Abstract

The Debates on Parliamentary Procedure

After a discussion, begun in February, which has occupied Great Britain House of Commons for nineteen days, a final and decisive division has at last been taken on the first of the politician William Ewart Gladstone's Procedure Resolutions, which provides for the closing of debates. After the experience of determined obstruction which that year supplied, it was generally felt that the creation of some new rules could be no longer delayed, and the result was the code of procedure which the Government proposed last February and which the House of Commons is now debating. Opinion is divided as to the probable effect of this new rule. A large section of the Liberals think it will be almost inoperative, and certainly inadequate to grapple with the evil of obstruction.