The debate of Monday night on the amendments of Mr.
O'Donnell and Lord George Hamilton to the first resolution concerning Parliamentary procedure,—the resolution as to the closure of debate,—was not very important, for those amend- ments, though intended to throw the responsibility of proposing the closure on the Minister,—which we should much prefer,— really combined the Speaker and the Minister in a joint and several responsibility for the proposal to close debate, which is about the worst solution that has been suggested ; and this was perceived by the House, Mr. O'Donnell's resolution being rejected by a majority of 56 (220 to 164). The only " incident" was what the House understood as a violent attack on the Speaker by Mr. Leighton, for his interference last year, in col- lusion, as Mr. Leighton said, with the Government, to stop the monster debate on the Coercion Bill,—which he exposed in order to show the probability that Speakers and Governments will be confederates in similar conspiracies for the future. It is said, in the gossip of the House, that Mr. Leighton did not really intend to attack the Speaker, whose action he recognises as justifiable under the circumstances ; but if he did not, he certainly managed to conceal his true drift with more than Machiavellian subtlety.
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