QUESTION. (Hansard, 20 June 1872)

§ MR. NEWDEGATE

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Whether it is his intention to propose for the adoption of the House the following Resolution, which was recommended by the Committee on Public Business, which sat during Session 1871:— That when the House, after a morning Sitting, resumes its Sitting at Nine o'clock, and it appears, on Notice being taken, that forty Members are not present, the House shall suspend Debate and Proceedings until a quarter past Nine o'clock; and Mr. Speaker shall then count the House, and, if forty Members are not then present, the House shall stand adjourned? This Resolution was in accordance with one unanimously passed last Session by the Committee on Public Business, and was brought forward by Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, as Chairman 1993 of that Committee, on the 26th of February last. Since then the right hon. Gentleman had withdrawn the Order for the Adjourned Debate on the Resolution, and since the withdrawal the House, on Tuesday, the 28th of May, was counted out; on the 11th instant, also a Tuesday, only one having intervened, the House was again counted out at 10 minutes past 9; and on the 18th instant, just a week after, when the House resumed at 9 o'clock, another count out took place at three minutes past 9; so that during the past month the House had been counted out on three Tuesdays out of four. Under those circumstances, he begged to submit his Question to the right hon. Gentleman.