§ SIR STAFFORD NORTHCOTEasked the First Lord of the Treasury, For what term he proposes that the Be-solutions respecting Standing Committees shall be in force, seeing that he does not propose to make them Standing Orders, and that if made as merely Sessional Orders they will never come into practical operation?
MR. GLADSTONEThe Question of the right hon. Gentleman is quite justified by the state of facts to which it refers. The Resolutions respecting Standing Committees were placed upon the Table at a period when a hope was cherished that they might be brought 1312 into operation during the present Session, and that the House might have some experience of them. The Session is too far advanced to allow that hope any longer to be entertained, and to pass them for the present Session would be to make them futile. There is no intention to depart from the substance of our proposal that these Committees should be of a temporary and experimental character; and I shall, therefore, make a proposal for the purpose of giving them effect through the next Session, or to some date in 1883. With regard to the precise form of the proposal, we will consider it carefully, and give the House Notice of it before it is submitted.
§ SIR STAFFORD NORTHCOTEIt would be convenient that Notice should be given in reasonable time.