HORSESHOE CLOISTERS, WINDSOR CASTLE.
worthy of such an august Assembly as the House of Commons. The business in hand was too serious to be transacted without a quorum—so Mr. Biggar invariably tried to “count” out the House. Public affairs ought not to be transacted at an hour when, to use his favourite phrase, “no decent person would be out of their beds,” so Mr. Biggar would insist on adjourning the House or the Committee about one o’clock in the morning.[101] And Mr. Biggar played his part in the serio-comedy with so much elfish delight and quaint, grotesque humour, that if the House now and then roared with rage at him, it still oftener roared with laughter. Those who saw deeper than the surface saw that something more serious than a comedy was being produced by these new performers from Ireland. They saw sprouting the germ of that extraordinary policy of Parliamentary pressure by which the new school of Irish Nationalists sought to gain their end—the policy that offered the Imperial Government the choice of one of two alternatives—concession of autonomy in Ireland, or the sacrifice of the ancient liberties and privileges of Parliament.
Still Englishmen were loth to believe that an issue so grave would be forced upon them. Indeed, the Conservative Party regarded obstruction, so far as it had gone, with merely a Platonic hatred. It had been used only to check legislation, and Conservative interests were not hurt by keeping things as they were. Then it was also said that the success of Mr. Parnell was due to the feebleness of Mr. Cross, who, however, was in a position to smile at such innuendoes. Whether he had been strong or weak, Mr. Cross had, at all events, got his Prisons Bill passed in a form that brought him great credit in the country. However, in the lobbies of the House of Commons and in the political clubs the general opinion was, that there was no need for Conservatives to be alarmed so long as Mr. Parnell merely delayed legislative changes. He would not venture to obstruct administrative work, and he must assuredly succumb if he challenged a vigorous and resolute Minister like Mr. Gathorne-Hardy. Mr. Parnell accordingly put up Mr. O’Connor Power to block Mr. Hardy’s Army Estimates on the 2nd of July. Mr. Power waited till the Army Reserve Vote came on, and then he met it with a motion to report progress, first, because money ought not to be voted away after midnight, and secondly because Ireland, not being allowed to raise a Volunteer Force, ought not to pay taxes to support the Volunteer Forces of England and Scotland. Would Mr. Hardy explain why Ireland should not have Volunteers? Mr. Hardy seemed speechless with wrath at the audacity of the attack, and met the question with contemptuous silence. The interest of the House was now roused. It would be seen whether the strong Minister of the Government, would be more successful than Mr. Cross in coping with obstruction. Of course the motion was defeated—but eight members, including Mr. Whalley, voted for it. Mr. Parnell, it was then seen, had a small party at his back, nay, he had lieutenants at his call ready to serve. Mr. O’Donnell next moved that the Chairman of Committee leave the chair, and defiantly warned Mr. Hardy that, till he did answer Mr. Power’s question, no Supply would be voted. Mr. Hardy still refused, and then the struggle went on merrily, dilatory motions being moved one after the other, till at last the Government gave up the fight, and allowed the House to be counted out at a quarter past seven in the morning.[102] Mr. Cross was the only Conservative member who did not appear crestfallen next day. His “feeble” method of dealing had, at all events, borne fruit. He had got work, and good work, done. Mr. Hardy’s vigour had simply demonstrated to the world that six Irish members could keep the House of Commons sitting till seven o’clock in the morning, and keep it sitting for nothing. Sir Stafford Northcote accordingly carried the feeling of the House with him when, at next meeting, he threatened to move that the rules of Procedure be reconsidered. But on going into the matter he found that this would take time. The rules were dear to Members opposed to reform, because they were so contrived as to give the utmost facilities for impeding legislative change. Hence, he intimated, on the 5th of July, that he would deal with the difficulty after the Recess. Mr. Parnell’s retort was to obstruct business at that sitting till about three in the morning. He and his friends not only opposed the clause in the Irish Judicature Bill fixing the salaries of the Irish Judges,[103] but they affected to have suddenly taken an absorbing interest in the Solicitors Examination Bill which had come down from the House of Lords. On the 23rd of July Sir Stafford Northcote, still shrinking from altering the rules of the House, tried to meet the case by moving that the Government should confiscate for their business the nights allotted to private members. This enabled the Parnellite Party to again obstruct business, as champions of Parliamentary privileges.
