Mar is up and streaming rarely." Douglasses, Not very long ago we chronicled a scene in the House of Commons.
'A Bill had been presented claiming Home Rule for Scotland and, in a not over full house, it seemed possible that a snatch taajority might have been secured its favour or, failing that, the vote against it would have been carried by such a small majority ax to have given a fictitious appearance of the probability of the Bill becoming law at some not. very distant date, The of the Bill adopted the well known expedient of talking it out.
That is, they continued the discussion ' until, by the rules of the House, other busi ess must be proceeded with and Who subject then under discussion shelved till a more convenient weapon which, not infrequently, The ved brigade from Glasgow appealed to the chairman to permit the application of the closure that a vote might be taken in the favourable circumstances then existing. But' that gentlemé probably because 8 vote then taken would have real of the been no true indication of the feeling Hou! refused the request and the Bill was talked out as we have said. This ws the occasion for a display of bad temper from the disappointed Radicals and there was another of those regrettable scenes which lower the dignity of Parliament and leave exacerbated feelings behind them.
Scotland, as a whol emo to have taken the incident very quietly.
With the exception of the few Glasgow irreconcilables it is likely that the majority even of those Members of Parliament who voted for the Bill did rather as a protest against the way Scottish measures are sometimes bru ied aside to give way to what, in the opinion of the majority—meaning the members who represent constituency south of the Tweed—are more important affairs, than from any anticipation that' the Bill would ever be carried into effect.
It is. quite true that majorities are apt treat the rights of minorities rather cavalierly and it is a perennial complaint of the Scots members that measures affecting the welfare of their native land receive scant attention from a parliament in which they must, of necessity, be always a minority, There' may be a modicum of truth in the contention, but surely there has rarely been a Parliament in which the interests Of Scotland are less likely to be overlooked than in the one now sitting in Westminster. Not since the days of James the First has so much "braid Scots" eon heard at the Court of St.
"James ai in these days when the Prime Minister of the realm is ""Lossfemouth loon" and the High Commissioner representing the King in Holyrood during the General Assembly of the Chuich of Scotland is a worthy miner from Clydebank.
And so the outburst of the , Wild''men from the Clyde is so! "much the more inexcusable.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.