On Monday, Mr. Gladstone explained, as a sharp-witted Whig said,
that he was going to accept his defeat " with patience, but without resignation." He could hardly have done differently. Of course, in a more quiet time the Government might fairly enough have compelled their adversaries to face the situation they had forced, by a resignation which would have compelled these adver- saries to realise their own impotence, and which would have reduced the Liberal mutineers to obedience and discipline ; but at such a moment as the present, when Ireland. is in a condition of social war, and when the most serious events are happening in Egypt, such a course would have been pusillanimous, and almost impossible. Mr. Gladstone added that, except the Pre- vention of Crime Bill, the Arrears Bill, and the Corrupt Prac- tices Bill, the Government would press none of these measures ; but that when the necessary business of the Session is over, they would adjourn (instead of proroguing the House) till the latter half of October, then to meet for the discussion of the Rules of Precedure, a step by which all the progress already made in these Hales will be saved. It is understood that the Government have at present little intention of accepting Mr. Gibson's amendment (which is in effect also Sir John Lubbock's), an amendment providing that the closure of a debate shall only take effect, when it is carried by a majority of not leo than two to one. That concession having been offered ineffectually for a purpose not achieved, will hardly, it is understood, be offered again.
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