§ SIR STAFFORD NORTHCOTEI am anxious, Sir, fox the convenience of the House, to put a Question to the Government with regard to the debate which will take place on Thursday, and probably also on the following day, with respect to Candahar. I understood yesterday that it was probable that the Government might desire that the debate should be concluded on Friday, if arrangements could be made for clearing that day for the continuance of the debate. But my hon. Friend the Member for Oxfordshire (Mr. Harcourt) has a very important Motion on the Paper for Friday; and he would not be disposed, I understand, to give way unless he were assured that he would have some early opportunity, say 1730 on Monday next, of bringing on his Motion. I have reason to believe that an arrangement is in contemplation which would meet that case; but it would be for the general convenience that we should know publicly if that is so, and, if not, in what shape an arrangement can be made. My hon. Friend's Motion is on going into Supply. Would it be proposed that Supply should be taken, and he should stand first on Supply, or that he should make his Motion as a definite and substantive Motion on Monday, and the Orders of the Day be postponed until that Notice has been taken?
MR. GLADSTONEIt appears that it would be for the convenience of the House that the debate on Candahar should be continued and disposed of on Friday. That being so, I conceive that we should have no option but to clear the list for Friday by the necessary purchasing of the time on Friday. We are, undoubtedly, under obligation to the hon. Member for Oxfordshire to give him on Monday as fair an opportunity as he would have had on Friday, subject only to the one stipulation that if we think it necessary to place the second reading of the Mutiny Bill as the first Order, we shall do so. I do not imagine that the second reading of the Mutiny Bill is likely to be subject to debate; but we could not properly run the risk of any difficulty about that, inasmuch as I do not think it would be possible for us, otherwise, to get that Bill into Committee. Subject to that understanding, we should have no difficulty in giving the hon. Member Monday for his Motion.
§ SIR STAFFORD NORTHCOTEWould my hon. Friend's Motion come first on going into Committee of Supply?
§ MR. SPEAKERProbably the most convenient course would be to postpone the Orders of the Day after the Mutiny Bill, so as to admit the Motion of the hon. Member for Oxfordshire.
§ Resolutions agreed to.