Yesterday Mr. Balfour formally moved the adoption of the new Rules of Procedure for the House of Commons, and Sir Henry for consideration to a The objection to this is that it would probably render it suite impossible to pass the Rules this session. On the whole the proposals have met with general support.
They embrace much more severe penalties for obstruction and defiance of order. Three weeks will be the briefest period of suspension; it will run over from one session to the next; and the member offending will even then not be allowed to resume his attendance until he hag apologised to the speaker. The great speech of the opening debate was m Tir. John Redmond, who, whatever may ie by
be thought of his views and methods, is now acknowledged as one of the greatest if not the greatest orator now in the House of Commons. His opposition to the penal clause of the new Rules was not very effec He declared that the Irish members would, when it seemed to them necessary, defy these rules and refuse to apologise. Do serious politicians," he asked, contemplate the possibility that for a whole Parliament the entire representation of Ireland might be forcibly excluded from the House?" But as a matter of fact a good many members not only contemplated such a possibility, but did so with perfect equanimity. Mr. Redmond's main argument was, however, that neither these nor any other new Rules, would achieve their object; that the only means of enabling Parliament to get though the work was the devolution of local government to local Parliaments—in other words, Home Rule for Inland, There
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