PRIVATE BUSINESS. (Hansard, 20 December 1847)

§ MR. LABOUCHERE

rose, pursuant to notice, to ask the House to agree to certain resolutions to which the Select Committee recently appointed to consider whether any and what means might be adopted to improve the mode in which the private business of the House was conducted, had unanimously come. It would not be necessary to detain the House at any length, to impress upon the minds of hon. Members the advisableness of agreeing to these resolutions. Although very great improvements had taken place in the conduct of the private business of the House, in respect to its being done at a greatly diminished expense, and with an increased confidence on the part of the public in the impartiality and propriety of the decisions of the House, yet it was conceived that there was still room for improvement, especially in regard to effecting an increased control over a certain portion of the private business. He on a former occasion expressed his belief that, in consequence of the services rendered during the last Session of Parliament by the Gentleman who filled the situation of Chairman of Ways and Means, and who was well known to have devoted himself with zeal to the performance of the duties intrusted to him, as far as regarded the unopposed private business of the House, there was little room for improvement; but that with regard to the opposed business, it might he necessary to take some precaution against accidental errors and omissions. Accordingly, the Select Committee addressed themselves to that part of the subject, and, with the advantage of the best evidence, including that of the right hon. the Speaker himself; of the hon. Member for Lancaster (Mr. Greene), the late Chairman of Ways and Means, and who superintended the private business of the House; of Mr. Palk, counsel to the Earl of Shaftesbury, the Chairman of Committees of the House of Lords; and of Mr. Booth, who filled the office of counsel to the Speaker, and who was able to give most important information; the Committee had been able to arrive at certain resolutions which it was now his duty to ask the House to agree to. It was found that parties who wished to escape from the 1418 vigilance exercised by the Chairman of Ways and Means over unopposed Bills often got up sham clauses, which would take the Bills out of that category, and give them the character of opposed Bills, which, instead of going before the Chairman of Ways and Means, went immediately before a Committee of the House, where the parties believed less effectual control was exercised against the introduction of improper matter into a Private Bill. It also appeared very desirable that there should be some more vigilant control exercised with regard to private business coming down from the House of Lords. It was perfectly true that all these matters were watched with great attention by the Chairman of the Committees of the House of Lords; but it was hardly consistent with the dignity of the House of Commons, or with a due discharge of their duty to the public, to rely altogether, or even chiefly, upon the vigilance of an officer of the House of Lords. On the contrary, the Committee thought it was the duty of the House of Commons to take upon themselves the discharge of that duty. It appeared, therefore, to the Committee that the control which the Chairman of Ways and Means had hitherto exercised over unopposed Bills should be extended to opposed Bills; and that he should direct his attention generally, in short, to the whole private business of the House. Having arrived at this opinion, it then became the duty of the Committee to consider in what way this could best be done. It seemed to be the general opinion that the House should give a greater, and at the same time an indefinite, authority to the Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means to examine Private Bills, opposed or unopposed; that they should be, in the first instance, referred to him, that he might have an opportunity of stating to the House what he might think objection-able in them. They had an example in the control which was exercised by Lord Shaftesbury in the House of Lords, which had been most beneficial. He (Mr. Labouchere) believed that by the adoption of the resolutions of the Select Committee, the House would be giving to the Chairman of Ways and Means the same control and authority as that which Lord Shaftesbury exercised in the House of Lords; and that the Chairman of Ways and Means would practically never come into collision with the Committees of the House; because the agents of Private Bills, knowing that their Bills would have to undergo examination by 1419 the Chairman of Ways and Means, would find out by communication with him whether there were any provisions in their Bills which would meet with his opposition. If this plan were adopted, the agents would very seldom venture to go before a Committee of the House of Commons with a Bill containing provisions which they knew had upon some general principle been objected to by the Chairman of Ways and Means. If they should do so, and the Committee should pass the Bill, the Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means would, of course, before the report of the Committee on the Bill was made to the House, have an opportunity of pointing out to the House the objections he entertained to the Bill. He believed that the power which the Chairman of Ways and Means would possess, and the absolute necessity of his exercising that power in such a case as that which he had supposed, would very strongly operate upon the agents for Private Bills, especially when the parties knew that the House itself, on being made acquainted with the objections which the Chairman of Ways and Means entertained against the Bill, and found that those objections were entertained upon proper grounds, would be ready to support their own officer. He did not think there was any great probability that the agents would calculate upon the ignorance or carelessness of the Committee, when there was the Chairman of Ways and Means always at hand to introduce order and regularity into the management of the private business of the House. This was the general nature of the proposal he had to make to the House. When he before addressed the House upon this subject, he had great doubts whether it would be possible for the Chairman of Ways and Means to discharge the increased load of business, in addition to the onerous duties which he already had to discharge. He still retained some doubt upon that point; at the same time he thought that nothing short of a very clear case being made out of its being impossible for one person, by using due diligence and applying himself vigilantly, to discharge this mass of business thus thrown upon him—nothing but the clearest proof of this would warrant him in proposing that an additional officer should be appointed to control this part of the private business of the House. He had a great objection, on principle, to increasing the patronage of that House. He thought that sufficient evidence was not adduced to war- 1420 rant any such proposal at present; at all events, it would be better for the House to make the experiment during the present Session without any additional officer. He hoped the private business of the House would not be so great as to make it impracticable for the Chairman of Ways and Means to take upon himself this additional duty. The right hon. Gentleman concluded by moving that the House do agree to the resolutions contained in the First Report of the Committee on Private Business, presented December 14.