21 AUGUST 1993, Page 11

One hundred years ago

MR. HENRY HOBHOUSE con- tributes to last Saturday's Times a useful letter. He points out that though Parlia- ment has been sitting for six months, and since the end of March has had the whole time of the House, all it has done has been to pass a very simple Budget and an Act for limiting the hours of rail- way servants, to which there was no sort of opposition. Ireland, as he says, blocks the way far more than under a Unionist Government, for not an hour can be found to discuss even such a pressing matter as the condition of British agri- culture. Yet one of the great induce- ments offered to the English voter was that Mr. Gladstone's policy would give ample time for the consideration of non-Irish matters.

The Spectator 19 August 1893