The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-08-08 00:00:00

THE STOURB

am standing on this side of the table, but I am glad to know
that on both sides of the House there is arising a generation
of statesmen who will be competent to cope with tt, and I
only wish to impress upon them that this great task is one
they cannot avoid, and to which I hope they will be equal.
With these views I must consider the nature of this bill,
the fate of which depends on our decision to-day, with
reference to these amendments. It may be very well
to call it a small bill, and to promise that If it were
defeated a larger measure would be introduced
but what I feel Is that from the opposition it has re-
ceived that it is an efficient bill, that it is a bill that
will probably effect its purpose, that at any rate it is a
bill that through great difficulties and after many
vicissitudes has received the general concurrence of Parlia-
ment, and I believe the wide approbation of the people of
England (cheers), and therefore it would only be with the
utmost hesitation that I could counsel the House to take
any step that would have the effect of imperilling the
bill and of preventing its becoming 1aw.... I foresee that if
this bill does not pans into law Parliament may be involved,
and soon, in discussions which may be most inconvenient to
the public interest, arid exercise a very deleterious effect
upon the general legislation of the country. There is some-
thing of such absorbing interest on these questions that
Parliament should never enter into theui unless there
is a great necessity for it. They distract the public
mind from all those measures and questions which are
necessary for the advancement of the country ; and if it
were only for that consideration I should hesitate before
I counselled a step which should lead to such consequences
as those I have pointed out. Had it been at an earlier part
of the session, when there was ample time to enter into calm
and dispassionate consideration with the other House of all
the circumstsawes of the case, and the reasons which have
influenced both Houses, I will not say that I should have
counselled a course which offered no opposition to the
decision of the House of Lords, but whatever I did I
should have done in the spirit of the Constitution, and not
with the intention of browbeating the other House of Parlia-
ment. hut at the present moment Ido not see any oppor-
tunity for such a course, and 1 am convinced, looking at
it as a practical Man, and one Who has had some experience
in this House, that upon our division now the fate of this
bill really depends. . . . Entirely approvinidof the proviso, and
believing that the bill would be Unproved by its Insertion,
still recollecting the effect of rejecting the resolution of the
House of Lords, I do most earnestly request my friends not
to hesitate in their course, but to take a direct. straight-
forward, and determined one, and to act in a way which
will satisfy the country and their own consciences by accept-
ing the amendment. (Cheers.)
A discussion ensued, in which Mr. Gladstone, Mr.
Newdegate. Colonel liarttelot, Mr. Henley, Mr. Holt, and
Mr. Whitwell, took part. slid the amendments of the Lords
were agreed to. The bill was then ordered to be taken to
the llouse a Lords.

OPEN SPACES.

on the motion of Mr. Secretary Cross, the order for the
second reading of the Open Spaces (Metropolis) Bill was de-
ferred for a month.
; TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN.
The adjourned debate on Mr. Butts motion in favour of
postponing the consideration of the Queen's letter relating
to changes in the University of Dublin was resumed, and
after some discussion, in which Mr. Yawcett, Mr. Synan, Mr.
D. Plunkett, and other members took part, the motion was
rejected by 102 to 18.
FIRST FRUITS AND TENTHS.
Mr. Monk moved a resolution on the subject of first fruits
and tenths.
Mr. Bristow was speaking to the resolution, when the
House was counted out at a quarter past five o'clock.