On Tuesday the Government suffered a defeat in the Grand
Committee which is now considering the new Factory Bill. The Government proposed to put laundries regularly under the Factory Acts. Mr. Matthews proposed instead a much more limited scheme of restriction and inspection. On the division being taken Mr. Matthews was triumphant, the Irish Members, with the exception of Mr. Austin, having deserted the Government. The ostensible reason for so acting was their wish to prevent convent laundries being inspected, but it was said that there was also a desire to give the Ministry a slap in the face in remembrance of the Crom- well incident. We do not think the matter very important, one way or the other, but it is an indication of how little the Government is master in its own house. Its powers do not seem to extend beyond holding on. When they asked the Abbe Sieyes what he had done during the Terror, he replied, "I lived,"—a sufficient occupation in such times. The am- bition of the Government seems to be to enable themselves to say, whaza asked what they did during the Session of 1895, " We stopped in."
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