In the earlier part of the week the House of
Commons was engaged in debating the intricacies of the Home Rule Bill. We do not propose, however, to attempt any summary of pro- ceedings so unreal and so futile. The knowledge that the guillotine will fall mechanically on masses of undebated clauses and sections takes all heart out of such discussion as is allowed by the Government. Almost the same may be said of the discussion on the Welsh Disestablishment Bill in Committee, which took place on Thursday night. Though an occasional point of interest arose, all sense of reality was banished from the debate. Everyone knew that there would be no concessions made by the Government, and that the Bill would emerge from the so-called discussion in Committee practically in the same shape in which it went in. The House of Commons under the guillotine has become an automatic registration machine.
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