§ SIR GEORGE CAMPBELLhad the following Question on the Paper:—To ask the Secretary of State for India, Whether his attention has been called to a long circular issued by the Bishop of Bombay, in which he prohibits the chaplains and other clergymen from performing their functions in accordance with the Law of the land; whether he has received any complaints of the practical inconvenience which has been caused in Bombay by the conduct of the Bishop; and, whether, since the Bishop receives a salary from the Government of India, they intend to take any steps in consequence of this circular? In rising to ask it, the hon. Gentleman observed that, as the practice of reforming Questions was carried so far, perhaps he might be permitted to explain, although he did not complain of the wholesale purging of his Question, that the quotation from the words of the Bishop of Bombay, which he read to the House yesterday, had been suppressed.
THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTONasked the hon. Member to postpone the 948 Question, in order to enable him to obtain further information on the subject.
§ MR. DALRYMPLEasked whether it was not desirable that in the body of the Question when it was put again some reference to the subject should be mentioned, rather than a sweeping assertion regarding a public servant of the Church of England and the Crown, calculated to prejudice him without any practical result?
§ SIR GEORGE CAMPBELLPerhaps I should explain that the words cut out were the main and definite subject of my Question.
§ MR. NEWDEGATEasked the hon. Member to bear in mind that they were not all Anglo-Indians, and hoped his Question would be framed in a more intelligible manner.