§ SIR DAVID WEDDERBURNasked the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether, in consideration of the opposition to the Provisional Orders dealing with Endowed Institutions in Scotland now on the Table of the House, and which there is no opportunity for discussing, he will withdraw these Orders until after the discussion on the Educational Endowments (Scotland) Bill?
§ MR. WEBSTERsaid, as a Member who was much interested in one of the Provisional Orders, he asked the Prime Minister whether it was competent for him, or for the Secretary of State for the Home Department, to take any such course as proposed in this Question; and whether it was not the statutory duty of the Secretary of State, after he had approved of, to sign such Provisional Orders, to be laid on the Table of both Houses of Parliament?
MR. GLADSTONE, in reply, said, he thought the second Question contained substantially the answer to the first. The laying of the Orders on the Table was an absolute statutory duty, and the withdrawal of them was a stop that could not be undertaken on account of any temporary difficulty. Consequently, the answer to the first Question would be in the negative.