In support of this view, I would further suggest, Sir, that there is ample power in the rules as they stand for the Chair to economies the time of the House, if this is the only reason why an attempt is now made to curtail freedom of speech and the freedom of debate in this House. I suggest that after all we are making a constitution which, we hope, will last for some years; and the attitude which I find so often in many exalted quarters, that after all, there is now full power with us to revise or change it, should not affect our outlook on this matter. It may be that we are not able to maintain the constitution which we draft now for a long period of years. We may have occasion,–circumstances may prove stronger than our desires,–to make changes, and the Constitution which we sit down to draft today may not last as long as we may desire. Nevertheless, I think it is not in the mind of any Member that the constitution which we draft today so solemnly and so seriously should be changed tomorrow, because by lack of foresight, by want of discussion, by the absence of light thrown upon all corners of it, so to say, we were unable to perceive at the right moment all that lurked in the wording of the Constitution, and suddenly we discovered that we had provided for that which was not intended.
