What might have been the foundation for a very questionable
precedent was laid in the House of Commons on Thursday week, when a Bill of Indemnity, sent down from the House of Lords, protecting Lord Byron from the consequences of having given a vote before taking the oath of allegiance, was intro- duced into the House of Commons at two in the morning, carried through all its stages,—the Standing Orders of the House having been suspended on purpose,—and passed in the presence of a House of little over forty Members. Mr. Dillwyn, who was present, and withdrew his opposition on understanding the urgency of the case, moved the adjournment of the House yesterday week, in order to call attention to this very dangerous procedure, the only analogous case to which was a similar proceeding in the case of Lord Scarborough, during the Premiership of Lord Palmerston ; but on that occasion the Bill was brought down at four o'clock, to a full House, and the proceeding approved by that House, on the motion of the Prime Minister. Mr. Gladstone and the House generally. approved the course taken by Mr. Dillwyn ; and the Government promised to take into considera- tion the best mode of avoiding such surprises for the future. The House of Lords might send down in this way a Bill in- volving highly important issues, which a supine or un- scrupulous Government might smuggle through all its stages, without any real discussion, or any notice even to the Represen- tatives of the country that it was to be discussed.
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