OBSERVATIONS. (Hansard, 24 June 1861)

§ SIR JAMES FERGUSSON
said, that in order to make a statement which he deemed absolutely essential, he begged to move the adjournment of the House. ["Oh, oh!"] He was aware that this was an exceptional course, not to be taken without reasons of great urgency, and which should be resorted to with reluctance by any one in as humble a position as himself. But it was, nevertheless, a course which, in exceptional cases, the Committee appointed to consider the business of the House desired to preserve in the hands of Members. Having given notice of his intention to bring a question before the House that evening with regard to the reinforcements under orders for Canada, he desired to state the reasons why he could not be content to wait for his proper place on the paper. Whether the Motion of which the hon. Member for Cork county had given notice on going into Committee of Supply were negatived or agreed to, it would equally deprive him of the opportunity of bringing forward his Motion. When he informed the House, on information which he believed to be correct, that the troops under orders for Canada were to sail on Wednesday next, it would be seen that if this were a question on which an opinion should be expressed, no time ought to be lost in bringing it forward. On Friday night he had not been fortunate enough to obtain precedence on the paper, and, even had he been able to do so, Members were not present in sufficient numbers to give any effect to his observations. He feared recurrence of exactly the same thing that evening, and he, therefore, threw himself on the indulgence of the House. He assured them that in doing so, he was not actuated by any motive of personal vanity; but the subject was of such immense importance, and the step which was about to be taken might lead to ulterior consequences of such magnitude, that he thought the House ought to have an opportunity of expressing an opinion with regard to the policy of Her Majesty's Government before the step was irretrievably taken.

§ SIB HENRY WILLOUGHBY
rose to 1486 order. The hon. Member bad given notice of a Motion on going into Committee of Supply which stood in a certain position on the paper of the day. He wished to know whether the hon. Member, by his present Motion for Adjournment was in order in seeking to anticipate the discussion which would take place on his former Notice?

§ MR. SPEAKER
A question was addressed to me the other day with regard to taking Notices in the order in which they appear on the paper. I did not enter very fully into that question fit the time; but perhaps it would be proper that I should state that, on what are called days for Notices of Motion, every Gentleman who has put his name down for a Notice of Motion is called upon by me in his turn. But on Order days, the Orders of the Day are called on in their turn, and if Gentlemen have given notice of their intention to move Amendments on those Orders, then it is not my duty, and it has not been the habit, to call upon those Gentlemen. But if they present themselves and rise to move the Amendments of which they have given notice—as I stated the other day—it would be my desire, as far as possible, to give Gentlemen, when they rise, precedence according to the order of their Notices—because it is obviously of no use to give notice on the paper unless some consideration is attached to that Notice. The only doubt which I have with regard to the character of the step taken by the hon. Member is this. He has given notice that he will call attention to the recent augmentation of our military force in Canada. Had he given notice of a Motion on that subject, the course which he is now pursuing would, undoubtedly, he out of order. It is for the House to consider whether they will permit a Gentleman who puts his name down to make observations on going into Committee of Supply, and whose name stands tenth or twelfth on the list, to rise before the public business is concluded, and before some Gentlemen who wish to move for unopposed Returns have had an opportunity of doing so, and to move the adjournment of the House in order that he may bring forward the subject in which he is interested out of its duo course? I consider such a proceeding highly injurious to the conduct of business in this House. I am not empowered to say that an hon. Gentleman may not make the Motion for the adjournment of the House; but I consider the Motion now made extremely in- 1487 jurious to the conduct of public business, and one which should be greatly discouraged by the House.

§ SIR JAMES FERGUSSON
said, he had overlooked the fact that the unopposed Returns had not been granted. But, believing that would be the last opportunity of discussing the subject, he had been led to adopt what he was aware was a very exceptional mode of seeking to bring the matter forward. In rising he had expressed his sense of the great indulgence he was asking at the hands of the House, and he could assure hon. Members that he was only actuated by the sense he entertained of the importance of the question to which he sought to invite attention. But after the opinion which had been expressed from the Chair, he felt that he would neither be consulting the feelings of the House nor the duty which he owed towards its rules, if by persisting he ventured so very near an infraction of those rules as the Speaker had held that his doing so would be.