When the gauntlet of all the Irreconcilables had been at
last run, Mr. Gladstone moved his resolution pro- posing to put the absolute control of the proceedings of the House into the hands of the Speaker, on any occasion on which, the Minister of the Crown having de- clared the state of public business urgent, the House resolves by a majority of three to one that it is so, the Speaker retain- ing this control till either he voluntarily relinquishes it, on the ground that urgency has ceased, or the House, after notice given, votes that urgency has ceased. The Prime Minister sup- ported. this resolution in a speech of singular stateliness,—a complete refutation, if one were needed, of the nonsense about Mr. Gladstone's excitability,—in which not a word irritating or painful to the Irish Members was contained. It was a ques- tion, he said, of honour or dishonour, of life and death, to the House of Commons, to be able to put down such obstruction as they had lately suffered from. Liberty of speech, so long as it re- mained consistent with liberty of action,with liberty to get through the pressing duties of the House, could hardly be too securely guarded. But the House had passed through the stages of pain, embarrassment, and discredit ; and without a remedy applied now, the stages of just ridicule, disgrace, and contempt, would be reached. As to the Speaker's conduct, there were those who had been almost impatient of his patience, " little knowing under the surface of that patience what resolution and what courage there lay hid." "As you value the duties that have been committed to you," he concluded, " as you value the traditions you have received, as you estimate highly the interests of this vast Empire, I call upon you, without hesitation, after the challenges that have been addressed to you, after what you have suffered, to rally to the performance of a great public duty, and to determine that you will continue to be, as you have been, the mainstay of the power and glory of your country, and that you will not degenerate into the laughing-stock of the world."
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