THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTONSir, the right hon. Gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer having given Notice yesterday that he would, tomorrow, submit to the House some proposition on the subject of the conduct of the Business of the House generally, I wish to ask him whether he is now able to state to the House the terms of the proposals he intends to make? I wish further to ask him whether, in his opinion, it would not be desirable that the discussion upon those proposals should be taken upon his proposals, without reference to any personal matter whatsoever; and, in that case, whether he would be prepared to consider the expediency of moving that the Order for resuming the adjourned debate on the Motion submitted by him in reference to the conduct of the hon. Member for Meath be discharged?
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERI am not able, Sir, at the pre- 1863 sent moment to give the exact terms of the Resolution which I shall submit to the House to-morrow, but I can state the general effect of them, and I will place the terms on the Paper during the evening. I intend to propose two Resolutions, which will be in substance something of this kind. The first will be that, when any Member, after having been more than once declared out of Order, shall be pronounced by the Speaker, or the Chairman of Committees, as the case may be, to be wilfully defying the authority of the Speaker or the Chairman, the debate shall be at once suspended; and on Motion being made in the House, such Member shall not be heard during the remainder of the debate or the sitting of the Committee, such Motion being put after the Member has been heard without further discussion. I do not pledge myself to these exact words, but it will be some Motion of that character. The second Resolution will be to the effect that there should be a restriction in Committee upon Members being allowed to move either to report Progress or that the Chairman do leave the Chair more than once. It will be for the convenience of the House that I should bring these Resolutions forward at the commencement of Business tomorrow, and I shall move that they have precedence over the other Orders of the Day. I quite agree with the noble Lord that it would be for the convenience of the House that we should not mix up the discussion with the Motion relating to the conduct of Mr. Parnell, and I will, therefore, at once move that the Order for the adjourned debate on the proceedings of Mr. Parnell be read and discharged.
§ Motion agreed to.
§ Order read, and discharged.