MR. C. BECKETT-DENISONrose to a point of Order, and said he would be glad if Mr. Speaker would settle a point affecting the convenience of a 1363 number of hon. Members who frequently sat on the cross-benches below the Bar. A few evenings ago, Mr. Speaker had ruled an hon. Member to be out of Order in attempting to address the House from those seats, on the ground that they were outside the House. He had it on the authority of some Members who had sat in the House for a great number of years that in former days there was one hon. Member who was in the habit of addressing the House from those seats, and that it was in the power of any hon. Member, if so minded, to address the House from any portion of the Gallery. He thought it would be for the convenience of the House generally if Mr. Speaker would state why those seats were debarred from privileges which belonged to other seats in the House?
§ MR. SPEAKERI am unable to give any reason for the practice to which I referred the other day; but it has been the practice, so far as I am informed, that Members without the Bar—that is to say, on the other side of the Bar that passes across the House from one side to the other—cannot address the House from the seats referred to. It is open to Members to address the House from all other seats exclusively appropriated to the use of Members, including those in the Gallery.