HC Deb 20 August 1886 vol 308 cc168-9
MR. BIGGAR (Cavan, W.)

I beg to move— That Mr. Speaker do issue his Warrant to the Clerk of the Crown to make out a new Writ for the Southern Division of the County of Sligo in the room of Thomas Sexton, Esq., who having been returned for both the Southern Division of the County of Sligo and the Western Division of Belfast has elected to serve for the Western Division of Belfast. In making that Motion I should like to say—

MR. SPEAKER

Order, order! That Motion cannot properly be made, and I decline to put it from the Chair, for this reason—that there is no vacancy for the Southern Division of Sligo, and there can be none. The hon. Gentleman was returned for the Southern Division of the County of Sligo and for the Western Division of the Borough of Belfast; and in the early days of the Session—the first or second day—he gave me notice that he elected to sit for one of those constituencies. I replied to him at the time that he was not in a position to make his election, for the reason that a Petition had been presented against his return for one of those constituencies. In my opinion, a Member cannot elect to choose which of the two constituencies he shall sit for until he has been duly returned for both of them. In this case he has not been duly returned for both of them, because his return for one of them is still sub judice; and it is an old and a very well-established and well-known practice of this House that until there is no question as to the return of a Member for either of the constituencies for which he is returned he is not able to make his choice of either. When I gave that advice to the hon. Gentleman, and told him I could not put the Motion or read his letter in which he elected to serve for one of these constituencies from the Chair, I was acting upon the precedent of Mr. O'Connell in 1841, who, having been returned for the two constituencies of Meath and Cork, gave a letter to the Speaker which was read from the Chair, in which he elected to serve for one of those constituencies. The Speaker then stated that a Petition having been lodged against the return of the hon. Gentleman, Mr. O'Connell, for one of those constituencies, he was not in a position to make his election. Acting upon that precedent, and on the uniform practice of 100 years and long before that period, I declined to read the letter from the Chair in which the hon. Gentleman made his election; and I shall now, in the exercise of my discretion—subject, of course, to the will of the House, and after having given the best attention I could to the matter—decline to put the Motion to the House.

MR. SEXTON (Belfast, W., and Sligo, S.)

Perhaps you will allow me, Sir, to ask you whether you attach any weight to the consideration that in the case of Mr. O'Connell the seat for Cork, which he desired to take, was claimed in the Petition, whereas the seat for West Belfast is not claimed?

MR. SPEAKER

I do not think that that alters the view of the case. The words of the Standing Order are so expressed that if a Member is returned for two places he cannot elect to sit for either until there is no question of his return for both of them. Under these circumstances, it seems to me that the consideration which the hon. Gentleman has stated as to whether the seat is claimed on Petition does not make any difference of principle.

SIR WILFRID LAWSON (Cumberland, Cockermouth)

As a point of Order, I should like to ask you which place the hon. Gentleman sits for now?

MR. SPEAKER

It is a well-understood Rule of the House that if a Member is returned for two places he can sit; but for which place the hon. Member is now sitting it is impossible for me to say until the Court has decided upon his return.

Back to