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. Winston Churchill which struck him a severe blow on the face; but he now 

 offered a handsome apology, which was equally handsomely accepted. 



The Liberal Press was inclined to treat the opposition to Mr. Asquith's motion as 

 purely factious, and the organised disorder as a further mark of deterioration in parlia- 

 mentary manners. But the historian of Parliament cannot well take this 

 atlssue! simple view. The defeat of the Government was certainly an accident, but 

 it was the sort of accident that happens when a number of nominal sup- 

 porters 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 " (Times, Nov. i6th), although not so ruled by the Speaker. 

 Owing to the critical state of foreign affairs, consequent on the situation in the Balkan 

 war, a change of government, as Mr. Bonar Law frankly admitted, was not at this 

 moment desirable; and if the Government chose to ignore what was formally a parlia- 

 mentary defeat their normal majority was still available. But the Opposition were 

 naturally not prepared to forgo what, according to the practice and precedent of Parlia- 

 ment, was a legitimate opportunity for impeding the execution of the Government's 

 programme of legislation for the session; and they gained their point. On Monday the 

 1 8th 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 lyth day under the time-table) 

 would be on Thursday November sist. This course was accordingly pursued. 



The loss of a full week led to some questioning as to either the Welsh Church Bill 

 or the Franchise Bill being dropped, but any such intention was firmly denied by 

 Ministers. The only immediate victim to the necessity for lightening the ship was the 

 Mental Deficiency Bill, an important social reform which a section of Radical members, 

 in the supposed interests of individual liberty, were hotly opposing in Standing Com- 

 mittee; the Home Secretary on the igth announced ; that the hope of carrying this 

 measure through must now be abandoned, though it would be reintroduced next 

 session with the improvements suggested by the examination it had already received. 

 Mr. Asquith, speaking at Nottingham at the annual meeting of the National Liberal 

 Federation on November 22d, declared that the Government intended to pass Home 

 Rule, Welsh Disestablishment, and Franchise Reform, before the prorogation. He 

 vigorously denied that there was any justification for the Opposition contention that 

 a majority obtained at the last general election for the Parliament Bill should not 

 be used to carry these Liberal measures, to the introduction of which the destruction 

 of the Lords' veto was well known to be a preliminary. The meeting was memorable 

 for the appearance of Mr. Redmond side by side with Mr. Asquith, this being the first 

 time that a Nationalist leader had been on a National Liberal Federation platform; 

 and he made a speech insisting on the solidarity between the Irish and Liberal parties, 

 and the cordial agreement of the Nationalists with the Government programme. 



After the scare in the Government ranks caused by the misadventure of November 



nth and its immediate consequences, the resumption of proceedings on the financial 



clauses of the Home Rule Bill saw their normal majority well kept up, and 



Finance! * the guillotine fell with 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 Parliament Act, 



the Coalition were compelled to restrict discussion in the House of Commons; and it 



might well be thought on their side that at this stage, since in any case the Parliament 



