The rest of Mr. Gladstone's speech contained a sentence as
to the occupation of Egypt, which we quote in another column, a review, not too optimist, but by no means disheartening, of the achievements of the Government in pacifying Ireland and in English legislation, and a passage on the experiment of Grand Committees, in which Mr. Gladstone adhered strongly to his hopeful view of the work to be done by invoking the principle of division of labour and of devolution, and he declared that it is by expedients of this kind alone that the House of Commons can hope to overtake the arrears of work for which it is called upon. We sincerely hope that Mr. Gladstone is right. Certainly, if the discussions in the Grand Committees are likely to be so far trusted that the House will consent to read a third time and pass in the middle of August, all measures which have come back from the Grand Committees,—and if the House of Lords will pass those measures at the end of August,—the ex- periment %ill prove a success. But certainly, the experiment of 1883 ought to be improved upon in 1884, if the Grand Com- mittees are to do all that Mr. Gladstone hopes. It will hardly do in general to leave so much to the fag-end of a Session as has been necessarily left to the fag-end of this Session.
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