PARLIAMFNT—BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE.—QUESTION. (Hansard, 23 February 1872)

§ MR. G. BENTINCK

said, he wished to put a question to the right hon. Gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer with reference to the Business of the House. It would be in the recollection of hon. Members that a few days ago, when the right hon. Gentleman gave Notice of his intention to bring for- 1007 ward Resolutions on the Business of the House, he (Mr. G. Bentinck) had moved an Amendment, on the ground that those Resolutions differed in form from the Report of the Committee last year, and sufficient time had not been given for their consideration. He concluded that his objection was considered a valid one, inasmuch as the Government did not persevere with the Resolutions then proposed. What had occurred since? They heard to-day for the first time that the right hon. Gentleman intended on Monday next to move not only the Resolutions which already appeared on the Paper, but a new set of Resolutions, which he could not characterize in Parliamentary language. When it was stated that the House had to deal with entirely new Resolutions, which would revolutionize the whole of the existing system of conducting business, and that they had only two days to consider them, he thought the objection he had first assigned, if already valid enough, was still more valid as against the new propositions of the Government, and therefore that he might appeal to them as to the course they had announced their intention to pursue. The new Resolutions to be moved were, he contended, subversive of the liberty and independence of the House of Commons, and, if adopted, would render it a mere office of record of the decisions of the Minister of the day. He begged to ask whether it was still intended to bring forward the Resolutions on Monday, without affording more ample time for their consideration? If so, he begged to give Notice that he would oppose them in every possible way.