§ MR. S. SMITHasked the President of the Local Government Board, If he has fully considered the important changes in the conditions of recording votes in elections for Members of Parliament involved by the Clauses of the Corrupt Practices Bill prohibiting the conveyance of voters; and, if it is the intention of the Government next Session so to amend the Ballot Act as to extend the hours of polling universally to eight o'clock in the evening?
§ SIR CHARLES W. DILKEThe importance of the hours of polling question in the eyes of those who sit on this Bench is well known, and I myself on several occasions proposed to the House of Commons a universal extension in boroughs, when it was generally supported by Liberal and opposed by Conservative Members. It has since been proposed with similar results by my right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade and by the hon. Member for Glasgow. In 1878 a Select Committee reported against extension even in the large towns by the casting-vote of its Chairman, the hon. Baronet the Member for North Northumberland (Sir Matthew White Ridley), a Member of the Conservative Administration; but universal borough extension was not proposed to it at all. In the present Parliament it has once been proposed to the House, on June 2, 1880, when the Bill was read a second time; but only on the understanding expressed by the Leader of the Opposition that it should cease to be a universal measure, a view supported in the debate by some who sit upon this side. Since 1880 I have each year, at the beginning of the Session, introduced a Bill for optional extension of hours, which each year has been much opposed by many hon. Gentlemen opposite. That Bill passed its second reading last year and this year, but each year had to be abandoned in consequence of the character of the opposition with which it met. It is the intention of Her Majesty's Government to re-introduce the Bill at the beginning of the next Session, during which Session 253 they have every hope that it will become law.
§ MR. ONSLOWasked whether the right hon. Gentleman, before introducing a Bill, would consider the propriety of nominating a Select Committee to inquire into the extension of the hours ef polling in small places?
§ SIR CHARLES W. DILKEsaid, he did not think it would be necessary, because the question had been debated so often—some eight or ten times—that the views of hon. Members were pretty well known.
§ MR. ONSLOWgave Notice that when the Bill was introduced he should move that it be referred to a Select Committee.