Sir William Harcourt anticipated that a Home .rule Bill or
a Disestablishment Bill would some day be proposed by the Radicals, with a notice that only a fortnight would be allowed for its discussion ; to whom Mr. Goschen replied that the Member for Derby was in the highest possible spirits at the prospect of being so soon released from the arduous duty of resisting the Crimes Bill, and he denied that any precedent would be set for so abrupt a revolution as Sir William had anticipated, by the cutting short of a discussion which had already lasted till the country cried out peremptorily for a termination. After a wearisome discussion, Mr. Parnell's amendment, which was tantamount to a rejection of the motion, and an assertion that it deprived the Irish people of their constitutional rights, was rejected (after the Closure had first been carried), by a majority of 120 (301 to 181).
