THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURYsaid, 631 that their Lordships had a few days ago appointed a Committee to examine the Question of Church Rates. That Committee had taken some important evidence, but there was a great deal more yet to come. He observed that there was a Church-rate Bill in the other House which had passed through several of its stages, and it was very desirable that their Lordships should know what course the Government intended to take on that Bill. He could hardly think that at this late period of the Session it was the intention of the Government to proceed with a Bill of such importance; while, too, their Lordships' Committee was still sitting and taking evidence on the subject to which it referred.
§ THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGHsaid, that the Committee which had been appointed by their Lordships' House to inquire into the subject of church rates had received a very large amount of valuable and important information of a character which had not before been tendered upon this subject. That evidence would shortly be ready to be reported to their Lordships' House. He held it to be of the greatest importance that their Lordships and the public at large should have the opportunity of seeing and considering that evidence before the general question was brought on for decision. He would therefore earnestly support the appeal of the noble Marquess; and he trusted that the Government would not at this late period of the Session proceed with the Bill.
§ THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLEbegged to remind his noble Friends that the Bill in question was not a Government measure. It was in the hands of an independent Member of the other House of Parliament, and if it should come up to that House he supposed it would be entrusted to some noble Lord not a Member of the Government. Under these circumstances and in the absence of his noble Friend, the President of the Council, it was impossible that he could give any assurance as to the course, if any, which the Government might take respecting it. Much would depend on the period at which it came up from the other House, At the same time, there was every appearance of its coming up at so late a period of the Session that he did not hesitate to say a Bill of such importance ought not to be pressed on the House within a week or ten days of the close of the Session, when it would be impossible for the House to give it a careful consideration. With respect to the Committee on Church-rates, 632 which was about to report to the House, their Lordships would remember that its appointment was assented to by his noble Friend the President of the Council, on the distinct understanding that it was to be no bar to Legislation in the present Session, in the event of a Bill coming up from the other House on the subject.
§ THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGHsaid, that that might be so; but at the same time he should appeal to the noble Lords opposite that the circumstance of a Committee having been appointed to inquire into so important a subject ought to be considered by the House as imposing upon it the duty of giving effect to such appointment by delaying legislation on the subject until they had heard the report of that Committee and the evidence upon which it was founded.
§ THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLErepeated, the Bill in question had not been introduced into the House of Commons as a Government measure, and therefore he could give no assurance as to the course which would be pursued.