§ Order for Committee read.
§ SIR CHARLES WOODproposed that the House should go into Committee on this Bill.
§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That Mr. Speaker do now leave the Chair."
§ MR. BRIGHTsaid, he and many other Members had been in the House for seven hours attending to the first Bill, and they were really now completely exhausted. As for the right hon. Gentleman (Sir Charles Wood) himself, he must have an insatiable appetite for work if he wished at that late hour (half-past eleven o'clock) to proceed with an important measure of that kind. For himself, he (Mr. Bright) was not hostile to the Bill, but if the Motion was persisted in for going into Committee he must go away, in justice to his own powers of human endurance.
§ SIR CHARLES WOODobserved that they must proceed with some business, and as all the hon. Members who took an interest in Indian affairs were present, he thought it was a good opportunity for proceeding with the Bill.
§ MR. VANSITTARTsaid, he objected to going on with an important Bill like that at that hour. He and other Members had been in the House since five o'clock and were exhausted, and the right hon. Baronet looked most exhausted of all.
§ VISCOUNT PALMERSTONsaid, that he thought that as all those who took an interest in the subject were present the opportunity should not be lost.
§ MR. VINCENT SCULLYsaid, he considered the Bill more important than the last, and he should move that it be referred to a Select Committee.
§ Amendment proposed, to leave out from, the word "That" to the end of the Question, in order to add the words "the Bill be committed to a Select Committee," instead thereof.
§ MR. KINNAIRDsaid, he thought there was ample time left for the discussion of the Bill, on which he believed there were not many Amendments.
MR. J. B. SMITHsaid, they had already been engaged for seven hours in the discussion of Indian questions, and he thought they ought to adjourn the consideration of the Bill.
§ SIR JAMES ELPHINSTONEsaid, he also must urge postponement, on the ground that the Bill seriously increased the patronage of the Crown in India and reflected on the status and position of the Civil Service in India.
LORD STANLEYsaid, he would remind his right hon. Friend that when a number of Members wished a Bill to be postponed there was little use in the Government urging it forward. As to the proposition of the hon. and learned Member for Cork to refer the Bill to a Select Committee, he had made the same proposition with regard to the previous Bill, and substantially, if not in form, that Motion was adopted, for he believed the Members who attended the discussion were not more than would have attended a Select Committee.
§ SIR CHARLES WOODsaid, as it appeared to be the general wish of the House, he would postpone the Bill until the next day, when he would state for what day he would fix it.
§ Amendment and Motion, by leave, withdrawn.
§ Committee deferred till To-morrow.