LEAVE. FIRST READING. (Hansard, 17 June 1878)

§ MR. M. BROOKS
said, that before the Question was put, it would be convenient if the House received some statement on the subject of the Bill. He hoped that if the right hon. Gentleman the Chief Secretary was unable to make a statement in the House, they would hear that the Report of the Commission, and the evidence relating to the subject, would be laid on the Table immediately.

§ MR. GRAY
said, the matter was in a very anomalous condition. About a week ago he addressed a Question to the right hon. Gentleman the Chief Secretary for Ireland. He had asked the right hon. Gentleman when the Report would be placed on the Table, when it would be in the hands of hon. Members; and, whether a copy of it had been supplied to an individual Member before it had been supplied to Members generally? and the reply which he received from the Chief Secretary was to the effect that his own copy had been shown to one hon. Member of the House, and that the delay which had taken place in connection with the Report had been occasioned by the printers in Dublin. From his (Mr. Gray's) knowledge of the printing office in that city, he should be inclined to think that the Chief Secretary had been under a mistake in thinking the delay arose from that cause. But if it was intended to delay the production of the Report for a long period, so far as the House generally was concerned, he still thought that a copy of it might be placed on the Table of the House, in order that Members might have an opportunity of perusing it.

§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. GIBSON)
said, the Report and the Evidence would be laid upon the Table in a few days. The Chief Secretary was, he believed, quite accurate, at he time he spoke, as to the cause of the delay in printing the Report. The Minutes of the Evidence were not then printed, and he himself had only read the Report which had been given to the Chief Secretary.