One of the strangest feats of the Obstructives VMS performed
on Tuesday night, when the Parnellites managed to discuss the principles of the Irish borough franchise a propos of a Belfast Main Drainage Bill, Mr. Sexton being very much incensed with Belfast for its success in rejecting him at the General Election. As the Speaker did not rule these highly political and irrelevant remarks on a private Bill to be out of order, of course they were not out of order. But nothing can prove the absolute unsuit- ability of the Rules of Procedure in the House of Commons to such times as these, better than the bare fact that the House was kept for some four or five hours discussing general politics on a private Bill for the main drainage of Belfast, and that in spite of Mr. Courtney's admirable protest, this discussion was permissible and permitted.
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