§ COLONEL STUART KNOXsaid, he wished to put a Question to Mr. Speaker with reference to the forms and usages of the House. It would be recollected that he had yesterday moved that the Order of the Day for the Second Reading of the Borough Franchise (Ireland) Bill should be discharged. He had taken that course because the Bill having been nominally on the Table of the House since the 2nd of April, and the hon. Member who had charge of it never having taken any steps to have it printed, he thought it was very unfair that many hon. Members should be brought down to the House week after week to look after what was, in point of fact, a dummy Bill. He now wished to ask, Whether it was within the forms and usages of the House for an hon. Member to obtain leave to bring in a Bill, to obtain an order of the House for the printing of the Bill, and then to postpone it time after time without taking any steps to have it printed and circulated among hon. Members?
§ MR. SPEAKERThe question of the hon. and gallant Member refers to the Borough Franchise (Ireland) Bill, upon which a Vote of this House was taken yesterday. I find on reference to the Votes that Leave was given by the House for the introduction of the Bill upwards of six weeks ago, and that on the same occasion the Bill was ordered to be printed. No doubt it is opposed to the usage of the House that so great a delay should take place between the Order of the House for the printing of the Bill and the circulation of the Bill among hon. Members. Perhaps the House will allow me to say, with reference to what occurred yesterday, that when the Clerk at the Table, at my desire, read the Order of the Day for the Second Reading of this Bill, the hon. and gallant Member for Dungannon (Colonel Stuart Knox) rose in his place and moved that the Order of the Day for the Second Reading of the Bill should be discharged. The hon. and gallant Member did that without Notice, and I trust that the House will allow me to say that that is a precedent which I hope will not be followed in the future, because I am satisfied it would be productive of much inconveni- 277 ence to the House. When the hon. and gallant Member for Dungannon made that Motion I called upon the hon. Member having charge of the Bill (Mr. Callan) to state what course he proposed to take with regard to the Bill. As the hon. Member for Dundalk was not in his place on that occasion, I deem it my duty to say that every hon. Member having charge of a Bill owes it to the House to make known to the House what course he desires shall be taken with regard to the Bill when it is called on.