§ LORD R. GROSVENORrose to put a question to the noble Lord at the head of the Government—whether he would move the adjournment of the House so as to include Passion week in the Easter recess? He said he should not have ventured to make the proposition, had it not been re- 643 quested to do so by many Members of the House, and encouraged, after mentioning the object to Mr. Speaker and the leading Members of all parties, by their almost unanimous acquiescence. The reasons which influenced those on whose behalf he was speaking and himself were an anxious wish, if compatible with the interests of the State, to have the week immediately preceding Easter week as free as possible from the turmoil of Parliamentary business. He was quite aware that there were many persons of unquestioned piety and the strongest religious feeling who not only did not think it necessary to set apart any special seasons for public and private devotion, but who might regard such observances with dislike; and there were many Members of Parliament who participated in these opinions; and he felt sure that, rejoicing in their own liberty, it would be a matter of gratification to them to see the business of Parliament so conducted as not to inflict pain and discomfort upon those sitting upon the same bench and engaged in the same arduous duties as themselves. Hon. Members would doubtless be desirous of knowing what their previous practice had been. He had, in consulting the journals, found that for the last 20 years the longest Easter vacation had been 22, the shortest, 9 days; the average 14. The House would observe that the shortest would have included the whole of Passion week. But should the House be of opinion that it would conduce to the despatch of public business and to the convenience of Members, especially those from a distance, that a greater certainty should prevail as to the commencement and termination of the Easter recess, and should also consider that we could annually afford the 14 days, which had been the average of the last 20 years; then, as these 14 days had always included 10 working days, by adjourning on the Friday, the 14 would become 16, three Saturdays and Sundays being included (instead of only two, as heretofore) without the sacrifice of a single additional working day. If the exigencies of the country required it, the Government might take the Friday, or the Thursday and Friday in Easter week. But, let the House observe, that by adjourning on the Friday previous to Passion week, they would always secure the greatest practicable amount of private convenience with the smallest possible sacrifice of public business. Those who had had as much Parliamentary experience as himself would, 644 he thought, agree with him that the present method of proceeding was unsatisfactory. No one knew what to fix for that particular week, because, for some time, he did not know when Parliament would rise, and no one liked to risk a Motion of any importance at a time when, for one reason or another, so many Members would be absent. Sometimes, when Parliament bad sat on the Wednesday, there had been no House on the Tuesday; at other times there had been no House on the day of meeting again; in short, it was the conviction of many besides himself, that by their present practice they lost more time than they gained, and, at all events, business was transacted in a slovenly manner. He believed this year it would not be possible to adjourn till Monday, the 25th; but as, until to-morrow, no notices would be given for the Tuesday in Passion week, and as he thought no one would like to risk a Motion of importance for the chance of a House on that day, he did not see why the adjournment might not take place on Monday. He therefore made this request as a matter of feeling on behalf of many Members of the House and many persons out of the House, who depended in their business upon the movements of Parliament. He asked it for the comfort and convenience of the Irish and Scotch Members, and for the more regular and satisfactory discharge of public business. He did not expect his noble Friend to be able to predict how long his tenure of office would be, nor what the future exigencies of the country; but he begged him to endeavour in future years so to arrange public business as to enable the House to adjourn as a matter of course on the Friday before Passion week; not to meet again, at the earliest, till after Easter Tuesday, and, if possible, to give them a holyday during the ten working days which upon an average of the last 20 years the House had been accustomed to enjoy.
§ LORD J. RUSSELLsaid, it was usual to adjourn for the Easter recess on the Wednesday or Thursday of Passion week; but, in the present year, he proposed that they should adjourn on the Tuesday of Passion week to Monday, the 8th of April. He had already stated the proposal which he meant to make to the House; but his noble Friend asked him to propose the adjournment from the Friday preceding, in order to include Passion week. He could only say that on the present occasion such a course would be exceedingly inconvenient 645 as regarded the public business, as they proposed to bring forward the financial statement much earlier than was usually done, and therefore the estimates and some other public business would necessarily not come on upon the days on which otherwise they would have been taken up. He would therefore adhere to the arrangement he had already stated, that they should adjourn on the Tuesday of Passion week. That was one day earlier than usual, and two days earlier than had been the case on many occasions. If in future it was proposed that the Easter recess should include Passion week, in the way suggested by the noble Lord, that proposal would of course be considered by the Government on its own grounds; but for the present year he could not propose the adjournment earlier than he had stated.