PARLIAMENTARY NOTES.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 1, 25 April 1884, Page 7

PARLIAMENTARY NOTES.

(The Nation, March 8.) Considering- the nature of the measure to be proposed by the Premier on the evening of Thursday week, and that a lengthened speech in explanation of fche Franchise Bill was expected, the House of Commons was, to say the least, neither full of excitement nor of members. The Ministerialist benches above the gangway, in especial, were but sparsely occupied, as though that section of the Liberals who abhor Radicalism quite as much as the Tories do had very little stomach for Parliamentary reform. The Tory benches showed a fair muster ; and on the Opposition side, below the gangway, sat about a score of Mr. Parnelre following. Yet the Premier's speech was well well worth being heard if only for itself as an intellectual performance. All too frequently his deliverances are couched in phrases as equivocal as the Delphic oracle, and many a time his utterances seem to be conceived in the spirit of the wily old French diplomatist who held that language was bestowed on man to enable him to conceal his thoughts. But there was nothing doubtful or hard to be understated of the people in the speech of Thursday night. It dealt with a complex variety of topics, overlapping and interweaving with each other ; yet when these had been submitted to his dexterous analysis they all stood out clearly and distinctly, m their proper relations, before the mind's eye of the hearer. Mr. Gladstone's manner was less warm and more business-like in the main than 19 usually the case with him when he is delivering a long oration. Two or three times, however, he warmed up in his most effective fashion ; as, for instance, when a semi-audible remark which he could not catch came from the Opposition benches, and at once, with withering sarcasm, he said he would be very glad to p-*ck up information from any observation addressed to him. but if il was tn be inaudible he begged to be allowed to proceed. Again, when alluding under a thin disguise of words to the course the Lords might take with the part of the Bill relating to Ireland, he suddenly turned and looked up at the Peers' gallery, which had several occupants ; and his tone and manner were full of menace, though his language was as smoothly Parliamentary as ever was heard in the House. This speech lasted exactly one hour and forty-seven minutes, was characterised by an unfailing flow of apt expressions, and by extraordinary lucidity in the arrangement of its matter. Altogether it was a marvellous performance for a person seventy-four years of age: and the effect it produced on the Radical listeners helps to explain the kind of hero-worship entertained for the speaker by most of those who sit below the gangway on the Ministerial side of the House. ,. lbe l ™° were amongst the most attentive of Mr. Gladstone's audience. They sat in silence, calm, coldly critical, and free from the slightest trace of excitement. Even when 'they heard that Ireland was to be put on terms of equality with England and Scotland in the Premier s Bill they remained icily impassive. Not till Mr. Gladstone x said that nothing would induce the Government to drop the Trish part of the Bill and go on with the remainder did any sound escape from the Irish ranks. Even then there were no hearty cheers, or indeed anything much louder than murmurs. The Irish members have had too much experience of this Government's way of keeping the word of promise to the ear and breaking it to the hope to <*o° into ecatacies over any pledge that may be made by any member of the Ministry. There is no need to weary over the debate that followed, and which consumed the rest of tbe sitting. Suffice it to say that the Tories revealed their determination to oppose the Bill tooth and nail. They evidently regard the Iri B b part of the measure as the key of the Government position ; and against that part, accordingly, assault after assault may be expected to be launched with tbe pertinacity of Napoleon's legions in tbe struggle for the farm hou«e of Hueouraont. Indeed as much was made clear on Monday night in the adjourned debate. For the debate was adjourned, although it took place only on the motion for leave to introduce the Bill. Strangely enough, it was Mr. K. P. Kennerhassett who moved the adjournment— for what purpose only Heaven knows, unless it was to remind his Kerry constituents that he is not dead, nor yet lost or stolen, but only " strayed." Monday night then, revealed that not alone the Tories, but the Whig land aS ' mCaQ t0 keep " P e^ in S awa ? "at Ire- j Mr. Goschea is a splendid specimen of the latter class. This pursy Israelite, who owes mainly to Irish popular efforts for religious liberty m the past the fact that he is able to sit in the House at all, has, for some reason or another, a perfectly rabid hatred for everything connected with Irish popular efforts in the present. He strove wJ*?S! n ??w mvm v Mln isterinto docking Ireland's representation by the threat that when redistribution came on he might ffind " the Liberal party ' would not be ready to give effect to his promise to allow Ireland to retain her present number of members. But though Mr. Goscben s ability as a financier is great, his influence *ith " the Liberal party is little ; so he may be lightly passed over. Mr. Darnell followed him in an incisive debating speech, in which point after point was mercilessly scored against the financier, with the result of evoking Ministerial cheers after almost every sentence. Ihen he turned hia attention to the Tories, and exposed £ ei L^ • ' P° xntlD g out that while they asgailed the Irish branch of the Bill it was really the life of the Bill at which they aimed. With the utmost impartiality he afterwards proceeded to twit the Whiea with the unpleasant fact that since the general election the Irish party had won four seats from the Ministerialists : and it was a pleasant sight for Irish eyes to behold the air of almost haughty conviction with which he told the House that, Franchise Bill or no franchise Bill, the Irish party feel confident that the justice of their cause and the devotion of their people will enable them to carry to a triumphant conclusion the advocacy of the principles for which they stand together. v