d, Mr. Speaker Brand, who had been absent
from the House for some hours, suddenly resumed the Chair, and, without
waiting for J. G. Biggar to finish his speech, put the question that
leave be given to bring in the Coercion Bill. The Irish raved and
stormed, and cried out against the Speaker's action as "a Breach of
Privilege." That it was not; but it was an unexpected and a salutary
revolution. When questioned, later in the day, as to the authority on
which he had acted, the Speaker said, "I acted on my own responsibility,
and from a sense of my duty to the House." Thus was established,
summarily and under unprecedented circumstances, that principle of
Closure which has since developed into an indispensable feature of
Parliamentary procedure.

The Session as a whole was extremely dull. The Irish Land Bill was so
complicated that, according to common report, only three persons in the
House understood it, and they were Gladstone, the Irish Chancellor,[36]
and Mr. T. M. Healy. The only amusing incident was that on the 16th of
June, owing to the attendance of Liberal Members at Ascot Races, the
majority on a critical division fell to twenty-five. Having occupied the
whole Session, the Bill was so mangled by the House of Lords that the
best part of another year had to be spent on mending it. Meanwhile, the
Coercion Bill proved, in working, a total failure. Forster had averred
that the police knew the "Village Ruffians" who incited to crime, and
that, if only he were empowered to imprison them without trial, outrages
would cease. But either he did not lay hold of the right men, or else
imprisonment had no terrors; for all through the autumn and winter of
1881 agrarian crimes increased with terrible rapidity. In a fit of
desperation, Forster cast Parnell into prison, and Gladstone announced
the feat amid the tumultuous applause of the Guildhall. But things only
went from bad to worse, and soon there were forty agrarian murders
unpunished. Having imprisoned Parnell without trial, and kept him in
prison for six months, the Government now determined to release him, in
the hope, for certainly there was no assurance, that he would behave
like a repentant child who has been locked up in a dark cupboard, and
would use his influence to restore order in Ireland. Dissenting, as well
he might, from this policy, Forster resigned. His resignation was
announced on the 2nd of May. That evening I met Gladstone at a party,
and, in answer to an