Mr. Gladstone, who replied to Mr. Courtney, and began with
the expression of his great regret at the loss of so able a colleague, remarked that General Garfield, though a good man and a martyr, was hardly so convincing an example of intellectual openness of mind as Mr. Courtney had suggested, since he was certainly present at the Cobden Club and heard a discussion on Free-trade, but had, nevertheless, returned to the United States to advocate and represent the cause of Protection. Mr. Gladstone characterised the Hare system to which Mr. Courtney had given in his adhesion as a political pits asinoritin, and observed on the coldness with which that part of Mr. Courtney's speech had been received. He admitted that the division of great constituencies into sections, returning each a single Member, was open to many grave objections ; but so is every other conceivable proposal, and it is not in the least true that it is either an untried or an unsuccessful experi- ment. After a desultory debate, in the course of which Mr. Goschen delivered a sort of Jeremiad on the agreement of the two parties to push on the Democratic movement, the House passed the second reading without a division ; and Mr. Gladstone will move to-day that the House adjourn to Tuesday, February 10th, 1885.
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