§ MR. MILNER GIBSONSir, during the last Session of Parliament there was a Bill before the House known under the title of the County Rates and Expenditure Bill. With reference to that measure, the noble Lord the Secretary of State for the Home Department made the following remarks on the 13th July, 1853. He stated that—
That House, having frequently considered the principle of representation with reference to the administration of county affairs, and that House having repeatedly admitted that principle, he (Lord Palmerston), if the right hon. Gentleman should drop the Bill, was prepared to say that, in the beginning of the next Session, Her Majesty's Government would propose to Parliament such a measure as they might think fit to recommend, founded on the principles of popular representation as regarded the administration of the affairs of counties."—[3 Hansard, cxxix. 147.]The question I have to put to the noble Lord is this—when will the Bill for giving this representative control to the ratepayers be introduced to the House?
§ VISCOUNT PALMERSTONI hope to introduce the Bill soon after Easter.
MR. TATTON EGERTONsaid, he wished to know, if in that Bill the noble Lord would include a clause repealing the powers invested in the lords lieutenant of counties, of charging what they thought fit for the erection of buildings as depôts for arms for militia stores?
§ VISCOUNT PALMERSTONThat question has no reference to the Bill Iintend to introduce.