The autumn Session of Parliament (which opened on the 24th of October, 1882) had been spent in a struggle over the new Procedure Rules, the Ministry endeavouring to persuade the House of Commons to adopt the principle of Closure, which the Conservatives opposed with all their strength. In this struggle the Ministry won. They carried their Rules for checking obstruction, and so when Parliament met, on the 15th of February, 1883, it was expected that the Session would be a busy one. The composition of the Cabinet had been considerably changed during the previous year. Mr. Bright and Mr. Forster had left it, Mr. Bright’s secession being due to his disapproval of the bombardment of Alexandria; Lord Derby had now become Secretary to the Colonies; Lord Kimberley had gone to the India Office; Lord Hartington was Secretary for War; Mr. Childers, Chancellor of the Exchequer; and Mr. Dodson, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Sir Charles Dilke entered the Cabinet as President of the Local Government Board. As Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs he was succeeded by Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice, a painstaking but unsteady Whig. The din of the extra-Parliamentary strife of the recess was stilled, and the House of Commons, like the country, was in a mood to welcome Liberal measures carried out in a conservative spirit. Among those announced in the Queen’s Speech were Bills for codifying the criminal law, for establishing a Court of Criminal Appeal, for amending the Bankruptcy, Patent, and Ballot Acts, for reforming Local Government, and for improving the government of London.