§ SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACHasked the First Lord of the Treasury, If he could hold out some hope that he would be able to afford a day for the conclusion of the debate upon the affairs of the Transvaal? He had understood 509 the right hon. Gentleman to say, on a former occasion, that he did not consider that the Amendment of which he had originally given Notice was one for the discussion of which he could set apart a day, because it raised a new issue. He had, therefore, sacrificed his own wishes in this matter, and had endeavoured to frame an Amendment which raised the same issue as that which had been already discussed. He appealed to the right hon. Gentleman to say whether it was not possible to give a day for the resumption of the discussion, either on the Amendment of the hon. and learned Member for Chatham (Mr. Gorst), or his own Resolution, or on the Motion of the right hon. Gentleman himself; or whether, in any form whatever, he would enable the House to pronounce judgment on the question?
MR. GLADSTONEsaid, he had already pointed out that if any arrangement could be arrived at which would simplify the issue before the House he would do his best to give a Government day for the discussion; but the state of the case was that there were a variety of Motions and Amendments on the Paper raising questions so complicated that, instead of progress being made on the last occasion, when a whole Morning Sitting was devoted to the subject, they had actually receded. He had then said that if arrangements could be made for simplifying the issue and taking the debate on the question in relation to the Transvaal, which the right hon. Gentleman was desirous to bring under the consideration of the House, he would then do his best to secure a Government day for its discussion, but that there was no chance of that in the then state of the Notice Paper. He had no desire to press the Amendment of which he had given Notice. He was perfectly willing to consent either to an immediate decision being taken on the Motion of the hon. and learned Member for Chatham (Mr. Gorst), and a subsequent discussion upon the Motion of the right hon. Gentleman, or the entire withdrawal of the Motion of the hon. and learned Member, and the adoption of the Motion of the right hon. Gentleman as a substantive Motion. That he was perfectly willing to do; but as long as the Motions and Amendments were complicated one with another, as they were then, it was impossible for him to relieve Gentlemen themselves and 510 their Motions from the state of entanglement into which they had fallen.