On Friday week, after the passing of the Prevention of
-Crime (Ireland) Bill in the House of Commons, Sir John Hay moved that so much of the resolution as included Mr. Marum in the suspension of the previous Saturday should be cancelled, on the ground that Mr. Marum had been included in it by mistake, and had not been guilty of obstruction; indeed, his amendments to the Bill had been ac- cepted by the, Government, which thereby acknowledged the reasonable character of his criticisms. The motion was resisted, on the ground that it would never do to admit the fallibility of the officers of the House on a question of order, even though they had made mistakes,—a very dangerous sort of position, which makes Popes of the Speaker and the Chairman of Committees on all occasions on which they speak em cathedra on questions of -order or disorder. Sir John Hay's motion was rejected by 61 votes against 29. It is to be hoped that there will be a stronger muster when the more general questions are discussed raised by Mr. Gorst's motion, and Mr. Dillwyn's amendment on it which affirm the inadmissibility of retrospective condemnations for obstruction passed on Members who have never been warned in what light their conduct appears to the guardians of order in the House. We cannot refrain from repeating with groat emphasis the conviction that we expressed last week,—that Mr. Playfair's coup crotal, well intentioned as it was, was executed in a fashion that, if turned into a precedent, might easily extinguish liberty in the House of Commons, and silence arbitrarily, without oven decent notice, the most Constitutional and model. rate exponents of the highest causes.
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