The treatment of the Plumage Bill in the House of
Commons Standing Committee has become a scandal. Day after day no quorum is formed and the Bill thus makes no progress, although it has already been passed by the Frouse of Lords and passed Its second reading in the House of Commons by a vast majority. The Standing Committee is supposed to be doing work which If the Bill had not been thus committed would have been done by a Committee of the whole House. We cannot understand the standard of responsibility which satisfies those members of the Standing Committee who neglect to form a quorum. The Manchester Guardian suggests that there is a deliberate plot on the part of certain members. These members, it is stated, have gone so far as to wait outside the committee room door so that they could be present to spoil or whittle away the Bill if a quorum were formed in spite of them. If a quorum cannot be formed without their presence, they merely wait, till the danger is peat and disperse. If these statements are true or partly true, this is surely a matter which the House should inquire Into at once. It concerns the efficiency and integrity of the whole body.
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