§ MR. WENTWORTH BEAUMONTsaid, he would beg to ask the hon. Member for Brighton, If he intends to proceed, this Session, with his Parliamentary Election Expenses Bill?
§ MR. FAWCETTsaid, it had been his intention to introduce a Bill upon the subject of Parliamentary election expenses at the very earliest opportunity during the present Session; but he now thought that it would be more convenient and decorous to postpone the introduction of that measure until the Select Committee now sitting to inquire into the subject had made their Report. It was not impossible that that Committee might embody in their recommendations the provisions he had intended to insert in his Bill. If they did so, he presumed that the Government would take up the question themselves. He thought that the time had come when such a measure should be taken out of the hands of independent Members, and taken up by the Government. Should the Government decline doing so, he promised hon. Members that the House should have the earliest possible opportunity of expressing its opinion upon a question of election reform which was being demanded by a daily increasing number of people.