Mr. Gladstone's subsequent resolution, that Procedure should take precedence of
all other business, on those days on which it should have been set down by -alb Government, was not much opposed by Sir S. Northcote, and carried, after a shriek or two from Mr. Chaplin, Mr. Gorst, and others, by a majority of 51 (98 to 47); but the Tories regarded themselves as ill-treated by • Sir Stafford Northcote, in that they had, not been allowed to " obstruct " this motion; and at a private meeting of the party on Wednesday, reproaches were freely uttered, which resulted in Sir Stafford Northcote's support of an obstructive policy in the debate of Wednesday afternoon. Sir H. D. Wolff, having then proposed to omit from the Closure Resolution all refer- ence to the Chairman of Ways and Means, so that it would apply only to the Speaker, Sir Stafford Northcote urged upon the House to debate separately the whole scheme for the pro- cedure of the House when the Speaker is in the Chair, and the scheme for procedure in Committee of the whole House, when the Speaker is not in the Chair,—in other words, to provide for the multiplication of its debated on Procedure by two. Nor, when the House adjourned on Wednesday, had. any way been made with the Resolutions. Tory Obstruction was in full swing.
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