The debate in the House of Lords ended on Saturday
in the second reading of the Home-rule Bill being postponed to this day six months by a majority of ten to one (419 to 41). Out- side the Ministry there were practically no Peers of eminence who voted for the Bill, except Lords Coleridge, Aberdare, Thring, and Farrer. It was noticed that almost all the other Peers of Mr. Gladstone's making, and they are many, went against the Bill. This has been termed ingratitude, as if the first duty of a Peer was to make a suitable return for his creation. In spite of the late hour (1 o'clock), a large crowd assembled outside the Houses of Parliament, and received the news of the rejection of the Bill with cheers. The Peers, as they left the building, were also cheered,— especially Lord Salisbury, who was recognised and warmly greeted. It is a curious sign of the times that the Peers on rejecting a Bill should find themselves popular heroes ; but that is what the whirligig of time has brought to pass. Instead of feeling like men with their backs to the wall, the Peers feel themselves to be the representatives of the triumphant democracy of England.
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