The House of Commons, on Tuesday, lost its temper, and
allowed itself to sanction a grave act of injustice. Mr. Butt pro- posed, with the assent of the Home-rule Members, that Mr. Biggar, Member for Cavan County, should be placed upon the Cattle Plague Commission, in which, of course, Ireland is deeply inter- ested. Mr. Biggar is intensely unpopular in the House, because he deliberately uses its forms to obstruct business ; and after an acrid and lengthy debate, the House rejected his name by 121 to 90. The vote was a natural expression of annoyance, but it was ill-advised and unjust. The Home-rulers, as a group in the House, had a right to a representative on the Commission, and Mr. Biggar's unpopularity had nothing to do with his fitness, which was not denied. If he transgresses the rules, in his oppo- sition to the progress of business, he can be put down ; but if he does not, he is entitled to any consideration usually paid to a representative Member. Obatructives, however thick-skinned, always yield in the end to patience and good-humour ; but this House is the most impatient we have ever had, and seems to have lost the capacity of making a joke. One Mr. Dowse would be a heavier antagonist for Mr. Biggar than forty solemn Orangemen, but alas ! Mr. Dowse is a Judge. Suppose Sir Wilfrid Lawson tries his hand, and drowns Mr. Biggar in jocularity and water.
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