On Thursday, when Mr. O'Donnell was to have put his
further questions to the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, it appeared that the Speaker had struck out a portion of these questions, on the ground that they referred to a matter "beyond the cognisance of the House or the Queen's Government." Mr. O'Donnell demanded explana- tions from the Speaker on this subject, which the Speaker refused to give, stating that if Mr. O'Donnell did not put his questions as amended, he should pass him by, and go to the next question on the list; whereupon Mr. O'Donnell declined to put his questions at all, and abruptly left the House. This was hardly worthy of Mr. O'Donnell's usual hardihood and self- restraint. Perhaps he repented the-encomiums he had showered on the Speaker,—at Mr. Gladstone's cost,—in his letter to Thursday's Times. But in throwing up his hand, he forfeited some part of the reputation he has gained for indomitable per- severance, as well as unendurable audacity.
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