§ MR. MUNDELLAasked the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether the Government will grant a day for the continuance of the discussion on the Second Reading of the Factory Acts Amendment Bill?
§ MR. D. DALRYMPLEasked whether, considering the position in which his Bill had stood on the Paper on the evening when the crisis on the Irish University Bill occurred, he had not a prior claim to the hon. Member for Sheffield?
MR. GLADSTONE,in reply, said, it was beyond his power to determine the relative importance of the Bills of the hon. Members. The fact was that the Government were in a great difficulty at the present moment with reference to the Public Business, and therefore it would be impossible for him to give any decided answer to the hon. Member for Sheffield at the present moment. The 842 Second Reading of the Supreme Court of Judicature Bill stood for that night, and there were also the Bills of the right hon. Gentleman the President of the Local Government Board, and one or two minor measures to be disposed of within a certain limited time. The Bill of the hon. Member for Sheffield was not only of very considerable importance, but was one on which it was desirable that there should be full and complete discussion. He trusted that the hon. Member would take his assurance in a friendly spirit that the Government would meet his views by giving him an opportunity of bringing on his Bill at the proper period of the Session, when a discussion on it would not be ineffectual.