In announcing on Monday that the only business for which
the House of Commons is at present asked to meet in October will be the reform of Procedure, with which it will proceed de die in diem, except so far as other matters of emergency arise, Mr. Gladstone took occasion to explain that the compromise conditionally offered by him to the Leader of Opposition on the 6th of May,—namely, that the Government, while adhering to their opinion that the closure of debate should be voted by a simple majority, were willing, provisionally, to accept Mr. Gibson's two.thirds amendment, and to put it to the test of ex- perience, on condition that the Leader of Opposition would give them his general support in carrying out the other reforms,— had never practically been accepted, and that the reasons for offering it had ceased to exist, so that the Govern- ment would come in October to the adjourned debate on the Rules of Procedure, unfettered by any such proposal. The assassination of Lord Frederick Cavendish, on the 6th of May, had rendered it impossible to turn to Procedure again ; and as the compromise was offered in the hope of getting the use of some of the new Rules during the present Session for legislative purposes,—which was now impossible,— the motive for accepting a relatively inefficient form of the first resolution no longer existed. Sir Stafford Northcote recog- nised the right of the Government to reserve its liberty in this matter, and, claimed the same right for the Opposition, in allu- sion, apparently, to some communication made by himself to Mr. Gladstone, at an earlier period of the Session.
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