§ MR. JOHN MORLEY (Newcastle-upon-Tyne)I wish to ask the First Lord of the Treasury a Question with reference to the course of Public Business. I understood from his answer on Friday that after 10 o'clock to-night the Resolution with reference to Imperial Defences would not be brought forward, and that if that Order were not reached before 10 o'clock there would be a Morning Sitting to-morrow. Now, in that case the very important Motion of my hon. Friend the Member for West Nottingham (Mr. Broadhurst) will be postponed to a 9 o'clock Sitting, which will be the second time within a very few days that an important public Motion will have been so postponed. I wish to ask whether the right hon. Gentleman will not consent at 10 o'clock tonight to proceed with the Imperial Defence Bill, whatever may have been the progress made with the two Irish Bills that precede it upon the Order Paper, and so to obviate a Morning Sitting tomorrow?
§ THE FIRST LORD (Mr. W. H. SMITH) (Strand, Westminster)I am anxious to consult the convenience of the right hon. Gentleman opposite; but we cannot consent to interrupt the proceedings upon the Parliamentary Under Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Bill or the Land Law (Ireland) (Land Commission) Bill at 10 o'clock to-night. We shall be bound to endeavour to pass those two Bills through Committee; and if we do not succeed in getting them reported before 10 o'clock we shall have to take the Imperial Defence Bill at a Morning Sitting tomorrow. It is very important that we should adhere to that arrangement.