Sir William Harcourt declared Mr. Gosohen's remarkably temperate speech "inflammatory
and bitter," and spoke of Mr. Goachen as "a chartered libertine." Sir W.Harcourt himself was for the Closure by a bare majority without asking for the consent of the Speaker, and he declared that the Speaker could not give that consent except to a party which he knew to be in a majority. Why not, in the name of wonder p If the Speaker's veto is a mode of iutimating that he does not think the subject adequately
discussed, the Speaker's assent should mean nothing beyond the absence of any clear opinion that the discussion has been inadequate ; and a vote against the Closure after the Speaker had commuted to let it be put to the vote, would imply no sort of censure on the Speaker, but only that whereas the Speaker had been uncertain on the subject, the House had a view of its own. Mr. Raikes replied to Sir W. Harcourt, by whom he was so often interrupted that we are surprised that the Speaker did not call Sir William to order.
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