HC Deb 11 June 1872 vol 211 cc1629-30
MR. BOWRING

rose to move—"That every Member taking notice that 40 Members are not present shall do so from his place." The hon. Member observed that the late Speaker stated before the Select Committee on Public Business, which sat last year, that it would be desirable that Notice should be taken that 40 Members were not present in a public manner; and Sir Erskine May also stated that it would be desirable to attach some personal responsibility to the act of taking Notice that 40 Members were not present, and not to have it done furtively, as it were, from behind the Speaker's Chair. He (Mr. Bowring) also quoted an extract from The Illustrated London News of 1860 to show that the present practice was of modern origin—

Notice taken, that 40 Members were not present; House counted, and 40 Members not being present,

House adjourned at a quarter after Nine o'clock.