§ Lord Althorpmoved the order of the Day for the House resolving itself into a Committee of Ways and Means, with a view to the continuance of the Sugar Duties Bill.
The Marquis of Chandosexpressed a hope that the noble Lord would postpone this Bill until the report of the Committee on the West-India interests should be 967 laid before the House. He had been informed, that certain resolutions were to be submitted on Friday, on which it was probable their Report would be founded, and the Report, it was likely, would be before the House early next week.
§ Lord Althorpsaid, that he could not comply with the wish of the noble Marquis, because it was not likely that the Report of the Committee would be made in sufficient time. He believed with the noble Marquis, that certain resolutions were to be proposed to the House on the day mentioned, but he was afraid that the Report could not be made so soon as the noble Marquis calculated on, and it was important that the Sugar Duties Bill should be brought forward at an early period, as the Bill founded on the resolutions must be passed by the 5th of April.
Mr. Keith Douglassaid, lie had hoped that the noble Lord would not have proposed the continuance of this Bill, until he was prepared to state what were the ultimate views of the Government upon the subject of these duties.
Mr. Robert Gordonalso requested, that the Bill might be, for the present, postponed in order that the fullest information might be before the House.
§ Lord Althorpsaid, that if this Bill were to be opposed as the Bill of last year had been, he must either proceed without delay, or allow other public business to be impeded. It must be recollected, that the Bill to be founded on the Resolutions, was a money bill, and, therefore, would take a longer time than another bill to get through its various stages. He was, however, willing to postpone it for the present, provided the noble Lord (Chandos) would come to an understanding, that, after the discussion in the Committee, no further delay should be thrown in the way of the progress of the Bill.
Mr. Goulburnthought, that the Bill ought to be postponed for a week, which was not a very material delay. For himself, he would say, that he should offer no unnecessary opposition or vexatious delay, knowing, as he did, that the Bill must be passed before the 5th of April, although he must protest against the adoption of the course proposed by the noble Lord, that the House were to abstain from discussing the Bill after it had been brought forward on the resolutions agreed to in a Committee.
§ Mr. Burgesaid, he had no doubt that it was the intention of Ministers to bring 968 forward some plan founded on the Report of the Select Committee, and, therefore, it was important that the House should be in possession of the evidence on which these resolutions were founded, before they were called upon to agree to the Sugar Duties, which were of paramount importance as regarded the West Indies.
§ Lord Althorpsaid, he never meant to ask the House to abstain from discussing the subject, after the Report of the Committee was delivered. All he meant to say was, that the Bill of last Session was opposed in every possible way, and, if the same opposition was extended to the proposed Bill, he should not have time to get it through the House by the 5th of April, unless all other business was postponed. Upon the understanding that no vexatious opposition, for the mere purpose of delay, would be offered to it in its future stages, he would consent to put off the present question until Wednesday next. He begged it also to be understood, that, should the Report of the Committee not be before the House by that time, he could not pledge himself to postpone it any longer.
§ Bill postponed.