The motion for the adjournment of the debate was thrice
negatived, by majorities of 106, 166, and 201 respectively, when at last Mr. O'Donnell declared that he only wished to
explain the question he was about to put to the Government ; whereupon Mr. Gladstone withdrew his4 motion, and Mr.
O'Donnell gave notice of the question for Thursday,— whether the Government would lay on the table of the House the evidence laid before the Commission of the National Assembly relative to M. Challemel-Lacour's order concerning the Mobiles, a copy of the judgment ordering him to pay damages for the plunder of the convent, and of the judgment on appeal confirming the original judgment. He also proposed to ask the Postmaster-General whether he would forbid the circulation in this country of newspapers containing the gravest charges against the French Ambassador Designate to this country. And so, for the time, terminated a debate which illustrates very powerfully the great difficulty of Parlia- mentary institutions, and especially, we think, the necessity for extending to the Speaker a larger power as the guardian, not merely of the order, but also of the honour and decorum of the House of Commons. The Speaker might, indeed, better have assumed that power. As he did not, the Prime Minister did well to answer promptly and distinctly to his appeal.
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