By this time the House of Commons was working itself up into a fit of burning indignation. The anger of the Conservatives indeed knew no bounds, for they saw that they must either submit to Mr. Parnell, or surrender privileges of obstruction which they had themselves found useful in defeating measures of reform in bygone days. Mr. Parnell’s Party sat maliciously cool and annoyingly calm through all the turmoil; indeed, Mr. Parnell seemed bent on provoking the Tories opposite him, by assuming towards them a demeanour of supercilious aristocratic superiority that cut them at every moment like a whip. His manner of disdainful mastery indicated that he must have some dire instrument of torture in reserve for them. And so he had. He and his friends had picked up a Bill which nobody dreamt of seriously attacking, because it was purely an administrative measure proposed by the Colonial Office. It gave the Colonies and the two Dutch Republics in South Africa the means of forming a Confederation if they chose to do so. It was perfectly harmless and permissive, but it was unfortunately complex and loaded with detail. Mr. Parnell and his band had devoted their unremitting energies to mastering, not only this Bill, but every imaginable point in South African policy. Hence, when it came before the House, they suddenly appeared in the character of South African “experts,” who knew infinitely more about the subject than the unfortunate Minister in charge of the measure. The Government had also annexed the Transvaal Republic under the erroneous impression that the Boers desired annexation, and Lord Grey had frankly admitted in the House of Lords that South Africa was not ripe for Confederation. A few Radical doctrinaires, led by Mr. Courtney, alarmed at the annexation of the Transvaal, also disliked the Bill. In fact, an ideal opportunity for practising obstructive tactics had been presented to Mr. Parnell by the Government, and he took advantage of it ruthlessly. He and his Party opposed the South Africa Bill line by line, nay, almost word by word,[104] contemptuously asking Ministers to explain why they persisted in giving to Colonies that did not want it, the autonomy for which Ireland sued in vain. What, however, chiefly embarrassed the Ministry was the factiousness of several powerful Radicals, like Mr. Chamberlain, Professor Fawcett, and Mr. Rylands, who, not content with expressing dissent in the constitutional manner on the Second Reading, voted with Mr. Parnell in obstructing the formal proposal to go into Committee on the Bill.[105] It would have been comparatively easy to rouse an overwhelming force of public opinion against Mr. Parnell at this juncture, had not Messrs. Chamberlain, Rylands, Courtney, and Fawcett thrown over his opposition the ægis of their personal authority. Their unexpected alliance emboldened Mr. Parnell, who accordingly blocked the Bill in Committee to such an extent, that Sir Stafford Northcote, on the 25th of July, moved that the Irish leader be suspended for two days because he had said he had “satisfaction in preventing and thwarting the intentions of the Government in respect of the Bill.” In the wrangle that followed, Mr. Parnell’s cool, supercilious manner rendered the House almost ungovernable, until several Members recalled it to reason. It was seen that the words expressed no more in themselves than a legitimate act of critical opposition. Mr. Whitbread moved that the debate on the motion to suspend Mr. Parnell be adjourned for twenty-four hours. Mr. Hardy accepted the proposal, whereupon Mr. Parnell with frigid imperturbability rose and resumed his speech at the very sentence in delivering which Sir Stafford Northcote had interrupted him exactly two hours before. During that sitting, from noon till a quarter to six in the evening, only two clauses were passed. But one point was gained. Mr. Parnell had inflicted on Sir Stafford Northcote a personal defeat so detrimental to his authority as leader of the House, that he was at last compelled to consent to a modification of the rules of procedure.
On the 27th of July he moved two Resolutions, one prohibiting a Member from moving dilatory motions of adjournments more than once on the same night, and another enabling the Chair to put without debate a motion silencing a Member for the rest of the debate who had been “named” as defying the authority of the Speaker or Chairman of Committees. As for Sir Stafford Northcote’s motion to suspend Mr. Parnell, that was dropped at Lord Hartington’s suggestion. After apologetic explanations were given by Lord Beaconsfield and Sir Stafford Northcote to the Members of the Tory Party at a private meeting at the Foreign Office, these resolutions were carried. Independent critics predicted that they would be futile; that, indeed, no remedy short of the Continental clôture, which the Conservatives dreaded much more than Mr. Parnell, could be effective.
LORD DERBY.
(From a Photograph by Elliott and Fry.)