§ Sir R. Inglis, after having presented some petitions, said, he hoped he might be allowed to take that opportunity of congratulating the right hon. Gentleman in the chair, and the House generally, on the termination of a Session of almost unexampled duration, toil, and fatigue. He found that the House had now sat 173 days, during which no less than 1,134 hours had been occupied with public business, a number which was unexampled in the annals of Parliament, with the exception of a single year, in which the amount had been exceeded, partly on account of the morning sittings which were then on trial, and partly owing to the lengthened discussions on the Reform Bill, which was pending that Session. But if they compared the labours of the last Session with those which their predecessors had to undergo, indeed, if they went back only so far as the reign of George 4th, or the beginning of William 4th, the contrast would appear most striking. In the first Session after the accession of the former monarch, the House of Commons had sat only 111 days. In the first Session of William 4th they sat only 84 days, and rolling this as it was rolled into the last Session of George 4th, still the united number of days only reached 107. The first Session of the present century was the longest previous to the Session just past, the number of days occupied by sittings being 132. He thought the country must see with satisfaction the testimony of attention to the duties of legislation exhibited in the numbers he had mentioned, but while he thought this, he could not bet feel also, that there was no 1323 circumstance connected with the Session which would tend to give less satisfaction than the great number of Bills which had been introduced into that House within the last few weeks. No less than sixty-four new Bills had been introduced since the 1st of July, a number exceeding the entire amount that had been presented in the first three months of the Session. He was very glad to see that an hon. Member had given notice of a motion calculated to correct this evil for the early part of next Session, and he must say, he earnestly trusted that it would be persevered in, as he thought the subject deserving of the gravest consideration on the part of the House.
§ Subject dropped.