Sir Michael Beach addressed his constituents in West Bristol on
Monday, at the Victoria Rooms, Clifton, on the results -of the last Session and the prospects of the coming Session, declaring that the complaints of obstruction in Parliament are overdone ; that to a great extent talk is the function of Parliament, and that in all talk there must necessarily be waste of time ; and that the true way to deal with obstruction is to punish the few who waste time in Parliament by voting that they shall not be heard for a week, a month, or a Session, as to Parliament may seem most fit. Very well ; but if that is to be the remedy, the first person to be struck at is the greatest of all talkers, Mr. Labouchere. It would be impossible and unjust to make the first example of Irish talkers, when there is an English talker who outdoes them all. Will the Government propose that Mr. Labouehere be silenced for the rest of the Session after he has made, say, his twentieth or thirtieth speech ? Sir Michael certainly under- rates the rapidly growing tendency to talk even amongst those who do not talk with any wish to delay action. Sir Michael expressed his desire that the Government should turn its atten- tion to the Irish Education question, and to the grant of local government in Ireland on the English pattern ; and said that the excuse made by the Parnellites for resisting the extension of the Ashbourne Land Act,—that they wanted arrears to be dealt with,—was like the child's refusal to eat its pudding unless it were also provided with tart, and that Mr. Gladstone, like the over-fond. and injudicious nurse, declared that what- ever the child desired it ought to have. Sir Michael expressed a wish that the House of Lords and the English Church could be so reformed as to be strengthened, but predicted that the chief part of the next Session must he given up to the strengthening of our naval defences.
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