§ MR. NEWDEGATEmoved that the House do now adjourn. He said that he did so on account of what had just occurred, and of the division which had just taken place. He was not about further to allude to the subject of that division than by saying that the Members present in the House had, by anticipating the decision of a question at that Morning Sitting, which stood for the evening on the Notice Paper, the Notice having been given by the Government, established a precedent of action not only totally at variance with the practice of the House, but which, if further acted upon, must prove destructive of the House itself, as a deliberative and legislative Assembly. It was manifest that if the Business appointed at one Sitting was to be taken by anticipation at a previous Sitting, no Members, except those who might happen accidentally to be present, could have any effective voice in the decision of that Business, however important. It was manifest that any faction might usurp the authority of the House, in the absence of the great body of the Members of the House, by very easily preconcerted action. He should not waste more words in remonstrance upon what had been done; but with reference to the decision of the Members then present in the House in respect of the taking the Tuesdays and Wednesdays from the unofficial Members of the House and their Business, and appropriating those days to the Business of the Government, he wished to observe that the Monastic and Conventual Institutions Bill, of which he had charge, stood for Wednesday the 4th of August; that appointment was now, of course, superseded by the action of the Government in the House. He (Mr. Newdegate) might now mention that it had not been his intention to press the second reading of that Bill; but on being asked by the hon. and gallant Member for Galway (Captain Nolan) to withdraw that Bill, in order to facilitate the attendance of the Irish Members at the O'Connell Centenary, in Dublin, he declined to give an answer, because he did not choose to be counted as a supporter of what he understood was to be an 102 Ultramontane demonstration. By the course Her Majesty's Ministers had now pursued, they had become promoters of the O'Connell demonstration. After what had occurred, it was difficult to imagine what further interference with the due order and regular procedure of the House might not be proposed; and his chief object in having moved the adjournment was to ask the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether it was the intention of the Government, by proposing the Resolutions of 1869 with respect to Amendments on the Motion for going into Committee of Supply or Committee of Ways and Means, or by any other Resolutions, to preclude the Members of this House from submitting such subjects as may appear to them important for the consideration of the House during the remainder of the Session?
§ MR. GREENEseconded the Motion.
§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That this House do now adjourn."—(Mr. Newdegate.)
§ MR. DISRAELIsaid, there was no such intention, nor had any proposal been submitted which trenched on the privileges of private Members, unless there was a general concurrence of the House in its favour. There was, however, one remarkable characteristic of the present Session—that the privilege of bringing forward Motions on going into Committee of Supply and Committee of Ways and Means, which was to a certain degree regulated and restricted by previous Administrations, was not so curtailed by the present Government, who throughout the Session had proposed no such arrangement. He was rather surprised, therefore, that his hon. Friend should impute to the Government a design of such a character. He hoped that now, when time was so valuable and when every minute might be said to be golden, his hon. Friend would not persist in the Motion.
§ MR. NEWDEGATE, having obtained the answer he required, said, he would withdraw the Motion.
§ Motion, by leave, withdrawn.