The House of Commons has spent the middle part of
the week in galloping through the Committee stage of the Old- Age Pensions Bill. We are no friends of dilatory discussion, but we are bound to say that we never remember a worse case of the suppression of debate than that which has been caused in the present instance by the operation of the "guillotine." If ever a measure required careful argument, it is this tremendous revolution, not only in our policy of State relief to the poor, but in our whole fiscal system. To vote under "guillotine" conditions an immediate permanent addition of some eight millions sterling to our expenditure, and to commit the country to a prospective expenditure of some- thing like fifteen millions, is an exercise of the tyranny of the majority for which we can see no excuse. The House of Commons has been made to abdicate its essential function in the matter of expenditure. We have dealt with the scandal of the " guillotine " at length elsewhere, but must point out here that, apart from the voting of clause after clause without any discussion, the effect of the shadow of the "guillotine has been to render petty and unreal a great deal of such debate as has been allowed. Instead of serious argument on substantial points, there has been wrangling and recrimination, and a tendency on the part of the Government to treat even the most material amendments as mere devices for destroying their BilL
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