LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
AN APOLOGY FOR OBSTRUCTION.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—Living in the absolute and enforced retirement occa- sioned by old age and infirmity, and agreeing generally with the political views advocated by the Spectator, I am surprised to find that while you comment severely on the obstruction of public business in the House of Commons, you do not allude to the cause of that obstruction.
An Autumn Session was required for necessary business, and no new measure ought to have been introduced in the very limited time required for the omitted but urgent work of the Session. The Government were not required to give up any proposed new measure in consequence of expected opposition; but surely it would have been a reasonable discretion on their part to postpone any new measure, however good, to a future Session, rather than to introduce it at a time when the days for actual work were numbered. Consilia ab eventu non sunt pon- deranda ; but reasonable men might have seen that this was no fitting opportunity for any new measure of importance. The result of that introduction is the present confusion, and reasonable men have cause to regret the want of reasonable discretion which induced the Government to bring on a measure which was inconsistent with the object of a limited Autumn Session.
The Government have to thank themselves for the want of common-sense and discretion which has led to the present difficulty, and will be but another instance on which "discretion is the better part of valour."—I am, Sir, &c., [We do not agree at all. The Ashbourne Act Extension Bill was advisedly postponed to the Autumn Session ; but it cannot in any sense be called a new measure. Notice was given of it in the early part of the Session, and it was absolutely essential in order to carry out the purpose of the Act of 1885.—En. Spectator.]
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