§ THE EARL OF REDESDALE (CHAIRMAN of COMMITTEES)rose to call attention to a Question put by him to the Government when Parliament met in October as to the course to be pursued in regard to a Scheme of the Charity Commissioners in relation to a charity in St. Dunstan's-in-the-East, the time allowed for addressing Her Majesty to withhold her consent to the same having expired during the interval which occurred in the sitting of the House from the adjournment in August to the meeting in October. The answer he received to the Question was that the matter should be attended to; and he now wished to know what course the Government had taken, or intended to take?
§ LORD CARLINGFORD (LORD PRIVY SEAL)said, the position of the Scheme was certainly a very peculiar one. The Scheme had been laid on the Table of both Houses in the month of August. Then came the long adjournment, and the result was that the larger part of the statutory period during which the 1894 Scheme of the Charity Commissioners must lie on the Table was consumed by the adjournment. The noble Earl had put a Question to the Government on the subject, and the Government then, after carefully considering the matter, decided that, under the peculiar circumstances, the Scheme should not be submitted to Her Majesty in Council in the ordinary course, but should be kept back until Parliament met again, so that opportunity might be given to any Member of their Lordships' House who might think fit to take action. He himself much doubted that action would be taken in the matter, because the objections made to the Scheme were identical with the objections which had been disposed of by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Without, however, going into the merits, the Scheme had not yet been submitted to the Queen in Council, and it would not be so submitted until after the Easter Recess, so that any action might be taken in respect to it in either House of Parliament.