It is worth notice that the objection made to entrusting
the Chairman of Ways and Means with all the powers of the Speaker for the closure of debate, brings out very strongly the wisdom, on which we have always insisted, of entrusting the initiative in regard to the closure of a debate, not to either' Speaker or Chairman, but to the Leader of the House subject to a veto of the Speaker or Chairman. It is perfectly absurd to leave the proceedings in Committee without the curb, if the proceedings of the House are to be subjected to it. The former need the curb more, and yet it is perfectly true that the Chair- man of Committees will never have the full authority of a. Speaker. The true inference is that the responsibility of pro-. posing the Closure should be given to neither, but to him who can alone duly weigh the urgency of the occasion, and who. ought both to suffer for a reckless use of that responsibility,. and to profit by the wise and prudent use of it,—the Leader of the House of Commons.
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