On Tuesday night, in answer to Mr. Caine and Sir
William Harcourt, Mr. W. H. Smith explained that while Lord Hartington had rightly supposed that the Government were willing to grant a Committee of Inquiry into compensation to publicans, if it were strongly desired, as they then believed, in different parts of the House, this did not now seem to be the case, and there was, therefore, no intention at present to -Nropose such a Committee. Mr. Smith went on to explain
`he Government proposed to ask the House to sanction an alteration of its rules under which, by a resolution of the House, Bills of great complexity, like the Irish Land-Purchase Bill, which had arrived at the Committee stage, might be taken up in a subsequent Session of the same Parliament at the same stage at which they had been dropped in a previous Session. A Standing Order of this nature world be pro- posed on Monday next, and if carried, he shonld apply it in the case of the Irish band-Purchase Bill. The Licensing Bill, the Tithe Bill (which he hoped to see carried without much controversy), and the Police Bill would be persevered with but the Employers' Liability Bill and the Friendly Societies Bill would- be abandoned, as also would the Scotch Private Procedure Bill, if persistently opposed.
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