Sir S. Northcote had not, however, given up his silencing
idea, and on Thursday he placed on the table resolutions to be formally debated on Friday night. They provide that the procedure in Committee shall, as respects formal motions, be assimilated to the procedure when the House is sitting, and that "when a Member, after being twice declared out of order, shall be pronounced by Mr. Speaker or by the Chairman of Committees, as the case may be, to be disregarding the authority of the Chair, the debate shall be at once suspended ; and on a motion being made in the House that the Member be not heard during the remainder of the debate, 'or during the sitting of the Committee, such motion, after the Member complained of has been heard in ex- planation, shall be put without further debate." We have given elsewhere some reasons for distrusting this proposal, which virtually disfranchises an innocent constituency, without allowieg it an oppor- tunity of returning a better representative ; but it may in the present mood of the House—one of justifiable but excessive anger —have been passed before these lines are in circulation. We con- fess we doubt greatly if any measure that can be devised will prevent obstructions, short of expelling the obstructing Members, or raising the authority of the Speaker till it equals that of a Judge in a Court.
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