Half-a-dozen Irish Members, assisted by Mr. Whalley, are doing their
best to make legislation impossible. They resist every vote taken after 12.30, and move incessant adjournments, necessitating a division on each. Seventeen divisions were ac- cordingly taken on Monday night, and the House did not rise till 7.12 on Tuesday morning. The Chancellor of the Exchequer accordingly threatened to move a reconsideration of the rules of the House, but reflection brought caution, and on Thursday he only promised to consider some plan before the next Recess. The obstructives therefore renewed their attack, and on Thursday the House was compelled by incessant divisions to sit till 2.50. Many plans have been proposed to put a stop to the nuisance, but they are all obviously futile, as none of them will prevent a Member from speaking, and any one of the Obstructives is equal to a speech of six hours. The only effective plan would be to permit the Speaker to give a Member who, in his judgment, was inten- tionally stopping business, into custody, and insist that the Serjeant-at-Arms' fees, amounting, we believe, to more than £300, should be paid before he was released. It is in increasing the power of the Speaker, who is subject to the House, that the remedy for this form of disorder must be found.
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