QUESTION. (Hansard, 23 April 1858)

§ VISCOUNT GODERICH
said, he wished to ask the right hon. the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether, now that he had laid upon the table the Resolutions that it is his intention to bring before the House, it is still his intention to pursue the course which he stated in answer to the right hon. Baronet the Member for Marylebone (Sir B. Hall) a few nights ago, and not to withdraw the Government of India Bill, which stands this night for second reading, though he has at the same time proposed his Resolutions to the House.

THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER
I think it will be more convenient upon the whole that the original understanding should not be departed from, and that the Bill should remain suspended till the discussion upon the Resolutions which I shall have the honour to introduce on 1585 Monday next be disposed of. For myself, I see no reason to depart from our first intention in that respect.

§ VISCOUNT GODERICH
Sir, after that answer of the right hon. Gentleman, I wish to give notice of my intention, when the light hon. Gentleman proposes his Resolutions on Monday next, to oppose the Motion, and to take the sense of the House upon it.

§ LORD JOHN RUSSELL
Sir, as the right hon. Gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer can only speak once on the question of the adjournment, I beg leave to call his attention, and that of the House, to the answer which has just been given to the noble Lord (Viscount Goderich) with respect to the Government of India. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has stated that he does not think it right to depart from the understanding that his Bill should be suspended until the Resolutions have been discussed. Now, I do not believe there was any understanding of the kind. It was my impression that the right hon. Gentleman the other night, at the end of the short conversation or debate which took place on this subject, stated, in answer to the right hon. Member for Marylebone (Sir B. Hall), that he did not mean to withdraw his Bill, but that he intended to keep it in suspense until the Resolutions had been discussed. I confess I heard that declaration with great regret, but I regarded it as a declaration on the part of the right hon. Gentleman and his colleagues, and not as a subject with respect to which any understanding was entered into on the part of the House. Now, I bog to submit to the right hon. Gentleman, and to those who act with him as his colleagues, that, although it certainly is my opinion—in which the light hon. Gentleman (the Chancellor of the Exchequer) has concurred—that this very important question could be most conveniently discussed in the form of Resolutions; and although that course has been repeatedly adopted by the House, and is sanctioned by usage, I think that to maintain in suspense a Bill introduced by the Government which submits such Resolutions to the House would be a very unusual proceeding. I trust, therefore, the right hon. Gentleman will not pursue that course. I cannot imagine that the Resolutions which the right hon. Gentleman has proposed will be adopted by this House in any form that can at all justify the House in proceeding with the Bill of the right hon. Gentleman in its present shape. In my opinion, the most important 1586 principle of the Bill—a principle entirely new, and which I consider utterly objectionable—was the proposal that members of an Executive Council should be elected by the Parliamentary constituencies. That proposal is quite new, and it is excluded from the Resolutions which the right hon. Gentleman intends to submit to the House. I hold, therefore, that even if the Resolutions were passed verbatim et literatim as the right hon. Gentleman proposes them, they would be inconsistent with the Bill he has laid before the House. I don't wish to take any course which might appear hostile to Her Majesty's Government on the order of the day for the second reading of the Government of India Bill; but I trust that before Monday the Government will reconsider the propriety of keeping the Bill in suspense. I should certainly be very sorry to support any interruption to our going into Committee upon the Resolutions; but I conceive that the Government ought to take one course or the other. They ought cither to submit Resolutions in a Committee of the whole House, which is the course they propose to pursue, or they ought to revert to their Bill, and proceed with it. I trust they will adopt the former course, and act in accordance with the usual practice of the House. But I do not think the House can countenance the Ministry in keeping in suspense the Bill with regard to the government of India which they have introduced, and at the same time asking the House to go into Committee upon these Resolutions.