Monday night was expended by the House of Commons on
the Supplementary Estimates. They needed discussion, and one or two items may have needed excision, though Mr. Labou- chere's selection, a vote of 227,000 for a Consulate house at Cairo, was not particularly happy. We shall need the house, whatever becomes of Egypt; and it is always bad policy for a Government, which does not die, to pay rent. Every disputed item was, however, seized upon by the obstractives, and the night was wasted in talk intended not to improve the Estimates, but to delay the restoration of Ireland to civilised order. That restoration depends upon the improvement of Procedure, and any conceivable topic which delays the Pro- cedure Bales is therefore eagerly debated. Irishmen even pro- fessed a keen desire to remedy the wrongs of the Civil Service Writers, and would, we doubt not, be eloquent by the hour upon the cost of the porters in public offices. Anything will do.
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