The session of 1887 was an exceedingly laborious one in the House of Commons. The debate on the Address, prolonged by all the arts of obstruction to inordinate length, furnished a convincing argument that further changes in the rules of procedure were indispensable if the House were to retain any control whatever over its own business, and these rules, including that regulating the application of the closure, were remodelled and adopted after long and heated discussion. [Sidenote: The Queen's Jubilee.] [Sidenote: Thanksgiving Service in Westminster Abbey.] In pleasing contrast to the heat and rancour of proceedings within the walls of Parliament were those organised throughout the country to celebrate the completion of the fiftieth year of Queen Victoria's reign. The weather throughout the summer months was of exceptional splendour, as if to give emphasis to the popular term "Queen's weather." London lay for weeks under a cloudless sky, and no day in the year was more perfect than Jubilee Day, June 21. On that morning the Queen went in procession from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey to attend a thanksgiving service, accompanied by a number of European monarchs, princes, and distinguished persons, as well as by many Indian potentates, gorgeously attired in many-coloured silks and jewels. Temporary galleries, fitted up in the abbey church, afforded seats for peers and members of Parliament and officers of the Army, Navy, and Civil Service, and, as the wearing of uniforms was obligatory, the display of bright colour was such as may very seldom be seen in Great Britain. The coronation chair was set on a daïs covered with red cloth, between the sacrarium and the choir, and here the Queen took her seat with the robes of state placed on her shoulders while the service, which lasted just an hour, was performed. [Illustration: _From a Photograph_} {_by F. Frith & Co._ THE JUBILEE PROCESSION PASSING DOWN REGENT STREET. The escort of Princes in the foreground: the Indian escort immediately precedes the Royal Carriage.] [Sidenote: The Imperial Institute.] It would be impossible, within reasonable limits, even to mention the various schemes started, institutions founded, or funds set on foot to commemorate the Royal Jubilee of 1887. Of these the most conspicuous outwardly has taken the form of that pile of architecture in South Kensington, known as the Imperial Institute, in the foundation, permanent organisation, and direction of which the Prince of Wales has taken as energetic a part as his father had done in the temporary Exhibition of 1851. [Illustration: _T. S. C. Crowther._} THE JUBILEE SERVICE IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY, June 21, 1887. The most conspicuous figures on the Queen's right are the Prince of Wales and the Crown Prince of Germany (afterwards the Emperor Frederick), and to her left the Crown Princess and the Princess of Wales.] [Sidenote: "Parnellism and Crime."] [Sidenote: Appointment of Special Commission of Judges.]