A SUNDAY MORNING'S SITTING.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 6, 30 May 1884, Page 19

A SUNDAY MORNING'S SITTING.

Intense excitement prevailed in the House of Commons on Saturday Maieh 16, a good deal of which was brought about by the vieorous policy pursued by the Irish members in combatting the Government's money votes. The debate which took place gained in imnortance from the fact that Mr. Parnell delivered a remarkable sDeech The Daily News, describing the general scene, says : — ' The Speaker called upon Mr. O'Brien, who had the next motion on the paper. This related to the conduct of Captain Plunkett an Iriah police magistrate ; and after a loug discussion, and a division in which fifteen opposed the motion to go into committee, and fifty seven -voted in favour of it, the House went into committee and took up the business of the day. Further talk was chiefly confined to the Irish members, who at one o'clock yesterday morning, avowedly feeling fatigued, insisted that the Solicitor-General for Ireland should addrees them at length, whilst they took an interval of rast. This course was complied with, after which speech-making was resumed by the Irish members, who, to the pained surprise of the committee, developed energies which seemed to increase as the night advanced. At three o'clock Mr. Biggar came prominently to the front with a violent attack on Earl Spencer and " his confederates, those disreputable persons," the resident magistrates, who were, he added, bankrupt in character and in pocket. Interrupted by the chairman, Mr. Biggar moved a count, when between fifty and sixty membersflocked in. An hour and a half later, Mr. Healy, taking a long ook ahead, was threatening to obstruct the Appropriation Bill when it came on in August. •« We have no birds to shoot," he said: whereupon Mr. Lyulph Stanley observed sotto voce, " Landlords P The remark was made in so low a tone that it did not reach Mr. Healy,' who was proceeding with his remarks, when Mr. Sexton, eager in the cause of orderly debate, called his attention to it. Mr. Healy appealed to the Chairman on the point of order. Sir Arthur Otway pointed out that the remark had not been made in debate or shouted acrosß the House — as, he might have added, the Irish members— notably Mr. Healy— had been shouting interruptions across the House whenever Mr. Treyelyan was on his legs. Mr. Healy then moved to report progress in order that the Speaker might be consulted on the matter. This Mr.Childers opposed, on the ground that there was no precedent for such a motion. After some conversation, in the course of which Mr. Stanley voluntarily withdrew and apologised for the expression, the motion to report progress was withdrawn, and the vote under discussion, the last on the estimates, was agreed to. Mr. Sexton gave notice that he will to-day bring under the notice of the Speaker the expression for which Mr. Stanley had apologised. Cheered by this prospect of renewed opportunity of vindicating order in debate and courtesy in speeoh, the seven-Irish members who had remained to the last did not oppose the reporting of the resolutions, and at a quarter to six the House adjourned, having sat uninterruptedly for nearly eighteen hours. The London correspondent of the Irish Times, writing of Sunday morning's sitting, says : — Nothing short of a sporting phrase will answer. The Irish. Irreconcilables have cut the record : not only so, but they have left all previous figures far behind. They have marked a fresh date and an unprecedented event in the Parliamentary history. Last session, when they kept the House sitting from Saturday afternoon till two and a half hours into the Sabbath, pious folk uplifted hands of horror, while patriotic citizens cried out m impatient indignation against the enemies of the empire. This morning we staggered rather than, . walked out of- the Commons Chamber, with- sleep in our eyes and weariness in our limbs, in the grey daylight of six o'clock in the middle of March. It was. taking it all round, the liveliest, the most combative, the most excited sitting we have bad for many a ' day we have not seen the end of it yet.