HC Deb 28 March 1867 vol 186 cc727-8
MR. W. E. FORSTER

said, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether instruc- tions have yet been issued to the Civil Authorities and to the Commanding Officers of the Volunteers respecting the employment of Volunteers in the suppression of disturbances; and whether he will undertake to lay such instructions upon the table of the House before the Vote be taken for the Volunteer Service?

MR. WALPOLE

replied, that instructions had been drawn up on the subject by the War Department. Those instructions had been sent to the Law Officers of the Crown, to be put into the shape of regulations, which, when they were approved by those Officers, would be transmitted by the War Office to the lords-lieutenant of the different counties, and by the Home Department to the various civil authorities throughout the Kingdom. When that was done—and he hoped it would be done at no distant day—he should take care that the regulations were laid on the table of the House.

MR. BRIGHT

said, he would beg to ask the right hon. Gentleman, whether it would not be better that they should be laid on the table before they were sent to the lords-lieutenant of counties and the civil authorities, in order that any hon. Member might, if he thought fit, bring them under the consideration of the House before they were finally determined on. Otherwise, the authorities at the Horse Guards might say it was too late to interfere in the matter, as they had repeatedly done in other instances?

MR. WALPOLE

said, he thought it was the usual and the preferable course that the framing of the instructions should be left to the Executive Government, on whom the responsibility which they might involve must naturally rest. They could afterwards be laid upon the table of the House, and that would be the proper time for hon. Members taking any notice of them they might think desirable.

MR. W. E. FORSTER

said, he wished to know, whether the right hon. Gentleman will undertake that those instructions should be produced before the Vote for the Volunteer Service is submitted to, the House?

MR. WALPOLE

said, he had no doubt that that would be done. The instructions would, he believed, be laid upon the table before the Easter recess.