§ Order of the Day for the Third Reading read.
§ Moved, "That the Bill be now read 3a."—(The Earl of Dalhousie.)
LORD DENMAN,who had the following Notice upon the Paper:—After Clause 12, add:—
No person convicted under this section shall be entitled to vote at any parliamentary or municipal election, and no lodger in his or her house shall qualify under a lodger franchise so long as he keeps the house; and this disqualification shall apply to every lodger therein,said, that he could hardly hope to introduce a disfranchisement clause in this Bill; but the Act of 1869 had not sufficiently guarded against the votes of such householders as were proved to exist on the inquest upon the Burton Crescent murder.
LORD BALFOURsaid, he hoped the Government would take the opinion of the other House on this Bill, which had been passed by their Lordships on three separate occasions without being sub- 1285 mitted to the judgment of the other House. When a Bill containing such clauses as this contained passed their Lordships' House, it would be at least respectful to their Lordships that the opinion of the other House should be taken upon it. Some of the clauses would never have passed their House except on the demand of the Government of the day. He held the opinion, which he thought was shared by many noble Lords, that to pass a Bill like this, year after year, and not take the opinion of the other House, was reducing their Lordships' House to the position of a mere debating society, and placing it altogether in a very ridiculous position. No doubt they would be told that this was on account of the press of Business in the other House; but when their Lordships had passed a Bill once or twice, he thought they should not he asked to do it again until at least the opinion of the other House had been taken upon it. He was strongly of opinion that if the earlier clauses of the Bill stood alone they would have passed without the slightest difference of opinion; and he protested against their being kept back from what he believed to be beneficent operation because of the other clauses which were totally foreign to them, and as to which there were great differences of opinion. For himself, he wished to say that if no decision of the other House of Parliament were challenged on this Bill, and if it was presented again to this House another year, he should do his best to prevent it passing until that was done, and he knew that other noble Lords shared that view with him.
§ Motion agreed to; Bill passed, and sent to the Commons.