 's verdict in the return of the 120 to fill the Jewish seats , sure of the result . So the 23rd was a great night -- the third-reading -- the majority 115 at 8 P.M. ; and the next day , which was marked by a very brilliant levée , the Bill was before the Lords . This stage it might easily have reached four weeks before , but had been shelved for the election of the 120 : and in those weeks the four copies of the _ Mahomet II _ . had been launched . And suddenly -- bad news from Palestine : news that there , too , after all the safeguards , the greed of a few was working to plant the old European wrong : for , the Sanhedrim being short of funds for a railway , a syndicate of five merchant-princes had offered to buy from it an estate between Jerusalem and the Jordan , and when the Chief Rabbi had pointed out that the offer was monstrous , in view of the terms of the Sea 's Deed of Gift , a fierce discussion had ensued , a schism ; and although the syndicate 's offer had been rejected by 27 , at the next session the defeated leader , like some warlike Maccabæus , had surged with his faction and a hundred Arabs into the Mosque of Omar where the Sanhedrim met , to cast those who did not escape by flight into prison in the Pasha 's Palace .