HC Deb 08 May 1871 vol 206 cc404-5

(Mr. Dodson, Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Baxter.)

Order for Committee read.

MR. HUNT

said, he wished to call attention to the circumstances under which the Bill had been read a second time. On Friday an appeal was made to the right hon. Gentleman at the head of the Government not to proceed with the second reading, on the ground that the Bill was not in print, when that right hon. Gentleman said that the Bill was a mere formula, and that its not being in print was not a sufficient reason for not proceeding with it. In consequence of that statement, he (Mr. Hunt) had dissuaded some of his Friends from objecting to the second reading; but, on perusing the Bill he had since received, he found it had reference not only to the income tax—as might be supposed from its title—but also to the inhabited house duty, and likewise that it contained some entirely new provisions in regard to assessors, substituting Government officers as surveyors in place of the present officials. He did not suggest that the right hon. Gentleman opposite had intended to mislead the House, but greater care ought to have been taken before making such a statement; and, at all events, the House had lost an opportunity of expressing its opinion on the change proposed in the Bill. He also thought it a question whether there ought not to be a Standing Order that no Bill should be read the second time unless it was in print; and if, in any particular case, such a rule would prove inconvenient, it might be suspended.

MR. GLADSTONE

said, the right hon. Gentleman was perfectly justified in raising the question; but it would not be convenient to adopt such a rule as that just suggested. As a matter of fact, the Bill was in print some hours before the second reading, and perfectly accessible to hon. Members; but he admitted that it was only by the indulgence and the general concurrence of the House that a Bill which was not on the Table could be read a second time. The part of the Bill which the right hon. Gentleman said did not answer to the description of a mere formula certainly did not appear in it every year, and therefore, so far, it was not an absolutely uniform formula; but it was a clause that was regularly inserted when a new assessment was about to occur.

Bill considered in Committee, and reported, without Amendment; to be read the third time To-morrow.

House resumed.