SUEZ MAIL NEWS.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1187, 18 May 1872, Page 2

SUEZ MAIL NEWS.

THE GREAT SCENE IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS; There has not been much room for Republican sentiment during this season' of loyal manifestations. The "clubs" have been silent, and there has been but little heard of the knot of men who were" so conspicuous last, autumn.;' If anything can revive this dangerous agitation, a scene in the House of Commons recently will have niipchievous influence. SirOhas. Dilke moved for a long list of returns of I the minutest details connected with the civil list. No sooner did he rise, than Viscount Bury interposed upon a question of privilege, and after reading the oath of allegiance taken by the hon. member, asked whether he had not been, guilty of an infringement of it by his statement at Chelsea that he was a Republican. The Speaker ruled that it was % no part of his duty to say what was inconsistent with the oath, but said there was no violation of it in the terma of the motion. : Sir C. Dilke then stated the grounds of his motion in temperate language, justifying it by precedent and expediency; and acknowledged in the course of hid speech that he had been betrayed into an error at Newcastle as to the nonpayment of income-tax. Mr Gladstone replied with some sarcasm and warmth: Mr Auberton Herbert then rose to second the motion, but was received with a storm of cries and groans that drowned his voice. He would not sit down, but put in a word at every pause, till the confession of his own [Republican preferences redoubled the. uproar. The Conservatives got up in a body and left the House, and- a large number of Ministerialists did the same. Three times in ten minutes an attempt was made to count out the House. Still Mr Herbert stood to his speech. Then one member called the Speaker's attention to the presence of " strangers," and the House was cleared of reporters and visitors. The Daily JVetos, " from a trustworthy source," gives the following account of what followed : — " The interruptions which had taken place during the earlier portion of Mr Herbert's speech were now redoubled. Conservative members withdrew from their usual places in the House, and took, up a position behind|the barj at the side entrances, and behind the Speaker's chair. At this. time Mr Henley, Mr Walpole, and two other gentlemen, were the 'b'hly members of the Opposition occupying their usual places. About; 40 Liberal members were present who took no part, either by applause or interruption, in the extraordinary scene which we are desorib*

iug. From the less prominent parts of the House, to which the Conservative members had retired, an incessant clamor arose. Cockcrowing in every variety, from the hoarse cry of the cochin to the shrill note of the bantam, and other farm yard sounds, together with repeated imitations of the rise and fall of Mr Herbert's voice, prevented a single sentence from reaching the ears of those who were assutred to be the auditors." The clamor was prolonged for some time, notwithstanding the protests of the Speaker. After about an hour, the gallery was reopened. Mr Fawcett then spoke — uncompromising and radical as he is— and "after informing the Conservatives that in the course which they had pursued to stifle discussion would serve the Republican cause rather than that wh : ch they had at heart, went on to express his dissidence from the tone and spirit of Sir C. DUkes speeches, and to protest against raising the question of republicanism over a miserable haggle about a few pounds involved in the household expenditure of the Queen. Disapproving of the agi* ,tion of which this motion was a part, he should not rote for it, although he was anxious that inquiry should be made into the Civil List." Finally, the motion was rejected by a majority of 276 to 2. Mr Herbert "told" with Sir Charles Dilke, and the two members who voted for the resolution were Sir W. Lawson and Mr Anderson, the member for Glasgow.