was the hon. and gallant Gentleman's | They did not ask a character either excuse? It was that he was not in the for themselves or their Leaders from House at the time, and was not aware that the Motion had been made at an early period of the evening. Well, he (Mr. Pell) had himself been long sitting in the House endeavouring to assist in working a machine which was now cutting nothing but chaff, and he begged to tell the hon. and gallant Member that he ought to have ascertained his facts before making such a statement.

CAPTAIN NOLAN regretted very much that he should have been mistaken in what he had stated. He had been absent from the House until 8 o'clock the previous evening, and he had no idea that a Motion to report Progress had been made in his absence. He apologized for the mistake he had made, but he did not think it deserved the severe animadversion of the hon. Member opposite.

such persons as those. [Loud cheers.] To understand what a Leader of the House of Commons must be, a man must have, even though it were only to a small extent, the spirit of a Statesman; to understand what a gentleman should be and should do, he must have a gentlemanly mind. [Loud cheers.] It was vain to expect figs from thistles, and there was no expectation of finding from that quarter of the House to which he referred any appreciation of the kindly, dignified, and forbearing conduct of the Leader of the House of Commons. If the House was to endure these taunts and this mode of proceeding much longer, certain hon. Members must understand that if they wished to be martyrs they would have an opportunity of being such; and he wished them joy of every single admirer of their proceedings, which were nameless among men who had any character and standing.

MR. CHARLES LEWIS said, he did not wonder that those who had not had the advantage of a few hours' rest should MR. KNATCHBULL-HUGESSEN be so incapacitated that they were un- said, it was necessary to treat the crisis able to recollect correctly what had at which the House had now arrived passed on the previous night. It could with calmness and dignity, and if the not be repeated too often that the moment Government thought it necessary to the Chairman took the Chair yesterday take swift and strong action they should evening, about a quarter past 5 o'clock, have his most cordial and hearty supthe hon. Member for Dungarvan moved port. No one was more anxious than to report Progress. He thought that on himself to protect the rights of minorithe part of the House hon. Members ties, in dealing with whom majorities had a right to demand, not only of the were bound to exercise patience and Government, but also of the Leader of forbearance; but if there were certain the Opposition, whom he hoped soon to obligations incumbent upon majorities see in his place, that some definite action in regard to minorities, there were cerwould be taken for the purpose of en- tain reciprocal obligations upon minoriabling the House of Commons to proceed ties; and when those obligations were with the Public Business, which was now persistently neglected, and the patience being delayed to the greatest possible and forbearance of the majority were detriment and injury of the State. If night after night abused, it was time to they wanted anything to induce them to take action to secure the due performcome to that determination it was sup-ance of Public Business. Appeal after plied in the daring speech of the hon. Member for Tipperary, and the insulting way in which the Leader of the House had been treated, because he happened to possess an amiable and placid spirit, and had not thought proper to resent, as many of them would have done in a more formal, distinct, and intrepid way the insults which had been cast upon him night after night. [Cheers.] Was it to be said, because the right hon. Gentleman did not rise and show that he possessed a nettled spirit, that he was an unworthy Leader of the House? Mr. Pell

appeal had been made to those qualities which gentlemen ought to possess if they were fit to be Members of that House-to their conscience, their good sense, their good taste, and their good feeling. But appeals had unfortunately been made to conscience where, so far as the Committee could discern, there was no conscience; to good sense-well, he hardly liked to express his opinion of the amount of good sense apparently possessed by those to whom that appeal had been made; and to good taste and good feeling, where those qualities had

been conspicuous by their absence. | Member for Tipperary (Mr. Gray); and, [Cheers.] When time after time a mi- so far as I am individually concerned, I nority, rejecting all considerations of treat those observations with perfect its obligations towards the majority, went on as a small minority had done during the past 20 hours, he thought the time had come for swift and strong action, and the House ought to submit to the degradation no longer. [Cheers.] He wished it to be distinctly understood that, while they on that side of the House felt it to be their mission to protect the rights of a minority and to protect the right of free speech, they were driven and forced by the conduct of the minority on that occasion to join the Government in any action which they might take to prevent the abuse of such rights. He sympathized with minorities which held out upon points of principle and made use of those Forms of the House which existed for the protection of minorities. But whilst even to such action there must be limits, the case was widely different here, where no question of principle was raised, but hour after hour was wasted in discussions upon trivial and useless Amendments and obstructive Motions to report Progress. One Amendment had been moved empowering the Union Parliament to do something before the Union Parliament would be called into existence; and, although this had been pointed out to the Mover, he had persisted in dividing the Committee. Another Gentleman had divided in favour of reporting Progress when his Amendment had actually been accepted by the Government, and the whole procedure of the minority had been one of mere obstruction and delay. The spirit which had actuated minorities during the whole experience of Parliament had been entirely neglected by this minority, and conduct had been persisted in day after day and night after night which made those on his side of the House avow their readiness to support the Government in the strongest measures which they might think it right to propose, in order to show the country that the House of Commons was not to be bullied or intimidated from discharging its duty to its constituents and carrying on the Business of the country.

THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER: I do not wish to say anything in reply to the observations of the hon.

equanimity. But I do feel that I am in a responsible position, holding as I unworthily do the post of Leader of the House, and while I thank most cordially my hon. Friend the Member for Londonderry (Mr. C. Lewis) for the expressions he has used, I feel that I should also thank not only my hon. Friends on this side, but also hon. Gentlemen on the other side of the House, for the very great kindness and forbearance I have experienced at their hands in what I shall venture to call very exceptional and trying circumstances. I do feel it to be of importance that it should not be supposed that through any fault of mine the House has been allowed to get into a false position. My right hon. Friend who has just sat down (Mr. Knatchbull-Hugessen), has said that he and those about him are, in a certain sense, peculiarly guardians of the rights of minorities. But I cannot admit to my right hon. Friend that he and hon. Gentlemen near him are more interested in guarding those rights than I am or than we are. I have always felt during these trying discussions, and have expressed my strong conviction, that it was one of the most sacred duties of this House to be jealous to an extreme in guarding those rights which have for so many years-I may say for centuriesbeen the great safeguard of the liberties of this country. Sir, the House of Commons has had in former times to contend against many encroachments of different characters. It has done its duty in resisting the encroachments of arbitrary power, and in various ways it has always stood up and done the duty which the country has entrusted to it. But there is no duty more sacred than this duty with regard to ourselves-it is of the utmost importance that we should not allow ourselves, under any sense of provocation however trying, and especially that we should not allow ourselves, under any irritation caused by personal taunts, to forget the duties which we owe to ourselves and to the country, to maintain our attitude and to do whatever we may feel necessary calmly, deliberately, and in an orderly manner. Now, Sir, we have been endeavouring both in the action taken last week with regard to the amendment of some of our Rules,

Clause 38 (Royal Assent to Bills, &c.), gress be reported. agreed to.

[Mr. RAIKES, having returned to the House, resumed the Chair. It was now ten minutes after Noon of Wednesday.]

MR. GATHORNE HARDY said, that | bridge University that the words he had the Committee-not the Government- used were entirely un-Parliamentary, had come to a resolution to carry this Bill and must be withdrawn. through at this Sitting. [Loud cheers.] If the hon. Member for Dungarvan was exhausted, it was because he had exhausted himself in Motions that Progress be reported and that the Chairman leave the Chair, instead of proceeding with his Amendments. Had the hon. Gentleman proceeded with his Amendments, the Bill would have passed through Committee long since. If the hon. Member was exhausted, the Committee were not, and they intended to proceed with the Bill. [Loud cheers.]

MR. O'DONNELL protested against the conduct of Her Majesty's Government in seeking by mere physical force to hurry this Bill through Committee. If the Bill were forced through the Committee in one Sitting in obedience to the resolution of the Government, it would fail of that careful consideration which so important a measure demanded. They were now about to deal with a very important branch of the subject the clauses relating to the provincial government, and the all-important clauses relating to the distribution of legislative powers, and therefore he urged upon the Government the necessity for reporting Progress.

MR. BERESFORD HOPE said, he would of course at once withdraw the words which he had used, and he begged to apologize to the Chairman and the Committee for using them. He was going on to say that during the time that he had been in Parliament he had never seen such loud pretensions to courage, such bold determination "to die upon the floor of the House," and see the remaining Members dead around their own corpses, so suddenly, so amusingly, and so unexpectedly collapse upon a general suggestion of vaguely contingent unpleasantness in store for troublesome Members.

MR. SULLIVAN wished to explain why he had moved that the words uttered by the hon. Member for Cambridge University be taken down, and to apologize to the Chairman if he had been guilty of disrespect to him. would be remembered that there had been a ruling the other evening that words objected to should be taken down at once, before any further debate intervened, and he was afraid that some other hon. Member might by speaking preclude him from moving that the words of the hon. Member for Cambridge Uni

not rise at once-["Agreed, agreed!"] He emphatically declared that those shouts of "Agreed" would not improve the difficulty of that day. He had endeavoured to compose difficulties; but when those shouts of opposition arose, the blood was excited, and they knew with what result.

MR. BERESFORD HOPE most em-versity should be taken down, if he did phatically repudiated the assertion of the hon. Member that Her Majesty's Government were endeavouring to pass this Bill by mere physical force. It was not Her Majesty's Government who had come to the resolution to pass this Bill through the Committee, but the Committee who were determined to assert the dignity and the respectability of the House against the attacks of the smallest and most contemptible minority["Order!"]

THE CHAIRMAN rose

MR. SULLIVAN also rose, and moved that the words of the hon. Member for Cambridge University should be taken down. [Loud cries of "Order!"]

THE CHAIRMAN said, he must point out to the hon. and learned Member who had just risen that he was guilty of great disrespect to the Committee as well as to the Chair in rising to speak when the Chairman had risen. He must point out to the hon. Member for Cam

Motion (Mr. Parnell) negatived.

Amendment (Mr. Biggar) negatived.
Amendment proposed,

At the end of the Clause, to add the words
"Provided always, That no Act shall be an-
nulled by such disallowance which relates to
purely internal matters of the Confederation,
and which has been passed in two preceding
Sessions by the Confederation Parliament.”-
(Mr. O'Donnell.)

MR. J. LOWTHER opposed the Amendment, which he did not think the hon. Member could be serious in proposing.