MOTION FOR A SELECT COMMITTEE. (Hansard, 11 February 1884)

§ MR. HEALY
said, there had been several important Questions on the Paper as to the way in which the Printing Committee had worked. For his own part, he believed the Committee to be a shadow; but he would ask, when did the Committee meet; how often did it sit; how many Members had attended the meetings last Session; and, further, he would like to know whether the Librarian was not the body and soul of the Committee? Hon. Members were entitled to have some information with regard to it. Again, he would ask why some private Members were, in the matter of printed Returns, treated differently to others? He had himself moved for a Return, showing the number of persons in Ireland who ought to be entitled to exercise the franchise; but it had not been furnished in time to be to use to hon. Members. He could not understand what objection there could be to having Returns printed during the Recess. He obtained that Return, and it was laid on the Table last August, and then the House went away for the holidays. The printing of the Return was not ordered, and although the Return was presented in August it was not yet printed. What had this absurd Com- 555 mittee been doing? If the Committee was of any use all these Papers would be printed. He had obtained three other Returns, but they had not been printed. Private Members should be put on an equal footing in these matters with the Members of the Government. He remembered asking a question of the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Bradford (Mr. W. E. Forster), happily now no longer on the Treasury Bench, and trying whether he could not prevent a Return of the number of outrages being given in a particular form, on the ground that it gave information calculated to help the right hon. Gentleman's case unduly, and, at the same time, to blacken the Irish Members' case unduly. The right Gentleman succeeded in giving the Return in his way, and the Irish Members could not alter it. Why should the Printing Committee allow such privileges to officials unquestioningly? If this Printing Committee was to be something more than a sham, and if the printing was to be solely in their hands, he did not see why they should not deal out an "even keel" between Members of the Government and those who were not Members of the Government. He could not understand why the Committee was so supine where the rights of private Members were concerned, and so extraordinarily active where the rights of the Government were concerned. This was a very important matter, and it was a subject upon which he hoped to have raised an important debate. Then, what were the names of the Committee? Mr. Leonard Courtney, Sir Joseph Pease, Mr. W. H. Smith, Mr. Stansfeld, Mr. Raikes, Mr. Whitbread, Mr. Rowland Winn, Mr. Ramsay, Mr. Parnell, and Mr. Tottenham. In other words, the Irish Party had only one Member on this Committee. If there was anything in the world that they were interested in, it was putting into the minds of English Members some facts about Ireland, and the only way of doing that was through such Reports as they were favoured with. He questioned very much whether English Members read these Returns; but, at all events, they had to listen to them in the House. It rarely happened that some hon. Gentlemen, in the course of six months, did not hear something about Ireland; and it was, therefore, the 556 interest of Irish Members to have Returns furnished of a proper character promptly laid on the Table; and, therefore, there should be on this Committee Members who would secure the speedy printing of these Returns. He objected to this Motion being made pro form¢, when, so far as he was aware, the Librarian was the head and front of this Committee, and no one else had to do with the matter. Could they have a Return of how many clays the Committee met, how long they eat, and how many Members attended? Where were the Minutes? The Kitchen and Refreshment Rooms Committee furnished Minutes; but where were the Minutes of this Committee? In order to give hon. Members who were interested in this question an opportunity of considering it, he should move the adjournment of the debate.

§ MR. SHEIL
said, he wished to second the Motion for the Adjournment, and, in doing so, he would remind the House that this Notice had appeared that night for the first time; and, therefore, hon. Members had not had an opportunity of giving Notice of opposition. He submitted that the rules of courtesy, if not the Rules of the House, should prevail. He understood that the right hon. Baronet opposite (Sir William Hart Dyke), who had charge of another Select Committee, proposed to make his Motion, and to that, so far as he (Mr. Sheil) knew, there was no opposition; but as to two other Committees there was strong opposition; and he ventured to say that in those cases the rules of courtesy would prevail, and hon. Members would not persist in their Motions to-night.

§ MR. COURTNEY
said, that if the hon. Member for Monaghan (Mr. Healy) insisted on the adjournment, he (Mr. Courtney) should agree to it; for he did not at all press the appointment of this Committee now; it would do as well at the end of the week or next week. But the hon. Member was very much mistaken as to the scope of this Committee, and in supposing that there was any distinction between Members of the Government and other hon. Members. There was no such distinction; it was simply a question of discretion. Some Returns were printed; but they were of such a character as to make it desirable that they should be at once produced; but there were many Returns with re- 557 spect to which, when they had been placed on the Table, unless a desire was expressed to have them printed, they were not printed, but merely laid on the Table for the information of Members. So it was as to the hon. Member's Return. If he had expressed a desire to have it printed, that would have been done. No Return was printed as a matter of course, neither was the printing of any Return refused as a matter of course. It depended on the nature of the Return and the desire of the Member moving for it to have it printed. Having said this much, he should at once accede to the adjournment.