§ SIR LAWRENCE PALK(who had give Notice of his intention to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department a Question as to the stopping of the performance of The Happy Land) said: The Answer that has been already given to the Question of which I gave Notice is sufficient, and therefore I will not put the right hon. Gentleman to the trouble of answering the Question; but I hold in my hand a letter from the manager of the theatre, which, with the permission of the House, I should like to read. ["Order!" "Chair!"]
§ MR. SPEAKERsaid, the hon. Gentleman was entitled to put the Question of which he had given Notice, but he was not entitled to debate the Question.
§ SIR LAWRENCE PALKThen, Sir, I will put the Question of which I have given Notice. I wish to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, If he would state to the House for what reason, and on what grounds, a detective policeman, or a letter to the manager, was sent to the Court Theatre on Thursday March 6th forbidding, by order of the Lord Chamberlain, the performance of an amusing burlesque entitled "The Happy Land?"
MR. BRUCEI will be happy to answer the Question of the hon. Baronet. The power of the Lord Chamberlain to forbid the acting of any stage play or any part thereof, when he thinks that it is fitting so to do for the preservation of good manners, decorum, or the public peace, is derived from the 6 & 7 Vict. c. 68, s. 14, called an Act for Regulating Theatres. In the present case a manuscript play had been sanctioned by the Lord Chamberlain on the 8th of February, and was produced at the Court Theatre as a play which had received his licence. On the 4th of March his Lordship discovered that the play which was being acted was largely different from that which he had licensed. He sent for and obtained a prompter's copy, and ascertained that it contained 18 quarto pages of additions and interpolations, these consisting principally of personalities which, had they existed in the original manuscript, would have prevented him from giving his licence. He, therefore, on the 6th of March, informed the manager that the licence was cancelled. It has been the invariable practice in the Lord Chamberlain's Department, under all Governments alike, to forbid personalities, against whomsoever directed, if his Lordship's attention is called to them. With respect to the intervention of the Police, I am responsible for that. The Lord Chamberlain having informed me that the licence had been cancelled, I directed the Chief Commissioner of Police to send the manager notice that the continued acting of the play after the licence had been cancelled would be a misdemeanour punishable by a fine of £50.