HC Deb 29 May 1876 vol 229 cc1355-6
MR. CHARLES LEWIS

asked the First Lord of the Treasury, On what day he proposes to move his Resolution as to the Exclusion of Strangers; whether such Motion will be taken before the Orders of the Day or as an ordinary Motion; and, whether the terms of the Resolution will be the same as when it was last on the Business Paper of the House?

Mr. DISRAELI

I fear, Sir, I have given much trouble to the hon. Gentleman and to other hon. Members by the delay that has taken place upon this question, and I am sorry for the cause. What I wish to do, if the House will allow me to make the remark now, although it is not altogether regular, is to embody, so far as I can, the preponderating opinion of the House—absolute unanimity I cannot count on—but I wish to take a course which I believe will meet with very general concurrence, and with that view I incline to recede from the position I took the other day and adopt that which was in accordance with my original impression, and which I gave up from representations that were made to me that the general feeling of the House was that the Order, which was a Sessional Order, should be made a Standing Order. Time, however, has elapsed, and one advantage of the delay has been that I have been able to collect the opinions of the House, and I have come to the conclusion that what the House would prefer would be that the Sessional Order of last year should be repeated. I will not undertake to do more than that. I therefore give Notice that I will to-morrow move that the Order of the 31st May, 1875, relating to the Exclusion of Strangers, be made a Sessional Order. I shall put it down among the Notices of Motion, and it will not interfere unnecessarily with the expected Business of the House.

Mr. CHARLES LEWIS

gave Notice that when the Motion of the right hon. Gentleman came on he would propose a Resolution to the effect that it should be in the power of the Speaker to exclude from the Speaker's Gallery and from the Reporters' Gallery any person who had abused the privileges which had been granted to him by the House.