HC Deb 08 February 1866 vol 181 cc276-7

Qualification for Offices Abolition—Considered in Committee.

(In the Committee.)

Moved, That the Chairman be directed to move the House that leave be given to bring in a Bill to render it unnecessary to make and subscribe certain declarations as a Qualification for Offices and Employments; to indemnify such persons as have omitted to qualify themselves for Office and Employment; and for other purposes relating thereto.—(Mr. Hadfield.)

MR. NEWDEGATE

said, he must express his regret that the hon. Member for Sheffield thought it necessary to moot this question again; but he hoped the hon. Member, as he proposed the Bill in his capacity as an independent Member, would name the second reading for a Wednesday. When the second reading came on he should move that it be read a second time that day six months. The Bill had been several times rejected by the House of Lords, and carried in that House by very small majorities.

MR. HADFIELD

said, he must remind the hon. Member that he had been invited to serve on the Select Committee to which the previous Bill had been referred, and that he had declined. The principle of the Bill had already been six times assented to by the House, and sought merely to repeal a qualification which had never been enforced. A noble Earl in another place (the Earl of Derby), had declared that the declaration, which had never been enforced for thirty-eight years, was not worth the paper on which it was written. He (Mr. Hadfield) was averse to having the second reading for a Wednesday, as he desired the Members of the Government to be present.

MR. NEWDEGATE

said, that he had declined to act on the Committee, because he felt confident that it would find that which they did find—namely, that the Bill consisted entirely of principle, and that, with effect, they could not alter one word of the Bill. The explanation as to the majority on the previous Bill lay in the fact that the measure was brought on for third reading at so late an hour that its opponents were taken by surprise.

Motion agreed to,

Resolution reported.

Bill ordered to be brought in by Mr. HADFILD, Sir MORION PETO, and Mr. BAINES.

Bill presented, and read the first time. [Bill 1.]