. The Commons' Debate on the House of Lords' Committee
was concluded on Thursday night by a discussion, in which Mr. Lewis, the Conservative Member for Londonderry City, Mr. Chaplin, and Mr. Lowther said all the bitter things they could of the Sub Commissioners, the Government, and the Land Act ; and in which Lord Hartington, on whose speech we have elsewhere commented, made a very able defence of the Government, slightly injured, perhaps, by an excessive wish to be polite to the House of Lords. Sir Stafford Northcote, who tried to minimise the action of the Lords, and described the whole debate as a storm in a tea-cup, bad really nothing of the smallest weight to say. The previous question, moved by Mr. Gibson, was defeated, by 303 to 219 (majority, 84), the Irish Irreconcilables not voting in that division ; while Mr. Gladstone's resolution was carried, by 303 votes to 235 (majority, 68), the Irish Irreconcilables voting in this division with the Opposition. It will be observed that even in the latter division, fully one hundred Members of the House must have been absent.
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