REPORTING IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.
BY way of retrieving his absurd position as the enforcer of the rule to exclude "strangers" from the House of Commons, Mr. John O'Connell gave notice of a motion to reconsider the rule with a view to its abolition. However foolish himself, he seemed to be determined to keep the lead of the House in a return to sense; but he has ceded that enviable place to Lord John Russell, who has obtained a Committee on the subject. The House had better lose no time in placing the matter on a more simple and de- corous footing, or it will be forced. If driven to it, no doubt, the leading journals could return their own members to report for them from the body of the House : meanwhile, they have their honorary member in the person of Mr. Trelawney, who has fur- nished intelligent accounts of what passed during the exclusion of the reporters, and will probably do so as often as it may be re- quired. Nor might it be impossible to engage others in the same honourable and useful work. The shortest and most decorous way for the House to escape from ulterior embarrassments would be, to give newspaper-reporters that recognized footing which should conform to the necessities and proprieties of their case.
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