Mr. Balfour, who followed Mr. John Morley, took occasion to
declare that he still held as much as ever to his former policy, that it is right to extend to Ireland a popular system of local government, though it is right also to insist in Ire- land on certain guarantees against abuses which are not at present needful in either England or Scotland. The chief controversy between the two parties arose on the question whether this Bill should be referred to the Grand Committee on Law, which Mr. Morley supported ; while Mr. Balfour and Mr. Chamberlain declared that such a policy in regard to a private Member's Bill, some features of which the Govern- ment itself disapproved, would be a fatal blow at the system of Grand Committees. On that question, the debate was adjourned, the Speaker refusing to allow the Closure to be put.
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