Mr. Gladstone, having had the letter read at the table,
then moved that the letter constituted a breach of privi- lege, and as Mr. Conybeare did not admit that he had been in the wrong, the House declared the letter a breach of privilege, and was proceeding to suspend Mr. Conybeare for a week, when Mr. Sexton intervened to ask for a short delay ; and Mr. Storey went out to fetch Mr. Conybeare, who returned with a written expression of regret, which he read to the House, for having published (not for having written) the censure on the Speaker, and with an unreserved with- drawal of the words published, Mr. Gladstone treated this as an adequate apology ; and Mr. Balfour, while expressing his regret that Mr. Gladstone had so treated it, recognised the value of unanimity in such cases, and therefore made no objection to the withdrawal of the penal resolution, which was accordingly withdrawn,—a course we greatly regret. The House is getting more and more out of hand, as Mr. Sexton's conduct on Tuesday last abundantly shows ; and Mr. Glad- stone exhibits more and more hesitation and reluctance on every new occasion in enforcing steadily the rules of the House. Not for the Speaker's sake, but in the interests of the House itself, Mr. Conybeare's most inadequate apology should not, we hold, have been accepted.
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