§ MR. DALRYMPLEasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Why the Secretary for Scotland Bill, 923 which had reached the stage of Third Reading in "another place," and was, in its new form (so far as is generally known), unlikely to meet with opposition in the House of Commons, was made the earliest victim in the "slaughter of the innocents;" and, by what interpretation that Bill was reckoned among contentious business, which, for causes understood only by Her Majesty's Government, it was determined to withdraw?
§ SIR WILLIAM HARCOURTI am very glad to welcome—for I think the first time—the support of the hon. Member to this Bill. I value his posthumous affection; but I would have valued it more when the Bill was alive. I regret, like the hon. Member himself, that this Bill has come to a premature end; but it shared the fate of many other little Bills which we thought it was necessary to sacrifice in order to promote a measure to which we attach great importance.
§ MR. DALRYMPLEI should like to ask the right hon. and learned Gentleman whether any effort was made to ascertain the feeling of this House as to the Bill; and, if not, how it is reasonable any blame for its abandonment should be laid at the door of "another place," where the Bill was to be read a third time?
§ SIR WILLIAM HARCOURTIt is not my object to attach blame to anybody, but to state the cause why the Bill was withdrawn.