§ MR. NEWDEGATEasked the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether he will consent to the appointment of a Morning Sitting for the consideration of the Second Reading of the Monastic and Conventual Institutions Bill? The reason why the Order for the Second Reading had been so long deferred was because of the delay in making certain Returns which had been ordered by the House on the subject.
§ MR. DISRAELISir, I am sure there is no Member of the House that it would give me greater pleasure to convenience in the arrangement of Business than my hon. Friend; but my hon. Friend is under a mistake in supposing that I have any control over Morning Sittings. They must be fixed by the House. I appeal to the House whether the state of Public Business justifies me in so doing, and the House has generally supported me; and I fear I shall have on my own account to make frequent, if not constant, appeals to the House to grant Morning Sittings for the transaction of Public Business during the remainder of the Session. But, as a general rule, I never venture to ask for a Morning Sitting for the Business of the Government, unless it is in the case of a measure which the House has approved of by reading the Bill a second time. Now the case of my hon. Friend is that of a Bill which has been before Parliament for, I think, at least four years, and which the House has never read a second time. Therefore, I can hardly think that, under any circumstances, my hon. Friend can make a successful appeal to the House to grant him, at this period of the Session, the indulgence which he asks. I must repeat that it is not in my power to make that appeal, and I shall be under the necessity, in order to assist the advancement of the Government measures, to appeal to the House frequently to grant Morning Sittings for those Bills which the House has approved of by reading a second time.