Lord Rosebery, in an amusing speech, ridiculed the Government for
repudiating the principle of their own English Bill, and remarked that though Lord Crewe had got out of his difficulty with the airy grace of a butterfly, he was still a butterfly with a pin through it. He could not conceive what was the want of courtesy said to have been shown to the Commons. Were not Ministers in the Commons engaged at that moment in delivering a kick to their own Bill with the lusty leg of a half-back, and "with very much the same contemptuous action," in order to send it spinning for the second time into the House of Lords ? He deprecated the Government Bill, and praised Lord Camperclown's Bill, for reasons that we need not repeat. Lord Courtney's Motion that the debate be adjourned was defeated by a large majority, and Lord Camperdown's Bill was read a second time.
Previous page
