§ MR. SCLATER-BOOTHwished to call attention to a point of Order. At 2 o'clock on Tuesday morning a Motion was set down that the House would on Wednesday resolve itself into a Committee on this Bill. The matter, however, was postponed to Thursday, and now he found that the Clerks at the Table had taken it as though the question had been brought to issue, and that the House had ordered the Committee to be set down for Thursday. No issue, however, was taken, and therefore he submitted that the Order of the Day should be discharged and the Minutes amended.
§ MR. SPEAKERsaid, he was of opinion that there had been no irregularity.
§ MR. HUNTsaid, he apprehended that there had been a mistake, and that the Order Book should be amended.
MR. GLADSTONEsaid, the case should be settled by the ordinary practice of the House, which was that any person who opposed the going into Committee took the Question on the Motion that Mr. Speaker do leave the Chair.
§ MR. BOUVERIEsaid, that at one time he had had a great deal of experience in those matters, and he did not think it was usual to oppose what was called the setting up of the Committee. No doubt it was an Order by the House, but it was usually taken as an unopposed Motion, of which no Notice need be given. The practice for the last 25 or 30 years had been that this sort of Committee was set up by a word to the Clerk at the Table.