The Hares and Rabbits Bill has not yet got through
Com- mittee, the landlords having reserved for that gofer stage of the Bill the opposition which they did not venture to give to.itseeeond reading. The heroes of the obstruction have been Mr. Chap- lin and Lord Eleho,—the heavy and the light dragoon of Tory politics—while the Ministers who have chiefly fought the Bill in Committee have been Mr. Bright and Sir William. Harcourt. On Tuesday there was a sharp collision between Mr. Chaplin and Mr. Bright, Mr. Chaplin first moving the adjournment of the House in order to delay the discussion, and then making a long speech before going into Committee, in which he aimed at epigram, and termed this Cabinet "the Cabinet of Confiscation." Mr. Bright replied that Mr. Chaplin and his party, not having had the courage to strike by an open vote against the second. reading, were now trying to talk out and to obstruct, hoping that their constituents in the counties, who had been so weary of their six years' government, would be deceived by the "frothy phrases" of these farmereftiends. He illustrated this obstruction by the amendment of an honourable Member oppo- site, who, being presumably aware that ground-game do not lay eggs, yet offered a very long amendment for discussion on this ground-game Bill, the whole subject of which was the sale of eggs by gamekeepers. An amendment of Lord Elcho's, reserv- ing the right to make ground-game the subject of special contract, was defeated, by 212 to 74 (majority, 138); Mr. A. Balfour remarking dismally that, of course, the country would think the amendment fatal to any practical reform of the Game-laws, but that he must vote with Lord Eleho, if Lord Elcho insisted,—as, of course, Lord Elcho did.
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