The debate on the half-past twelve o'clock rule was an
amus- ing one, and Sir John Hay carried 26 Members with him into the lobby for the total repeal of the rule, for which very able men like Sir John Lubbock and Mr. Bryce also spoke. But the industrious private Members are not numerous. Among the 26 wore some Irish Members, and the majority opposed to the total repeal of the half-past twelve o'clock rule numbered 129. Lord George Hamilton got for his proposal to take no new business after midnight, and to stop work entirely at half- past twelve, a great many more votes than Sir John Hay got for his proposed long hours, Lord G. Hamilton carrying 58 Members
with him, as against Sir John Hay's H. Moreover, the majority against Lord George Hamilton's Eight Hours' Bill, as it may be called, was only 101 ; whesseas, 129 voted against Sir John Hay's elimination of all limit of time. To be sure, the reasoning of the long-hours men was, to say the least of it, audacious. Mr. Labouchere argued, from the great age of Lord Palmerston and Lord Russell, and the vast strength of Mr. Gladstone, that a man who wanted to live long ought to sit up late, which is very like suggesting that a woman who wants to be beautiful ought to secure a great many admirers ; but then no one was more fully aware of the audacity of his inverted logic than Mr. Labouchere, who was controverted by Mr. Cowen with a dull seriousness which does not say much for that eloquent orator's sense of humour.
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