In , the House of Commons on Wednesday Mr. Balfour proposed
that the automatic Closure of the remaining votes in Supply should be applied, not to individual votes, but to classes. If this were not done, the mere physical act of voting would take some twenty hours to carry through. Very naturally, and from their own points of view quite reasonably, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman and Mr. Redmond expressed their disapproval of the proposal, while Mr. Bowles, as the candid and acrid friend, made a very clever quotation from Bolingbroke. It was not quite as apposite as it sounded, but the art of quotation has so greatly degenerated of late in the House of Commons that we must not scrutinise it too closely. Mr. Balfour's reply was very happy. There is really no reason why Supply should not be closured automatically in classes if it can be closured auto- matically in single votes. But, in truth, there was little real opposition to Mr. Balfour's proposal, the only substantial criticism coming from Mr. Robertson, who really contributed Something to the consideration of the general question of how to deal with Supply without endangering the control of Parliament. Ultimately Mr. Balfour's scheme was carried by 92 (205 to 113).
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