INSOLVENT MEMBERS BILL. (Hansard, 28 February 1849)

HC Deb 28 February 1849 vol 102 cc1337-9 1337

§ MR. MOFFATT moved that the Order of the Day for the Committee on this Bill be read.

Order for Committee read.—Motion made, and Question proposed, "That Mr. Speaker do now leave the Chair."

§ MR. T. GREENE
begged to suggest to the hon. Member for Dartmouth the propriety of referring the Bill to a Select Committee. He was quite convinced that unless referred to a Select Committee in the first instance, it never could be made a working measure. He appealed to the right hon. Baronet the Secretary for the Home Department, to say whether the course he recommended was not that best calculated to carry the Bill into a law. In making these observations he did not wish it to be supposed that he had any desire or intention of shelving the question. He was as strongly impressed as any man with the expediency of excluding insolvents from seats in that House.

§ SIR G. GREY
entirely agreed with the 1338 proposal for referring the Bill to a Select Committee. He had hitherto remained silent, in the expectation that the hon. Member for Dartmouth would accede to the suggestion made on a former occasion by the hon. Member for Lancaster. He (Sir G. Grey) had been in communication with the hon. Member for Dartmouth, and had understood from him that it was his intention, in compliance with the suggestions of several Members, to refer the Bill to a Select Committee. Otherwise he (Sir G. Grey) should have put a Motion on the paper for that purpose.

MR. MOFFATT
said, that conceiving also the investigation of a Committee would be likely to render the law more permanent and sound, he should have no objections to such a course.

§ MR. GOULBURN
said, it was proper that this Bill should be referred to a Select Committee, as one of the objects would be to reconcile the rights of the creditor with the duties of that individual who had been returned to that House as one of the representatives.

MR. BERNAL
said, the point in question was most important, and had never been sufficiently considered by hon. Members in all its bearings. It was, therefore, most expedient that it should be referred to a Select Committee to be inquired into.

§ MR. MACKINNON
considered that the hon. Gentleman deserved great credit for bringing forward the Bill, and now consenting to refer it to a Select Committee. He (Mr. Mackinnon) hoped the Committee would be limited to certain objects, for if they were required to enter into the present question he was satisfied they would go on till the end of the Session, and nothing would be done. If they were confined to the more important points, the Committee would be able to come to a conclusion at an early period.

§ MR. HENLEY
did not see how one side of the case only could be referred to a Select Committee. If the Bill was to be referred to a Select Committee, the whole subject ought to be considered by that Committee.

§ The LORD ADVOCATE
said, it was impossible to consider the privileges of Members without also considering the rights of creditors. These subjects were completely connected; the Bill ought, therefore, to be referred to a Select Committee.

§ Motion, by leave, withdrawn.—Order for Committee of the whole House dis- 1339 charged.—Bill committed to a Select Committee.