§ MR. NEWDEGATEsaid, that on yesterday the right hon. and learned Member for Clare (Sir Colman O'Loghlen) seemed to him to have pursued an irregular course, having spoken twice in the same debate upon the second reading of the Bill which the right hon. and learned Gentleman himself had moved. He confessed he often felt how desirable it would be, if possible, to curtail the discussions in the House; and, therefore, he should be glad if what he and other hon. Members understood to be the decision of previous Speakers should be upheld. He understood that if an hon. Member moved the second reading of a Bill, and spoke in doing so, and was followed by another hon. Member, who moved the rejection of the measure in the recognized form—namely, by postponing the second reading to that day 1848 six months—the hon. Gentleman who had moved the second reading had no right to speak again upon the Motion for the rejection of the Bill. It was essential that the Members of the House should know the rule which governed debates on the second reading of a Bill. He would therefore put the Question of which he had given Notice to the right hon. Gentleman. It was in these terms—Whether it is regular, and according to the established order and custom of debate in this House, that when a Member has moved the second reading of a Bill, and has spoken thereon, such Member should be held entitled to speak again in the debate, which he has thus begun, after another Member has, according to the recognized form of moving the rejection of Bills, moved that the said Bill "be read on that day six months," and in doing so has spoken? Or, to put the Question in another form, Whether a Member having moved the second reading of a Bill, and having spoken thereon, is, in case such Motion be opposed in the usual form, to be held entitled to speak a second time in the debate thus originated?
§ MR. SPEAKERAccording to the uniform practice of the House, when a Member submits an original Motion to the House, he is entitled to a reply. That is not so with regard to an Order of the Day. When an Order of the Day is moved by a Member, he is not entitled to a reply. But if an Amendment is moved upon that Order, he is entitled to speak to such Amendment. That has always been the uniform practice of the House, and that was the course taken the previous day by the right hon. and learned Gentleman the Member for Clare (Sir Colman O'Loghlen). The right hon. and learned Gentleman moved the Order of the Day, upon which the hon. and learned Gentleman the Member for Marylebone (Sir Thomas Chambers) moved an Amendment. The right hon. and learned Gentleman was then in his right in speaking upon the Amendment.