Attempts will, of course, be made to represent the action
of the Opposition as premeditated, but there is no ground for this view of the disturbance. It was due to the very natural exasperation caused by Mr. Asquith's refusal to indicate the nature of the Amending Bill. To ask the House to vote for a Bill which the Government confess they will try to alter in a vital sense as adon as it is passed was to put a very severe strain upon the patience of the Opposition, knowing as they do how difficult it will be to restrain the feelings of the Ulstermen when once the Bill has passed the Commons- and has in effect become law, subject to the few weeks' delay required by the Parliament Act. But though it was natural that the Opposition should protest in this way against the recklessness of the course pursued by the Government, we are convinced that it was unwise. It tends to help the Government out of the very difficult position in which they have placed them- selves. Before the disturbance in the Commons public attention was concentrated upon the discreditable tactics of the Government. Now it has been switched off into a discus- sion whether Parliamentary disorder is ever justifiable, and whether the Speaker ought or ought not to be supported by the Leader of the Opposition.
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