§ SIR JOHN HAYI desire to ask the right hon. Gentleman the Prime Minister a Question, of which I have given him private Notice, with reference to the "count out" on Friday night. The House must be aware that on Friday night at half-past 9 o'clock, after three attempts, the House was counted out by an hon. Gentleman, an Irish Member. The subject under discussion was a subject very interesting to Scotch Members, of whom nearly half of the total were present, and attending to the discussion. The Question was being answered by the Lord Advocate for Scotland at the time in a very interesting statement, and I am sure if it had been the Home Secretary answering a Question raised by an English Member, or the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant answering an Irish Question, the House would not have been counted out under such circumstances. Therefore, I have to ask the Prime Minister, If his attention has been called to the "count out" on Friday night, while the Lord Advocate was making a statement on important Scotch Business; and whether he will endeavour to arrange in the future that, as Scotch Members are not very numerous, a House will be kept with Government assistance when Scotch Business is under discussion?
MR. GLADSTONESir, perhaps I ought to say, at the outset, that I was not in the House on Friday night, not from pleasure or ceremony, but from a serious cause. The state of the case is this—that my noble Friend near me (Lord Richard Grosvenor) really exerted himself to the best of his ability, and did contrive to keep 33 Members out of those over whom alone he can be supposed to exercise any influence. I ought also to say that it was not very wonderful that a thing of this kind should happen, because it should be observed that 554 the House had been sitting for six hours before this "count out." I regret it extremely, and I can only say that we shall continue to do our best to carry out what is an understanding—namely, that on Friday night the Government shall do its best to keep a House.