The mutiny in the House of Commons came to a
head on Tuesday, while the Bill permitting the Confederation of South Africa was passing through Committee. The leaders of both parties, alarmed for the declining character of the House of Commons, which was rapidly losing the respect of the country, resolved that the necessary steps must be taken to end obstruction, and as a preliminary, that this Bill must be passed by the united force of the House of Commons. Accordingly, relays of Members were arranged, and it was announced in the lobbies that the House would sit en permanence till the Bill was through Committee. The obstructionists were equal• to the occasion, and for twenty-one hours the Bill was pressed, amidst endless divisions, amendments, and scenes more or less discreditable. The seven Irish malcontents resisted with Irish courage and British tenacity, and it is by no means certain they would have been beaten at last—though Mr. Parnell began to look wild, Mr. O'Donnell could hardly speak, and Mr. Kirk was supported on his logs—but that Sir Stafford Northcote, at 2 p.m., in a carefully moderate speech threatened certain further proceedings. The resistance then collapsed, and the Bill was passed through Committee. The House sat for a time unprecedented in its history—through twenty-six consecu- tive hours—and the Chairman was changed no less than four times. Still the Bill passed, and so far, the result of the struggle was on the side of order.
