It had always been held, and was laid down by Erskine May, that no question or bill could be brought up in the House that was substantially the same as one on which judgment had already been expressed in the current session; and 'when the Speaker nevertheless ruled that Mr. Asquith's motion, though unprecedented, was in order, Opposition exasperation became intensified to a point beyond control. After Mr. Bonar Law had argued the case at length, and had moved the adjournment of the debate, which Mr. Asquith curtly declined to accept, a state of organized disorder prevented any further proceedings. The Speaker at last took the only course open to him, and adjourned the House. There seemed likely to be renewal of the same scene next day, but calmer counsels prevailed. At the opening of the sitting the Speaker suggested that, if more time were given for reflection, a less objectionable way might be found for regularizing the proceedings. Mr. Asquith promptly accepted this suggestion, and moved that the House should ad- journ for the purpose till Monday the i8th. As Mr. Bonar Law concurred, this course was adopted, and the anticipated storm was avoided. The air had previously been cleared to some extent by amends being made by Mr. Ronald McNeill for the most violent incident in the disorder of the previous evening. In the heat of the moment he had thrown a book at Mr. Win- ston Churchill which struck him a severe blow on the face; but he now offered a handsome apology.
The Liberal press was inclined to treat the opposition to Mr. Asquith's motion as purely factious, and the organized disorder as a further mark of deterioration in parliamentary manners. But the historian cannot well take this simple view. The de- feat of the Government was certainly an accident, but it was the sort of accident that happens when a number of nominal supporters are not personally enthusiastic for the particular cause involved, or are being tired out by excessive demands on their attendance. The opinion of a high independent Liberal authority on procedure, Mr. James Caldwell, ex-M.P. and formerly chairman of committees, was moreover that Mr. Asquith's proposal for meeting the new situation was " clearly out of order " (The Times, Nov. 16), although not so ruled by the Speaker. Owing to the critical state of foreign affairs, con- sequent on the situation in the Balkan War, a change of govern- ment, as Mr. Bonar Law frankly admitted, was not at this moment desirable; and if the Government chose to ignore what was formally a parliamentary defeat their normal majority was still available. But the Opposition were naturally not pre- pared to forgo what, according to the practice and precedent of Parliament, was a legitimate opportunity for impeding the execution of the Government's programme of legislation for the session; and they gained their point. On Nov. 18 Mr. Asquith made an amended proposal, which was agreed to without further discussion, that the financial resolution should simply be negatived that day and the committee stage on the financial clauses of the Home Rule bill set up afresh on the igth by the introduction of an amended resolution, the report stage of which would be taken on the 2oth, so that the next " allotted day " (the 1 7th day under the time-table) would be on Thursday Nov. 21. This course was accordingly pursued.
After the scare in the Government ranks caused by the mis- adventure of Nov. ii and its immediate consequences, the Home resumption of proceedings on the financial clauses of Kuie Bill the Home Rule bill saw their normal majority auiiiotiae. we]1 kept up; and the ^110^^ fell ^th merciless
regularity. Faced with a hostile and unreformed House of Lords, whose certain antagonism could only be defeated by sending the bill up in time to obtain the benefit of the Par- liament Act, the Coalition were compelled to restrict discus- sion in the House of Commons; and it might well be thought on their side that at this stage, since in any case the Parliament Act involved nearly two years' delay, it was futile to attempt to examine every detail in a scheme which was approved in principle, but which still had a long fight before it. On the other hand it was incontestable that, for a measure of such profound importance, supposing it to be one that might come
into operation as it left the House of Commons, the discus- sion of the various difficult and obscure aspects of the new financial relations proposed between Ireland and Great Britain was entirely inadequate. Clause after clause was carried, undiscussed, under the closure, full of complicated provisions, the working of which very few of the rank and file in Parliament even pretended to understand. For judicial examination in debate, reflecting the careful conclusions of the House of Commons, was substituted the opinion of the ministers in charge of the bill, alike as to the powers it gave and the way those powers were likely to be used. Just as the In- surance Act had left all sorts of obscure questions to be settled by the commissioners, so the Home Rule bill left some of the thorniest problems of the financial relations with Ireland to be solved by the proposed Joint Exchequer Board, an entirely new official body, whose real status was highly questionable; and clause 22 providing for this, with the remaining financial clauses, 23, 24 and 25, were duly guillotined on Nov. 27. Even- tually, under the guillotine, the bill passed its third reading on Jan. 17 1913. The committee stage had ended on Dec. 12, clauses 26-48 and the final schedules having been carried since Dec. 2 by the operation of the guillotine without any con- cession to Unionist criticisms. The committee stage had lasted altogether 36 days, including the 25 provided under the time- table; two clauses (i and 37) had been fully discussed, and 22 partly discussed, while 24 had received no discussion at all.
For the Welsh Church bill the time-table resolution had similarly been carried on Nov. 28, at the end of an all-night sitting, though the Government agreed to give 16 days, instead of the 14 originally proposed, to the committee stage, which began on Dec. 5; and by Christmas 1912 this bill too was well on its way through the House of Commons. The discussions were marked throughout by much bitterness of feeling on the part of the defenders of the Church, among whom Lord Robert Cecil was specially prominent, but they were notable also for some important expressions of the desire of Liberal churchmen to make the disendowment proposals less harsh than what the Welsh Non- conformists considered to be in accordance with their right- ful demands. A concession was made on clause 8, the Govern- ment accepting (Dec. 18) amendments proposed by Sir Ryland Adkins and Mr. Atherley Jones (both Liberals), by which, much to the disgust of the Welsh members, the Church would retain possession of the Queen Anne's Bounty funds and prop- erty. On another amendment, proposed by Mr. Ormsby Gore (Conservative), for keeping all the glebe as church prop- erty, the Government majority fell (Dec. 19) to 55, the figures being 277 to 222; and clause 8 was only carried by 284 to 221. The fact that the majorities in both these cases were smaller than the number of Irish Nationalists voting with the Govern- ment showed that there was a good deal of sympathy with the opposition among some sections of Liberals.
The actual proceedings in the House of Commons were being followed, however, with marked apathy in the country. Everybody felt that the real struggle had to come Revival of during 1913. During the past month the critical Liberal state of European affairs monopolized public in- Contldeace - terest; and the party conflict took a secondary place when larger issues were at stake. Mr. Asquith and Sir Edward Grey, by common consent, were making British influence a powerful factor for peace in the settlement of the Balkan crisis. The administration was strengthened for the moment simply by the fact that it represented the whole nation in the councils of Europe. Meanwhile trade was booming, and in some other respects also the position of the Government was more fa- vourable than it had seemed likely to be a few months earlier. At Bolton, when there was a by-election on Nov. 23, the Liberal candidate surprised his own party by retaining the seat with only a slightly diminished majority. Moreover, the Unionists were again in the throes of further discussions over their Tariff Reform policy. Since Mr. Bonar Law had become the Unionist leader little had been heard of any waver-
