§ MR. PARNELLasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ire. land, Whether any opportunity will be given for discussing the new Rule relating to the visits of untried prisoners before the expiry of the 40 days required by Law for it to lie upon the Table of the House?
§ MR. TREVELYANIt is not usual for the Government to assist private Members in finding an opportunity to discuss Rules or Schemes that lie on the Table of the House. I remember myself often balloting by certain methods for opportunities to discuss matters on Tuesdays and Fridays, and staying up a whole month for the chance generally of being able to speak at half-past 2 o'clock in the morning. Of course, there are occasions on which the Government may willingly assist private Members, and perhaps they have done so. I do not know that Notice is on the Paper with regard to this Rule in the past month; but, in any case, I do not think that the circumstances of Public Business are such as to enable the Government to assist in obtaining an opportunity for the discussion.
§ MR. PARNELLI wish to know whether the Prisons Act does not require that when a special Rule is made by the Lord Lieutenant it shall lie on the Table of the House for 40 days before it comes into operation; and I wish also to ask whether this Rule was not put in force by the Lord Lieutenant, although the number of days required by the law had not expired?
§ MR. TREVELYANSir, I have already publicly stated during the Session that this Rule has been put in force by the Lord Lieutenant, under what was considered by his advisers a special emergency. The steps which are foreshadowed in the Rule were put in force, though whether the 40 days had expired I cannot say. I stated in the House, in a debate, that the steps which will henceforth be taken under this Rule were taken in January last.
§ MR. PARNELLIf the Lord Lieutenant can legally act without this new Rule, what is the object of it?
§ [No reply was given.]