§ SIR FREDERICK HEYGATEsaid, he would beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Whether, considering the serious inconvenience to Irish Members of being present in the House on Monday the 29th instant, the first day after the recess, he will not consent to postpone the Tenants Improvements (Ireland) Bill to a more convenient day?
§ MR. CHICHESTER FORTESCUEsaid, he would beg leave to interpose a question upon this subject. He wished to ask the right hon. Gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Whether it was not expressly agreed the other day that this Bill should be taken on Monday, the 29th instant, and whether the hon. Member for Galway (Mr. Gregory) had not expressed his readiness to be in his place on that day for the purpose of this Bill being proceeded with, and whether all the Irish Members had not concurred in the wish that this Bill should be taken on that day?
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERSir, I am sorry to learn from the statement of the hon. Baronet, that the arrangement I made for taking this Bill on Monday, the 29th instant, will occasion serious inconvenience to the Irish Members. Her Majesty's Government had no personal interest in fixing that particular day for proceeding with this Bill. They consulted, as they supposed, the convenience of the Irish Members in doing so. Of course, if it should turn out that to proceed with the Bill on that day would be inconvenient to Irish Members generally, I should have no desire to enforce the arrangement. But unless there is a general expression of opinion upon the point, I cannot do otherwise than regard myself as bound by the arrangement I have made. I can only regret that the hon. Baronet did not at the time that arrangement was entered into express the objections his friends had to it. Under existing circumstances, I have no power to change the day for proceeding with the Bill without a general expression of consent to such a proposal by the Irish Members.