On Saturday last Mr. Morley visited his constituency at Forfar,
and at a public dinner, while returning thanks for the Houses of Parliament, begged his audience not to believe all the evil things they heard of the House of Commons. The 'present House of Commons did not, of course, command his unmixed admiration, but in his experience of a dozen or thirteen years be had never seen a House of Commons which, "in temper, in seriousness, in its attention to business, in its perfect good humour, more fully commanded and deserved the respect of those who composed it and of those who elected them." The great predominance among them of young men of considerable promise, not by any means most of them on the Liberal side, but young men of promise and of serious attention to public business, was an excellent sign. We agree, and believe that the personnel of the House of Commons has never been better or worthy of more praise. But what is the good of getting together a body of able men, and then so tying them collectively by rules and conventions that they are at the mercy of the bores and windbags ? The fact that the quality of the Commons is so good only makes the spectacle of their impotence more melancholy.
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