TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE ANARCHY IN PARLIAMENT.
MHE sooner this Parliament is at an end, the better. Not only are the Irish Home-rule party fast losing all the little respect for Parliamentary principles which they once had, but the worry and fret of their long-drawn harassments are wearing out the coolest heads in the House, and causing mistakes of temper and of method, where they were least to be expected. For our own parts, we should be pre- pared to support the very strongest measures which any leader would venture to propose for suppressing Parliamentary anarchy. If the House were to give fair notice that it would expel and render ineligible for seven years any Member of Par- liament whom a vote of the House declared to be guilty of deliberately abusing his privileges, to the injury of Parlia- mentary Government, we should be cordially in sympathy with such a decision, though we admit that it ought to be very conscientiously and sparingly applied. But pending some decision as to the proper mode of dealing with Obstruc- tionists, it is obvious that very great coolness and temper are requisite on the part of the leaders and the authorities, in order not to give a fair excuse for a kind of obstruc- tion which it is most desirable to leave without excuse. Now, everybody of weight in the House of Commons appears to be losing this most essential wariness of atti- tude. Sir Stafford Northcote has two or three times himself broken the rules which it was his main object to de- fend. Ho certainly did so when accepting Mr. Newdegate's unfortunate suggestion on the 26th June, and interrupting Mr. O'Connor Power in the exercise of a right which, though declar- ing it to be somewhat strained, the Speaker had accorded him. He was, apparently, again in the wrong in treating as a threat by Mr. O'Donnell, a reference of Mr. O'Donnell's to a threat,— if it were a threat.,'—of another Member's, in relation to the standard Cat-o'-nine-tails. Lord Hartington, again, as we have elsewhere shown, though he has exhibited admirable temper towards the Irish, was very unjust to his own English left wing in haughtily repudiating his connection with them on Monday night. And now, so far as we can judge, either the Speaker himself has made a mistake, or, at least, those . whose duty it was to support the Speaker, have made a mistake, in not suggesting to him that, pending the debate on privilege, to which the Government had quite rightly consented, the practice which was to form the subject of that debate should have been dis- continued. For in this matter the Speaker is clearly the servant of the House, and pending the decision of the House on a disputed novelty, it seems only re- spectful to the House that the novelty in question should have been discontinued.
The dispute itself is of the least possible importance, and has gained importance only from the deep-rooted disposi- tion of the Irish Irreconcilables to take offence, whenever offence was to be taken. But the facts are simple. In con- sequence of the long delays interposed to the passage of the Army Regulation Bill, the Speaker, it seems, had desired a more minute report of the proceedings, for his own behoof and instruction, and had directed one of the officials of the House to take such a report,—in a perfectly impartial sense,—for his own use. This official accord- ingly, sitting in a part of the House usually reserved for Members, appeared on the scene, engaged in taking sedu- lous notes' and the suspicions of the Irish Members were
roused. Mr. Sullivan, in perfectly respectful language, drew attention to the breach of privilege. Mr. Callan, without the slightest justification, described the official as a spy, set to spy on the Irish Members, and described the proceeding as "most improper and dishonourable," a phrase be was obliged to withdraw. Thereupon the Speaker explained that what had been done had been done by his authority, and that if any Member of the House objected to it, the proper way to deal with the matter was to give notice of motion on a question of Privilege, for debating which, of course, the Government would assign an early opportunity. And then he left the Chair. Here the dis- cussion would doubtless have terminated, had the offi- cial note-taker whose duties were in question vacated his place. But he was not instructed so to do, and one of the more reasonable Home-rulers,—Major Nolan,—who went to observe his procedure, reported to the House that his notes were of a kind likely to be unduly prejudicial to Irish Mem- hers in the Speaker's mind, since he was noting as distinct and separate speeches every fragment of an Irish Mem- ber's speech which happened to be interrupted by calls to order, or interpositions of the Chairman of Com- mittees. This irritated the Irish Members afresh, and even Mr. Dillwyn appealed to the Chancellor of the Ex- chequer,—and appealed to him, we think, not unreasonably,—to suggest that, pending the discussion fixed for Friday, the note- taking which had been challenged by the House ought to be suspended. And with this opinion we entirely agree. It may be very true, as Sir Stafford Northcote said, that he had no power to interfere with an order of the Speaker's. It is, no doubt, quite true that the Speaker was not in the House, and did not officially hear the suggestion that, till the discussion came off, the official note-taker should be withdrawn. But, one way or the other, the Speaker should have heard of that suggestion, and should have acted on it. It was clearly giving place to the enemy, to let it be said that pending a discussion on Privilege, the Speaker had insisted on his right to put in force the very arrangement which had been challenged. and was to be discussed. Whatever general arrange- ment the Speaker makes which the House is disposed to criticise, ought clearly to remain in abeyance till the judgment of the House is known. Mr. O'Connor Power, ill as he behaved, had, therefore, some show of excuse for his behaviour, which it was most unfortunate to give him. Thus, latterly, under the pressure, no doubt, of great fatigue and constant trials of temper, errors have been made on both sides, and now, at last, either by the Speaker or by those who failed to suggest to hitn the proper course, which sufficiently prove that the sooner this Session is over, the better it will be for the repute both of the Irreconcilables, and of those whose duty it is to keep the Irreconcileables in check. In the scene of Thursday, Mr. Raikes, the Chairman of Committees, was the only one who came off with flying colours. His temper and judgment throughout were never once at fault.
The clearer it is, however, that the Irish revolutionaries are throwing the whole Parliamentary machinery out of gear, the clearer it also is that a remedy should be found, and not only- found, but applied. If the present Government had but been wise enough to show by their legislation this Session, as they showed by the Irish Intermediate Educa- tion Bill of last Session, that they are as anxious to remedy all real Irish grievances, as they are to put down Irish obstruction, they might have appealed even to Ireland to support them in taking very strong. measures against those foes of Parliamentary Government. Unhappily, they have just offered a mockery to Ireland, in place of a real remedy for a real injustice, and a mockery which the Irish people will keenly feel. That will greatly weaken their hands, in proposing to deal strongly with the- Irish obstructionists, and this we deeply regret. But what the Conservatives have weakened their own power to do, the. Liberals, whenever they succeed them, will be all the more bound to do, and we hope they will do it with a strong band. We hope they will deal concurrently with the true wants of Ireland and the true foes of Ireland,—and there are no foes of Ireland so dangerous as those who are now doing all in their power either to break the tie between the two countries, or to provoke England into withdrawing from tha Irish their equal Parliamentary rights. In this, as we believe, they will never succeed. But they will succeed in making it the first duty of a Liberal Administration to place in the strongest light the contrast,—indeed, the contradiction,— between Irish needs, and the conduct of those who claim, ostentatiously to represent them.
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