[Sidenote: Belfast.]
It was after midnight when a very serious bit of business took place.
The House gets to know beforehand when anything like serious debate is
going to take place--even though there be no notice. Accordingly, in
spite of the lateness of the hour, the House was pretty full, and there
was a preliminary air of expectation and excitement. One of the iron
rules of the House of Commons is that the Speaker cannot leave the chair
until a motion for the adjournment of the House has been carried. This
is always proposed by the senior Government Whip. The motion is usually
carried in dumb show, and with that mumble in which business is carried
through in the House when there is no opposition. But it is one of the
ancient and time-honoured privileges of the House of Commons to raise
almost any question on the motion for the adjournment of the House. The
reason, I assume, is that the representatives of the people--when about
to separate--thought in the olden days that it ought to be their right
to raise any question whatsoever, lest the king in their absence should
take advantage of the situation. Many of the rules of the
House--including several which lend themselves to obstruction--are due
to this feeling of constant vigilance and suspicion towards the Crown.
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