§ The Speakercalled the attention of the house to the renewal of petitions respecting contested elections, and intimated that they should be brought forward in the order of their priority, as they stood last session. Those of the fifth class were then brought forward; among the first of which were the petitions for Middlesex, Midhurst, and the Borough of Southwark.
The Chancellor of the Exchequerthen rose to suggest the propriety of deferring the considerations of these petitions till after the Christmas recess. Should it be the pleasure of the house to adopt that suggestion, it should be his wish to pursue the same plan as that adopted last year, viz. that an order should be made for a call of the house, and that two petitions should be ballotted for on two days of each week. The house must be sensible how inconvenient it might be to enforce a call of the house at the present moment, and under the present circumstances of the country. Under that impression he had no doubt but that they would see the propriety of postponing the consideration of those petitions till the 2d of February, after the usual recess. The business which was likely to call together a full attendance would most probably be brought forward at that period; neither would the arrangement he was anxious for, interfere in the least with the 34 time of the usual recess. He should therefore move, that the petitions for Middlesex and Midhurst be brought forward on Thursday, the 2d of February, and that for the Borough of Southwark on the following Tuesday, the 7th of February, These motions were put and agreed to.