Mr. Biggar (M.P. for the county of Cavan) has placed
on the Order-Book of the House of Commons notices of his intention to move the rejection of the Prisons (Scotland) Bill, the Public Health (Ireland) Bill, the Valuation of Property (Ireland) Bill, the Roads and Bridges (Scotland) Bill, the Marine Mutiny Bill, the Mutiny Bill, the House Occupiers' Disqualifications Removal Bill, the Supreme Court of Judicature (Ireland) Bill, the Patents for Inventions Bill, the Thrashing Machines Bill, the Peerage of Ireland Bill, the Legal Practitioners' Bill, the Divine Worship Facilities Bill,—thirteen in all. And his bright example appears to be followed by at least one other of the Home-rulers, who think that by sufficiently disgusting the House of Commons with Irish Members, they can get it to concede an Irish Parliament. The loss of Parliamentary time caused by these two obstructives is really very serious, and calls for some remedy. One very obvious remedy, though only a partial one, is to abrogate the rule against taking any opposed measure after a certain hour,—which would very much diminish the use of those long speeches against time of Mr. Biggar's, since in that case he could not hope to render it impossible to bring on opposed business after he had done his worst. But neither this, nor even -the power of voting for the close of a debate, would be really effectual, if such obstructives are inexorable,—for they might be constantly proposing the closing of debates which the House wished to continue, and wasting the time of the House in the division. What we want is to make the Irish themselves ashamed of their obstructives,—to make the latter ridiculous in Irish eyes, which would stop them soon enough. But in these days, when agitators terrorise by a prodigality of dullness, ridicule seems to have lost its sting.
